Children and families across the West Midlands are set to benefit thanks to Birmingham Airport’s birthday celebrations.

Generous staff and passengers marked the occasion by donating the funds for a day of care at Acorns Children’s Hospice, worth £7,000, to support the charity’s care for life limited and life threatened children across the region. Amanda Smallman, Senior Fundraising Manager for Corporate and Community at Acorns, said:

“We are so grateful for this fantastic gift! Birmingham Airport has supported our work for 10 years and continues to go above and beyond to raise money for Acorns.

“Without such generosity we could not continue our vital work caring for children and supporting families. This money will make a real difference – it costs us £7,000 a day to provide our care and services, both in the hospice and in the community.”

The donation was made through Acorns 'Pay for A Day' scheme and coincided with both the airport’s 79th birthday celebrations and Acorns 30th anniversary. Staff were also given the opportunity to spend a day at Acorns in Birmingham, based in Selly Oak, to see first-hand the vital care their fundraising will support. Andy Holding, Corporate Responsibility Manager at Birmingham Airport, said:

“We’ve been partners of Acorns since 2008 and we are delighted to be able to help mark both of our birthdays by supporting the Pay for a Day initiative.

“It really brings home the scale of what’s required to enable the amazing staff and volunteers at Acorns to be there for families in their time of greatest need. We’re proud to stand behind them and do our bit to help make sure this amazing organisation is there for Midlands’ children for the next 30 years.”

In the past year Acorns, which operates three hospices based in Walsall, Birmingham and Worcester has cared for over 870 children and more than 1,090 families, including those who are bereaved.

It costs nearly £10 million a year to run Acorns services and the charity relies heavily on the generosity of the community and local businesses for the majority of this amount. 

To find out how you could support Acorns, you can visit acorns.org.uk.