Red Day for Nick Carr 2024

Red Day 2024..... Here we go!!!!!!

Bea, who is at Sacred Heart Primary school, in Ilkley lost her dad Nick just over three years ago. Nick died suddenly and totally unexpectedly following a heart attack at the age of 55, after going to hospital with chest pain.

The family arrived at the Emergency Department at Leeds General Infirmary in the very early hours of the morning to be told that Nick had passed away. Mrs Bennett-Carr remembers how devastated and lost she felt leaving the hospital with her daughters, with just a carrier bag of Nick's clothes and a leaflet about bereavement.

At this point it was decided that Sacred Heart would do something in memory of Bea's daddy. A year later, near what would have been Nick's birthday, we held a ‘Red Day’ fundraiser. Pupils wore red (Nick’s favourite colour) and ran a cake stall raising £400! Bea's mum contacted her friend, a Family Care Sister and Bereavement Liaison for Paediatric Intensive Care Unit at Leeds Children’s Hospital, to find out how to best use the fundraised money to support families. The brilliant idea of Bereavement Bears was born – cuddly friends to be given out to children who may have lost a parent or sibling suddenly. Bereavement Bears are soft and easy to hold, something that children can cuddle, hug and squeeze and hopefully provide some comfort at such a distressing time.

In 2022 our initial fundraising was used to source and purchase 70 Bereavement Bears which have been given to children and young people in adult Emergency Departments at St James’ and LGI, as well as PICU at Leeds Children’s Hospital. The scheme has been a huge success and all of the initial bears were gifted.

On 5 May 2023 we again asked for donations from our families to raise money to fund a new generation of Bereavement Bears. As a school we raised well over £3k! Due to the unprecedented amount of money we raised we were able to, not only fund the Bereavement Bears, but also fund bereavement training for the staff of all local primary schools led by Child Bereavement UK. This training will ensure all staff in local primary schools have the necessary skills and resources to support children in the most challenging of times.

This year we are hosting another Red Day. We will be asking the children to come to school wearing red, and bring in monetary donations to buy a cake - all whilst raising money in the memory of Nick. Once again we will be funding Bereavement Bears to send off to the Leeds Hospital group and also hope to provide resource boxes for local primary schools to support staff when working with children who have suffered a bereavement.

As a school community we are determined to continue to support Nick's girls and ensure Nick's legacy grows as year on year we continue to host 'Red Day' and raise as much money as we can.

In school we are looking forward to a fun filled red day and ask everyone to dig deep when making donations to this worth while cause so close to our hearts.

Thank you in advance for all your support and generosity.

Mrs Claire Gilhooly