Willow News - July edition

At Willow we are fortunate to have partnerships with a variety of businesses and organisations. This month, we wanted to share the ways in which Arsenal and the Arsenal Foundation have generously supported us over the years.

You can also find out about how your team can get involved at the end of this newsletter.

Stevie's Special Day

“I'd be lying if I told you I didn't cry with pure happiness"

Stevie is 30 and living with muscular dystrophy. He's also a huge Arsenal fan and told us he would love to see his son, six-year-old Rowan, achieve his dream of becoming an Arsenal player.

For his Special Day, Willow arranged for Stevie and his wife, Faye to watch Rowan practise his football skills with some of the team at the Emirates Stadium.

Faye emailed us the day after and said, “Arsenal went above and beyond to make our day special. Rowan was taken to the pitch for 45 minutes to play football with some of the team. Saka was such a nice guy; it was like spending time with friends!

“We are still in total shock of what happened and thank you just doesn't cut it. I'd be lying if I told you I didn't cry with pure happiness when we left, after seeing Stevie's face watch his little boy run around the field with his heroes. Dreams literally came true yesterday so a massive thank you again.”

Our partnership with Arsenal

Arsenal and the Arsenal Foundation have contributed to Willow in many different ways since the charity was founded in 1999. These include financial grants for Special Days and auction lot prizes. Recently, we even received merchandise donations for our charity shops, which were very popular with customers and raised more than ￡700.

Thanks to the generous support of partners like these, we have been able to create bespoke experiences for more than 20,000 seriously ill 16 to 40-year-olds, like Stevie. That’s why we were proud to honour Arsenal with the Willow at Heart award at last year’s Willow Ball.

Catch of the Day with David Seaman

It isn’t long until our inaugural fishing event with former Arsenal and England goalkeeper, David Seaman.

Join David at Linear Fisheries on Saturday 3 August for 24 hours of exclusive fishing on St Johns Lake in Oxfordshire. During the event you’ll have the chance to fish alongside David and other special guests from the world of fishing, including Damian Clarke, Scott Lloyd, Tom Maker and Nigel Botherway.

Tickets cost ￡500 a swim (two pegs) or you can upgrade to a VIP package for ￡800 a swim (two pegs), which includes an additional night’s fishing.

There are limited spaces available so please get in touch or sign up via our website if you would like to take part in the event which is sponsored by Fishing Republic .

How you can help

We’re always in need of new stock for our charity shops which are located across Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire.

Willow accepts donations of quality clothing, books, toys, bric-a-brac, electricals and some small furniture.

If you have items that you would like to donate, you can find your nearest shop on our website or arrange a van collection.

Having a proper clear out? If you have lots of donations and are outside of our catchment area, please do get in touch and we’ll see what we can do. In some circumstances we may be able to organise a special trip or ask one of our volunteers nearby to help us coordinate.

We would love to hear from you if you want to help more people make precious memories with loved ones. Please email [email protected] for an informal chat.