A North East housing business has raised over £32,000 for its charity of the year, Middlesbrough baby hospice, Zoë’s Place.

Opened in 2004, Zoë’s Place Baby Hospice in Middlesbrough provides palliative, respite and end-of-life care to babies and infants aged from birth to five years old, who have life-limiting or life-threatening conditions.

As well as caring for its babies in a safe ‘home from home’ environment on a 24/7 basis, the charity also runs bereavement support for families.

In order to offer its services free of charge to all families, Zoë’s Place is required to raise £1.5m every year, but as it receives limited funding, the baby hospice heavily relies on voluntary donations and fundraising activities.

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In 2020, Barratt Developments North East chose to support Zoë’s Place Baby Hospice for children and families in the area.

The company then continued to work closely with the charity for an extra year so that it was able to receive fundraising opportunities after a pause in activity due to the pandemic.

Throughout the two years that Barratt Developments North East supported the charity, staff members engaged in fundraising activities which has included the Great North Run, a family fun day, a donation of Christmas jumpers, and a contribution of Christmas ‘wish trees’ to encourage seasonal donations.

Raising £32,271.03 in total, the funds have contributed to the great work that the charity does for babies and infants, in addition to families in the area.

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Carl Sobolewski, Managing Director of Barratt Developments North East said: “It has been an absolute pleasure to work with Zoë’s Place Baby Hospice as our charity of the year across the past two years. The work that the charity does for babies, infants and families in the local area is truly inspiring, and we hope that the funds we have raised will help the charity to continue to provide support to those that need it most.”

Tommy Harrington, Corporate Fundraiser at Zoë’s Place Baby Hospice, commented: “We’re extremely grateful to Barratt Developments North East for choosing to support us as its charity of the year for the past two years.

“They’ve been great to work with and to see so many staff members get involved in fundraising activity has been truly remarkable, and a testament to the housebuilder as a company. The funds that have been raised will help us to continue to provide specialist care for our babies, and we couldn’t thank Barratt enough.”

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