The Mark Skinner Campaign has been going for many years, we have run events, raised funds and donated to numerous individuals, good causes and groups in the local community.

In July 2021, we took on our biggest challenge yet ...

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Background

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On 2 September 2020 much loved local lad, Liam Hills, sadly lost his brave battle against Cancer.  Liam was only 9 years old when he passed away and had been battling cancer since he was 7 years old, having undergone almost three years of chemotherapy, he had also had a full liver transplant.  All of this would have been immense for an adult let alone a young boy who should have been enjoying life.

 

The town of Brandon got together for Liam and did all they could to support him and his family in the time before his death - forming the ‘Love for Liam’ campaign, which ran fun events that Liam could enjoy, whilst raising funds to make his last months as special as they could be, allowing very special memories to be made.  Something his mum Sarah and family will forever be grateful for.

 

When the time came, the whole town felt Liam’s loss, which was evident from the attendance at his funeral, which was held on Market Hill and was a wonderful tribute to him.  Not only did crowds line the streets to say goodbye and offer support, but over 25 vehicles joined his funeral procession with the special NHS Spitfire also doing a flyover at the final part of Liam’s funeral at the crematorium - all documented by many newspapers and filmed by ITV (as above).  This day not only showed the love that Brandon had for Liam but also supported his family in their loss.

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Brandon People Wanting A Memorial

 

The loss of Liam was so great amongst local people, who made it very clear that he should never be forgotten, with the hundreds of people who had been involved with the ‘Love for Liam’ campaign feeling they needed a fitting remembrance.  On Liam’s first birthday, after his loss, everyone changed their profile picture to a dinosaur or displayed dinosaurs at their homes.  However, it was felt more was needed.

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The idea for a new playground was borne out of Liam’s own feeling that Brandon’s main play area, at the Town’s Remembrance Playing Fields was outdated and not that interesting.  Liam always said that he didn’t want to play at the Brandon playparks as they were not that great, instead asking his mum to take him and his friends to places like Mildenhall and other Towns where the facilities were much better.  

 

With this in mind, Liam’s Mum Sarah bravely and generously decided that she wanted to donate any money from Liam’s funeral towards upgrading the playground at the Brandon Remembrance Playing Field.  Initially the thought was one piece of equipment, but it was soon realised that there was an opportunity to do something much bigger, that was really needed and that would really benefit the youngsters of Brandon.  The playpark would not only mean so very much to Liam’s family, but all those who supported both Liam and his family during his illness.

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Our involvement

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When Liam’s Mum Sarah and Louise Atkins (Liam’s aunty Lou), asked us if we could help them to co-ordinate the fundraising for a new Playpark, although it was going to be the biggest amount of funds needing to be raised we had ever been involved in, we gladly accepted the challenge and agreed to help in any way we could.

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We needed something which would bring regular funds in and it was decided that a good way to try would be a market stall on Brandon Market.  We purchased a gazebo, got signage done and put a post on Facebook asking if anyone would be willing to donate anything they no longer needed, that could be sold on our new market stall.  To say we were flabbergasted by the response from people would be an understatement – we knew how strongly the people who had known Liam felt, but on hearing his story and wish for the playground – we were inundated from people who hadn’t known about Liam, but just thought the playground was such a wonderful idea for not only the children in Brandon, but a wonderful way to remember Liam and they just wanted to help.

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People also started to contact us asking if there was any other way they could help with the fundraising and very soon we had people from not only within the town and the local community, but further afield organising events, sponsorship events, even children bringing us their piggy banks with pocket money to help.  We were also touched when families we were doing funerals for started asking if they could nominate the playpark fundraising for donations in memory of their loved ones at funerals.

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Below are just a few of the events and groups who helped:

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Cake stall on Bury Market

Louise from Thetford selling tomato plants outside her house

Boot camp team

Stall at Weeting Rally

Dolly aged 102 donating vintage clothing

Brandon Bingo

Ladies darts league Hockwold

Ironing and donating to the campaign

Thetford and District Pool League

Large donation from Gymnastic Club

Sponsored head shave

Christmas Fair and generous donations from Brandon Town Council’s

Our plate smash stall at numerous events

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We could never have achieved what we have on our own.  Over the years we have had invaluable help with the market stall from not only Liam’s wonderful Mum and Aunt, Sarah and Lou – but our regular team of volunteers, Glynis, Val, Helen and Lora and also our wonderful work team, who have taken in and sorted the many donations from our generous community, gone out collecting from peoples homes and given their free time to putting the more valuable and special items donated on selling sites.  Our team have also given up their own time to help at various fetes and events.

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Important Points to Note Affecting The Fundraising

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Bethany – A couple of years into the fundraising for the playpark, we were informed about the plight of local Brandon girl Bethany, who was in desperate need of an Innowalk.

 

Bethany has a very rare genetic condition that has affected her brain badly. Bethany has never been able to sit up unaided let alone walk. The Innowalk is best described as a motorised standing frame which mimics the walking movement giving Bethany all the health benefits from walking that we take for granted. We approached Liam’s Mum Sarah and asked how she would feel if we helped Bethany, not only financially using some of the playpark funds - £7,000.00, but also by approaching the company supplying the innowalk and helping the family by acquiring the equipment as soon as possible. Both Sarah and the local community (informed on social media) were very pleased for this to be done.

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New Aim of Remembrance - As funeral directors, we have unfortunately and devastatingly carried out numerous funerals for babies and children for lovely families in our community. As most people in the community know, we have never charged for any child of 16 or under as this is, of course, the worse type of loss anyone can go through. We stay very close to these families in particular and they know we will always be there for them for much needed support. It is because of this and feedback from some of these families, that we approached Sarah and asked how she would feel about including the memory of these beautiful children along with Liam for the Memorial Playpark. Sarah felt this was a wonderful idea and so the tag line for the fundraising became ‘raising funds for a new playpark in Brandon in memory of Liam Hills and all the babies and children, no longer with us – who would have loved playing there’.

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Official Charity – As mentioned above, The Mark Skinner Campaign had always been in existence but in a much smaller way, we had raised and donated funds for many local causes throughout the local area as part of our commitment to the communities who support us. As also mentioned the reactions from people in wanting to support Liam’s fundraising was so immense we were advised we would need to become an official charity.

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In 2021, we registered as a charity with the charity commission. Our trustees are Richard Crowther, Mark Skinner and Tim Kent (treasurer). Tim helped immensely, by doing all the research and setting up our charity with the charity commission.

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