LEICESTER, England, September 27, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --
- With Photo
A charity from Leicester has won a brand new £250,000 Persimmon Homes house as part of the company's 40th birthday celebrations.
(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120927/564753 )
The Harley Staples Cancer Trust beat off 23 other regional charities to scoop the prize, which the charity says will be life changing.
Katherine and Jamie Staples set up The Harley Staples Cancer Trust following the death of their son Harley in November 2009. He died from a rare and aggressive form of leukaemia at the age of eight.
They are aiming to raise £500,000 to build Harley's House - a holiday home to give young cancer sufferers time away from hospitals and treatment. They have already raised £250,000, so winning the house will get them to their target.
The charity collected their prize in front of a 150-strong audience at Persimmon's birthday luncheon at Kensington Roof Gardens.
Jamie Staples said of the win: "We are stunned and speechless. We have achieved our dream and created a true legacy for Harley. Thanks to everyone who has supported us. It's blown us completely away and is a huge achievement.
Other finalists included Yorkshire's Forget Me Not Children's Hospice, Birmingham's St Basil's, Scotland's Zac Scott Braveheart Foundation and The Kent Multiple Sclerosis Therapy Centre. Pilgrim's Bandits, a charity supporting injured servicemen, were also finalists and their patron, Para Lance ombardier Ben Parkinson, who is said to be the most injured serviceman ever to survive the battlefield, attended the luncheon. All 23 finalists received a donation of £6,000 from the UK's leading housebuilder.
Mike Farley, Persimmon's group chief executive, presented the prizes. He said: "Our whole company has got behind this competition. It's wonderful to celebrate our 40th birthday by giving something back to smaller charities who often miss out on funding.
"We have been overwhelmed with the interest in the competition. In stage one we had over 3,000 nominations for the prize and then, when we went down to 24 charities for the public vote, over 130,000 votes were cast.
"Katherine and Jamie are worthy winners of our house and I'm delighted to hand it over to them. The charity mounted a fantastic campaign to help them win votes for the competition, with a video, Vote for The Harley Staples Cancer Trust, being the most watched Persimmon charity film on YouTube with nearly 2,000 views.
"Kasabian joined the campaign, making an announcement at the Reading festival to urge people to vote and Katherine and Jamie also made an emotional half-time appeal at the King Power Stadium in front of thousands of Leicester City and Blackpool fans. Additional support for their campaign has come from the Leicester Mercury newspaper, cricketer Matthew Hoggard, Leicester City football manager Nigel Pearson and football legend Steve Walsh.
Persimmon was founded in 1972 by current life president Duncan Davison and has grown to be one of the largest and most successful housebuilders in the UK over the last 40 years.
Notes to editors
The full list of 23 runners up who all receive £6,000 are:
Hana's Gift - Anglia
Anna's Hope - East Midlands
Fife Society for the Blind - East Scotland
Wales Air Ambulance - East Wales
Emmaus Colchester - Essex
Hospice at Home Penrith - Lancaster
Friends of Chums - Midlands
Cramlington Voluntary Youth Project - North East
The Joshua Tree - North West
The Rainbow Centre for Children - Severn Valley
Pilgrims Bandits - South Coast
The Kent Multiple Sclerosis Therapy Centre - South East
Deaf-initely Independent - South Midlands
YMCA Cornwall - South West
Stepping Stones DS - Southern
Nightstop Teesside - Teesside
Rosie's Rainbow Fund - Thames Valley
St Nicholas School - Wessex
St Basils - West Midlands
The Zak Scott Braveheart Foundation - West Scotland
Healing the Wounds - West Wales
Life for a Kid - Yorkshire
Forget Me Not Children's Hospice - West Yorkshire
A picture accompanying this release is available through the PA Photowire. It can be downloaded from http://www.pa-mediapoint.press.net or viewed at http://www.mediapoint.press.net or http://www.prnewswire.co.uk.
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