Monmouthshire Building Society raise £8,000 for children’s cancer charity

Since May 2016, staff members from across the Welsh building society have taken part in an exciting range of fundraising activities, from half marathons to holistic therapy days and raffles which have helped to raise £8,394.63 to support LATCH’s essential services for children with cancer, as well as their families who are often in need of support.

The charity needs to raise £600,000 a year on average in order to cover its day-to-day running costs which is a mammoth task for its small team of dedicated staff.

The society’s chief executive James Bawa said: “LATCH is a vitally important charity which, without support from the public, simply couldn’t exist. As a member owned business, it’s important to actively support our local communities, and fundraising towards the provision of their service, which supports families from Chepstow in the east to Aberystwyth in the north has been a privilege for us.

“LATCH was chosen as our charity of the year by our own staff members who were inspired by the incredible, holistic services available. Small gestures such as providing funds for families’ heating, travel or parking mean just as much as the funds they provide for specialist medical equipment and dedicated social workers and we’re thrilled to be able to help in some way towards the running costs of this extraordinary charity.”

Denise Henderson, LATCH general manager, said: “It was a great honour to be named Monmouthshire Building Society’s Charity of the Year 2016, and I would like to thank each and every staff member for their year-long programme of fundraising activities. LATCH has no paid fundraisers and we rely heavily on the generous support of the family and friends of the children we look after together with members of our local community and business organisations such as MBS in order to keep providing care and support when it really matters most.”