Our supported charity is Haven House Childrens Hospice which supports local children and familes from birth, who are seriously ill and have life-limiting or life threatening conditions.
Haven House Children's Hospice was first conceived in the early 1990s, as the brainchild of Sue Irwin a registered nurse and health visitor, who with friends and colleagues founded the charity to provide care to life-limited children and their families at no cost to them.
In 2021, our first year of supporting the charity, the Drivers Union raised £2,895 with more fund raising activities planned for 2022.
Why we support Havens House
It was in August 2020 that Darren received a phone call from Lindy Hunt, Head of Community Engagement at Haven House Children’s Hospice. She had asked at a business networking group if anyone knew someone who owned a Ferrari and Darren’s name cropped up.
Haven House supports hundreds of families, looking after children and young people who have life-limiting or life-threatening conditions. One of the children, Kasper aged 13, had wished to sit in a Ferrari so Lindy got in touch with Darren, who in turn posted in one of our club WhatsApp groups asking for other Ferrari owners to join him in a visit to the Hospice.
The response as expected was huge, with offers from both Ferrari and non-Ferrari owners. However, as Kasper wanted to sit in and see Ferrari’s and with on-site parking limited, fonly ive Ferraris were chosen. Darren (458 Italia), Russell (430 Spider), Dr Ravi ( 488 Spider), Garry (599 GTB) and myself (360 Spider).
On the Sunday morning, we met up down the road from the hospice before convoying together the short distance and parking next to the main building. As we were told Kasper wanted to sit in the cars, we were quite saddened to see Kasper wheeled out in a wheelchair with an oxygen tank attached. His parents and cousin by his side. It was obvious that he was quite poorly and would not be able to sit in any of the cars. They did however take him around all the cars and it was great to see him and his family smiling in such a despairing time. Ravi and Darren took Kasper’s mother and cousin for a ride in the Ferrari’s which they enjoyed. We also gave Kasper a Ferrari Book that we had all signed as a souvenir.
As we departed, Kasper asked for us to rev our cars. How could we say no!! He loved it. As Darren said, “How happy he and his family were and it gave them a memory as well. Every parent wants to see a smile on their child’s face”.
For us it was a very moving and emotional encounter. I for one found it very sad and can only imagine how the family were feeling.
So that was our Sunday morning. The following morning, Darren received an email from Lindy thanking us for bringing our cars and for making Kasper’s wish come true.
The following Wednesday, Darren received another email from Lindy. Kasper had sadly passed away……
The Drivers Union have set up a charity committee that will oversee all the clubs charity work and our first chosen charity will be Haven House Children’s Hospice, in memory of Kasper. More details in the following pages.
(The above text is an article from issue #1 of the Drivers Union magazine)
Click here for more details about Haven House
