Business community urged to support campaign to Light Up Bristol Children’s Hospital

Published by

Peter Davison

Dedicated Bristol Children’s Hospital charity The Grand Appeal is calling on businesses to help illuminate the hospital and to Light Up Bristol this Christmas.

Following a successful campaign in 2021, the Light Up Bristol display is back bigger and better this year, with much-loved Gromit Unleashed characters and seasonal stars set to adorn the walls of the building in central Bristol.

This year will see even more opportunities for organisations from across Bristol and the South West to get involved.

The dazzling design will feature some of Aardman’s most iconic characters – from Gromit to Shaun the Sheep and Feathers McGraw, as well as small, medium and large illuminated stars available to sponsor.

Launching on Thursday, December 1, the lights will be switched on at dusk every day for all to see throughout December, providing a spectacular festive light display for patients and their families as well as hospital staff, visitors, and everyone passing the iconic children’s hospital building on Upper Maudlin Street.

By sponsoring one of the illuminations on the hospital, businesses will have their company name placed outside of the hospital, displayed on a dedicated Grand Appeal webpage as a proud sponsor, and promoted across The Appeal's social media channels.

Sponsors from the business community are already lined up to support the Shine Bright campaign, including CAMB Machine Knives International, Rotec Hydraulics Ltd, LDC, Renishaw, Natracare, Osborne Clarke, RSK, Global Furniture Alliance, Smith Consult and Lansdown Place Wealth Management pledging their support.

Another campaign sponsor and long-time supporter of The Grand Appeal, Jamie Cameron, director & head of community engagement at Burges Salmon, said: “We are proud to have a long-standing relationship with Bristol Children’s Hospital Charity, The Grand Appeal, and we are especially pleased to once again help illuminate the Hospital with a special Christmas light display, which will hopefully bring a smile to the children that this amazing charity supports.”

The money raised from the campaign will support The Grand Appeal’s three family accommodation houses, music, arts and play therapy at Christmas and beyond, as well as a range of pioneering equipment to help save the lives of the young patients at the hospital.

Helen Haskell, head of fundraising (corporate) at The Grand Appeal said; “Christmas is a magical time of year - a time for giving and sharing special moments with those you love.

"No one expects to spend Christmas in a hospital, but sadly this will be the reality for many babies and children this year. As the Bristol Children’s Hospital Charity, our Shine Bright campaign brings some festive Christmas cheer to patients and their families, at a time when they need it most.”

For more information on how to sponsor an illumination and to help Light Up the Bristol Children’s Hospital this Christmas, visit https://www.grandappeal.org.uk/get-involved/fundraise/events/light-up-bristol-childrens-hospital/

Peter Davison

Peter Davison is deputy editor of The Business Magazine. He has spent his life in journalism – doing work experience in newsrooms in and around Bristol while still at school, and landing his first job on a local newspaper aged 19. By 28 he was the youngest newspaper editor in the country. An early advocate of online news, he spent the first years of the 2000s telling his bosses that the internet posed both the biggest opportunity and greatest threat to the newspaper industry and the art of journalism. He was right on both counts. Since 2006 he has enjoyed a career as a freelance journalist. He lives in rural Wiltshire with one wife, two children, and three cats.