We’re delighted to announce that our company of the month for March is the fabulous team at Squire Patton Boggs, Leeds.

They chose Candlelighters as their charity of the year for 2021 and have been going great guns to raise funds for us, despite the challenges of fundraising when most of the team are working remotely. They kicked off the year of fundraising with “New Year, Same Us” and quickly followed this up with their “Every Minute Counts” challenge which was designed to get people active in the cold, dark early months of the year.

Hot off the success of their 2020 Virtual Bake Off the SPB team decided to run another this year and raised over £600, which can only mean that there were some top cakes and bakes submitted (next stop Great British Bake Off!). Their recent Easter Hamper also raised a super amount and with planned team challenges, Great North Run and Yorkshire Marathon entrants, the rest of the year is already shaping up to be a great success.

The charity committee at Squire Patton Boggs are so committed, enthusiastic and creative with their fundraising ideas, they really do deserve our Company of the Month award!

We are delighted to announce that our February 2021 Company of the Month is FluidIT Consulting!

FluidIT began supporting Candlelighters last year, in response to our pandemic appeal and promptly became members of Candlelighters ‘Team 500’, by making a donation of £500.

The team were keen to support in other ways too and decided that they could use their online event series for SME businesses, Digital for Transformational Growth, to do this. Due to the pandemic, this would-be in-person event has been converted to an online schedule of webinars. Fantastically, they decided to donate the cost saving of each webinar in the series in lieu of holding the event in-person and also used their webinars as a way to talk to people about the work of Candlelighters and to share their support for us. They also supported our Candlelighters Christmas campaign and continue to work in partnership with us, looking at how they can add value to the charity.

Co-founder, Jonty Abbott, added, ‘The digital sector is doing ok and FluidIT is in the fortunate position of being able to help, despite the challenges of the pandemic. Charities like Candlelighters are experiencing a huge deficit in their fundraising targets, and this means very real-world problems when the work they do makes a considerable difference to people in our community. If you’re doing ok, now is the time to help out because they’re not doing ok. They’re in trouble. If you’ve got love to spare, if you can afford to help out, now is the time to do that.’

FluidIT was co-founded by two friends, Gareth Murphy and Jonty Abbott. The pair wanted to join their passions of helping businesses grow with the power of people and technology, and incorporating family values and being able to spend time with the people they love. The company grew on word of mouth and the team grew with people who shared their vision and values. Today FluidIT works across the UK and Europe with its roots embedded in Yorkshire.

FluidIT Technical Director Will Newham joined the business in 2020. As a member of the Kirkburton Uniformed Groups Beer Festival committee, (representing the parents and volunteers of the Scout and Girl Guides Groups of Kirkburton in Huddersfield), Will was already familiar with our work. In 2019, the group raised £1000 for Candlelighters, as we were supporting one of their scouts through their treatment.

Of their fabulous support, FluidIT said, ‘Coronavirus has affected all of us but for families coping with childhood cancer, the emotional, psychological and financial challenges are extreme. They need Candlelighters’ support now more than ever. The charity relies solely on the support of the community and their ability to fundraise has been massively impacted by Coronavirus restrictions.’

Since July 2014, and following a visit to Candlelighters, owners of Detectamet, Sean Smith and Angela Mousson, were determined to make a difference to our work.

Detectamet, are a worldwide company, based near York, who manufacture detectable food safety, office, sanitary and hygiene supplies. They asked wedding guests to donate to us instead of giving presents and the company also donate a percentage of their sales of some products.

Sean and Angela’s most interesting donation is a very special experience they have given to some of our families. During the football season the company entertain customers by offering corporate hospitality at Manchester United games at Old Trafford. Sometimes the 4 tickets are donated to our families!

Their experience includes a car parking space, one of the families commented that their small, family car looked funny next to the Bentleys and Porsches, dinner before the game, great seats to watch the game from and refreshments at half time and at the end of the game.
Sean said, “This way of supporting Candlelighters gives everyone at Detectamet a huge sense of satisfaction and we are delighted that all the families have enjoyed the experience”.

Ajay Sarda, who went with his wife, Aman, and two daughters, Diya and Gia said, “We all had a great time and everyone at Old Trafford couldn’t have been more helpful and now my wife is a converted football fan”.

Corporate Fundraiser for Candlelighters, Brain Curran added “It’s so great to see a company who can offer real quality experiences for our families. Time away as a unit is so important and this opportunity was a special one! We really appreciate the ongoing passion from Detectamet for our cause and look forward to continuing the partnership long into the future.”

From all at Candlelighters, a big thank you to the Detectamet team, we can’t say it enough!