Kids’ Village
The UK’s first holiday village just for children with critical illnesses & their families
Kids’ Village is a charity that I founded, alongside my family, inspired by my own personal experience. We are building the UK’s first holiday village that’s just for children with critical illness and their families to come and stay for free.
When I was 9, I was diagnosed with cancer after a lump had grown in the side of my face. I had an uncertain future as I was treated with chemotherapy, radiotherapy and various operations. My parents kept me focused on the future with an image board, on the back of a cereal box, that sat at the end of my hospital bed. One of the things on this board was going to a special place in America called ‘Give Kids’ The World Village’. After getting to visit in 2004 and celebrating making it through treatment, me and my family vowed to support families by building something similar in the UK.
The offical Kids’ Village journey started back in 2018…
…when we launched the charity, were gifted the land and began a long road to getting planning permission. In the first few years I did everything for the charity: building the brand, creating the website, fundraising, communications, marketing, corporate relationships, event planning, designing, transport planning, even handing out letters to local residents. Once we finally had planning permission at the end of 2023, after I can’t tell you how many obstacles, we brought in a team to help us deliver a £5M capital appeal in order to build.
Fast forward through lots of hard work, many more obstacles, we have a fantastic chairman and trustee board, a CEO and a fundraising executive. As the founder, I’m the face and voice of the charity and holder of the vision of what will be created. I speak at events across the country and I’m also proud that I’ve grown our socials to have more that 22k followers. After an incredibly generous large donation and so much support in 2025 we raised the £5M we needed and we’re now cracking on to get built and start helping families…
Take a look if you want to know more, or just check out the subjectively brilliant branding: