Promise Dreams
Promise House
Goodyear, Stafford Road
Wolverhampton. WV10 6AD
Tel: 01902 378 595
info@promisedreams.co.uk
Registered Charity No. 1086020

Run for Dreams

We would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who helped us make the Run for Dreams on Sunday 7th May such a phenomenal success.

Chaucer Consulting very generously sponsored our whole event and we can not thank Erica Deegan and Bob Lazlett enough who gave valuable time, knowledge and resource to get the event off the ground.

We never would have thought that the sight of almost 1000 white shirts running away from Molineux towards West Park could be so magical, but it made everyone of us beam!

It was the first time that we have organised a fun run so we weren't sure quite what to expect. The weather just about held out for us and it all went according to plan. We met some wonderful people and at times had to stop our eyes stinging as they told us their reasons for participating in the event and the amounts of sponsorship they hoped to achieve.

Patron's Suzi Perry and Steve Bull and tireless ambassador Don Goodman headed the day and were fabulous spending time signing autographs and chatting to runners; but the real stars were the runners who ran because they had made their Promise to some very poorly children.

The run began on the Molineux car-park with the Radio Wolf roadshow and Don Goodman put everyone through their paces with a warm-up. The atmosphere was great - a real buzz. Loads of photos were taken by Express and Star and by Steve Dale (a friend of Owen Wood who does Suzi's fan website).

At the end of the run, most of the competitors stayed on in the park to soak up the atmosphere of what was a lovely community event. Seeing adults and kids alike, many in fancy dress dancing to the conga and enjoying the music from the wonderful John Harper and Heart FM was a joy.

To everyone who took part in the run - thank you so much for your support. The personal pledges are coming in slowly but as you know, we need every penny that has been promised so that we can go to work on making those dreams happen. Please get your cheques and cash in as fast as you can. We will keep you updated with how close we are getting to the magic target of £100,000.

There are many people that we need to say thank you to for making this day happen so well - people who gave their time and expertise so freely. Up and Running for marshalling the West Park and setting up start and finish lines, USA Pro, the wonderful team at the Molineux: Stuart Cain; the ever unflappable Julian Britton; Fidel, Steve and Julie. Then there was the great support from Vince and Kieran for leading the team of Wolves marshals to keep us safe and Bod of course who is normally found with the Wolverhampton Marathon. Thanks to Dave, Jackie and Robin from Wolverhampton Council for their support and to the Police for keeping an eye on the safety of the event. Thank you Jeff for doing the risk assessment for us; Jo Richards who worked tirelessly on the route and all of its intricacies and the lady without whom the day just would not have happened: Charlie Day.

Like all good events, you need the help of your friends so thank you to all our volunteers who helped the PD team coordinate on the day; Virginia & Andy Johnson, Lou McPherson, Sandra Clarke, Rachel, Maxine, Michele Barnett, Jo Ford; Dave and Daniel Dourass, Paula Bawa, Kirsty Bull, Yvonne McLoughlin, Josie Cooper, Kelly O'Neill, Laura Harries and Katie Forbes.

We want to say a very big thank you for the fantastic support that we had from Fuel for Kids. Ffk® is a brand new range of food and drink for kids, different to all the others because it’s the first food and drink range specifically developed to meet the tough new guidelines on fat, sugar and salt. It offers kids a complete range of drinks and snacks that contain extra vitamins and minerals to provide kids with everything their body needs whilst on the go. They provided us with our goody-bags and some lovely snacky contents together with water for all. To find out more visit www.fuelforkids.com

We have had some wonderful media support for our event - and a big thank you to the Express and Star for keeping the Run for Dreams on the front burner and for all of the stories they carried about Promise Dreams. A PD event wouldn't be the same without the tremendous support from BBC Radio WM and they stayed with us from the launch at the Molineux right through to the actual day. Two other people that worked tirelessly for us and were never daunted by any problems were the lovely John Harper from Dragon Leisure and Colin Cox from Show Systems.

Licenced to Thrill - Gala Dinner

We were very brave with our fundraising effort on 7th May because after the 5k Run for Dreams we held a Gala Dinner at the Molineux, home to Wolves FC.

Steve Bull, Don Goodman and Suzi Perry hosted the evening with a lot of professional help from the lovely Nick Owen from BBC Midlands Today, Jason Bradbury from The Gadget Show and the hilarious Jenny Wilkes and Jenny Jones from BBC Radio WM.

It was a super occasion, a James Bond themed dinner with a fab Shirley Bassey Tribute, 3 rounds of a quiz to give a different slant on the proceedings and an auction with some fantastic lots, like a hospitality 3 day package at the British MotoGP at Donington courtesy of Yamaha.

Honda were brilliant and gave us 3 wonderful prizes; a ride of a lifetime on pillion with Karl Harris at Oulton Park, a day with Steve Curtis 7 times powerboat world champion out on the Solent, and a replica of Jenson Button’s actual car, right down to the seatbelt.

Timberland supported us with some fantastic customised boots, whatever colour/pattern the winner wanted, a fab voucher to spend with them and they also sponsored one of the rounds of the quiz; they even entered a team in the 5 km run so we were extremely lucky.

Photography by Graham Reading - www.grahamreading.com. More images available Here.

James Martin the celeb chef and star of Strictly Come Dancing is cooking a special meal for 8 lucky people from Wolverhampton. We were so lucky with so many other people donating some lovely lots to the auction that all in all, a lot of people left the evening with a lot to talk about.

A very big thank you to everybody involved in the organisation of this event. You're putting a lot of smiles on the faces of a lot of children. A big thank you to 'the Bond Girls' for their beautiful presence during the evening festivities - Wendy, Liz, Ria, Emma and Becks

The evening was financially very rewarding and hopefully we made around £32,000 on the night towards our day target of £100,000. As long as all of the pledged sponsorship monies come in as promised, Promise Dreams will be making a lot of dreams come true for seriously and terminally ill kids this year, but we cannot do it without you!

Please remember that we need your sponsorship money as soon as possible. Many of our children need help now and if we don't have the money, we cannot say yes and that can be the difference between a child having their last dream and it being too late.

Need some help encouraging your sponsors to fulfil their pledge? Why not send them the link to this page and get them to click on the link below to watch Suzi Perry reading a letter from one of the families we want to help?

Please keep on collecting and sending us your sponsorship as soon as possible. Together we really can make a difference.

If you would like to watch a video of what happened on the day please choose one of the links below.