Moortown family raises £20k for Marie Curie - and pledges to keep on going

Neena Punnu is already gearing up to support Marie Curie’s Great Daffodil Appeal 2020 with help from her three sons – Amaan, 16, Zain, 14, and Idrees, 13.

The family began volunteering for the charity in August 2015. They started by helping to manage tins in local shops and finding new sites; collecting at supermarkets during the Great Daffodil Appeal and at Christmas; and counting all the money donated.

Then when the North Leeds Fundraising Group launched in 2016, Neena started to help organise events including Christmas and summer fairs and Blooming Great Tea Parties, with the boys playing a role in planning as well as hosting the events.

Neena, who got involved with Marie Curie after reading about the charity in a local magazine, said: “From the offset, I wanted my young children to get involved and learn to give back and gain skills to nurture their confidence. We have been very well supported by our community fundraiser, Faye Waters, and believe this is key to keeping volunteers involved and inspired to do more.

“During the Great Daffodil Appeal my sons handover the daffodils or stickers in exchange for a donation. They love talking to people and making conversation with the public about how the money is spent. Volunteering is very important to us as a family. “Watching our children volunteer from such a young age and work so hard to make a difference gives us great joy. Over the past four years we have watched our boys become more confident and caring. They have gained so many invaluable skills such as communicating with people from all walks of life, working as part of a team and learning how to fundraise and run events. “Volunteering has also given us the opportunity to spend more time together as a family. It’s a great sense of achievement when we count the money at the end to see how much we have raised and reflect on what we have achieved together. We are so proud and happy that we can say as a family that we have helped raise more than £20,600 to date for Marie Curie.

“We have also become very good friends with other lovely volunteering families who we would not have ever met if we did not volunteer for Marie Curie.

“When we would run our events, we would ask other friends and family to help. We even roped grandma into collecting at Morrisons recently, which she really enjoyed.”

If you have been inspired by Neena’s story and would like to volunteer for Marie Curie or get involved with the Great Daffodil Appeal, call Faye Waters on 01904 755260 or email [email protected].