We are enormously proud to announce that the Teenage Cancer Trust is our official charity partner this year.
We have pledged to raise £25,000 for the charity which will be done using a variety of means, including car parking charges, donations for the programmes and merchandise and guest list donations. Local Teenage Cancer Trust patients and staff will also be joining in the fun over the weekend.
The funds raised will help to fund more Teenage Cancer Trust nurses, who provide the vital specialist support and treatment that young people with cancer desperately need. Currently, the charity is reaching around half of the seven young people aged between 13 and 24 who are diagnosed with cancer in the UK every day.
Teenage Cancer Trust funds two specialist units in Bristol, the Adolescent Ward for 11- 16 year olds at Bristol Children’s Hospital, and Area 61 for 16 – 24 year olds at Bristol Haematology and Oncology Centre. They’re designed with the help of young people, and made to feel more like a home than a hospital ward, with social areas providing space for them to meet others of a similar age, going through similar experiences.
The charity also funds two expert staff at each unit, a Lead Nurse and a Youth Support Coordinator. Teenage Cancer Trust Nurses are experts in teenage and young adult cancer care. They are professionally trained to know how to communicate with and support young people with cancer, and are there to make sure young people get the best possible treatment, care and support.
Luke Hasell, Valley Fest’s founder, commented: “Raising money for charity has always been a key part of the festival’s ethos and partly why I started it in the first place. I lost both my parents within a short space of time, my mum to cancer, and they were both passionate fundraisers. To have an opportunity to support Teenage Cancer Trust whilst having a good old knees up is great for me!”
Luke is a local organic farmer and this is the fifth year he has put on a festival on his land overlooking the beautiful Chew Valley Lake in the heart of the Mendips. The family-friendly festival offers a wide variety of music, farming and food workshops and tractor loads of silliness. Musical highlights this year include the soulful St Paul & The Broken Bones all the way from Alabama who have supported the likes of The Rolling Stones, and Blackpool’s queen of pop Rae Morris.