Words by Smiley Team
A charity which provides essential equipment for disabled children to reach their full potential is celebrating a successful 30 year partnership with High Street fashion brand River Island.
Newlife is the UK’s leading charity provider of specialist disability equipment, spending £3.6 million a year providing vital services for disabled children and their families.
Their enduring partnership with River Island has seen the company and its staff raise vital funds for Newlife’s play therapy service, which loans specialist toys to disabled and terminally ill children, often allowing them to play for the first time.
River Island, along with other retailers, raise money by donating items that would otherwise be destined for landfill, mainly customer returns, faulty items or end of line products to Newlife’s network of shops, which are then resold at a discounted price.
As well as raising money this also prevents stock going to landfill and helps to reduce the carbon footprint for many of the companies who donate stock to Newlife.
River Island also raise money from the sale of carrier bags for Newlife, and their Christmas campaign, which included donating 10p from social media likes, raised more than £26,000.
Sheila Brown, co-founder and CEO of Newlife, said: “We are so grateful to everyone at River Island and their wonderful customers for the loyal support they have shown Newlife over the last 30 years, and particularly so last Christmas.
“It has been an exceptionally difficult time for the charity but we are delighted that, thanks to River Island asking people to join them in doing something wonderful, we ended last year being able to help so many more families with disabled and terminally ill children around the UK.”
Will Kernan, River Island CEO, added: “As a brand, we’ve long supported the outstanding work that Newlife does to support the development and wellbeing of children.
“The last year has been particularly challenging, so I am delighted that we were able to ramp up our efforts for this exceptional charity and do something wonderful for a cause that is truly close to our hearts.”
For more information visit Newlife’s website or follow them on Twitter.
