Support Us: Reflecting on 2025 Fundraising – and Exciting Plans for 2026

A new year gives us all a moment to pause, reflect and look ahead. For us at Tree of Hope, that reflection brings an enormous amount of pride and gratitude. In 2025, hundreds of incredible supporters — families, challenge participants, community groups and corporate partners — helped seriously ill and disabled children access life-changing medical treatment, equipment and therapy.

Tree of Hope is entirely reliant on public support. We do not receive government funding. Every family who fundraises with us, and every supporter who donates to our general charitable funds, makes a tangible difference. Without that support, many children would not be able to access the healthcare assistance they need.

How Tree of Hope Supports Fundraisers

Fundraising can feel overwhelming, especially for families who are already navigating complex medical needs. Our role is to make that journey easier, more effective and hopefully enjoyable. When a fundraiser sets up a campaign page with Tree of Hope, we offer:

• PR and media outreach
• Event promotion and social media support
• Fundraising packs, running vests, leaflets, balloons and collection tins (where applicable)
• Awareness posters and campaign collateral
• Post-event catch-ups
• Celebration on our social channels (with photos)
• Guidance from our family support team

Whether you’re planning a sporting challenge, a community fundraising event, a school fundraiser or a gala, you’re never doing it alone.

How Fundraising Helps Families

Many families come to Tree of Hope because there is no social or NHS funding available for crucial medical interventions. Fundraising helps children:

• Access therapies not available through the NHS to increase movement, encourage development and maintain mobility.
• Purchase specialist equipment (wheelchairs, walkers, trikes, beds, seating solutions and more) to provide comfort, safety, independence and access.
• Receive private medical treatment to improve quality of life or provide life-saving support
• Adapt homes, vehicles and gardens to create safe, accessible environments

When friends, family and local networks get behind a campaign, fundraising becomes a powerful community effort.

How Fundraising Helps Tree of Hope

Alongside supporting individual children, we also need to fundraise for our general charitable funds. These cover essential core costs that allow us to provide a high-quality family service, including:

• Tailored fundraising and campaign planning from our Family Support Team
• PR and communications support from our Marketing Department
• Gift Aid processing and managing incoming donations and paying invoices through our dedicated accountants
• Enhancing resources for families
• Growing awareness so more families know this help exists

Corporate supporters, individual donors and challenge participants often choose to support our general funds as part of their CSR activity, charity of the year partnership, or team fundraising challenge, just like Wards Estate Agents have done for the last 2 years. Take a look here at everything that Wards have taken away from this partnership!

2025 Fundraising Highlights

Alongside the new families who joined us in 2025, supporters set up 100 additional fundraising pages, raising funds for individual children and for Tree of Hope’s charitable activity.

Here’s a snapshot of what took place over the year:

Running Challenges — £38,751 Raised
34 running fundraisers took place, ranging from 5km races through to ultra-marathons.

Non-Physical Events — £21,548.45 Raised
Galas, bake sales, quizzes, live music, parties and family fun days proved as popular as ever.

Sports Days — £14,567 Raised
From classic school-style sports days to 100 holes of golf, cricket matches and football tournaments.

Hikes & Walks — £12,834 Raised
Snowdon stole the show as the most popular challenge, alongside the Scottish Kiltwalk and marathon-distance walks.

Adrenaline Events — £6,030 Raised
Skydives and a zip-wire challenge led the way for thrill-seeking fundraisers.

Mixed Sporting Events — £26,963 Raised
Everything from triathlons to mud races, darts nights, yoga challenges and sponsored swims.

Cycling Challenges — £3,004 Raised
Five cycling events took place, many involving groups of riders joining together for a shared challenge.

2025 Stand-Out Fundraisers

🌟 Top Family Fundraiser: Cricket for Tess — £10,274
A brilliant example of community fundraising in action, combining sport, entertainment and raffles. We spoke to Tess’s mum Cathy about running a large-scale fundraising event — read the interview here

🌟 Top Corporate Fundraiser: Wards Estate Agents — £15,921
We’re extremely grateful to Wards Estate Agents for their continued support across multiple Kent branches. Their quiz nights, raffles, bake sales and fancy-dress days made a huge impact. Want to make a difference like wards? Become a corporate fundraiser!

Looking Ahead to 2026 — Get Involved

If you’re feeling inspired to fundraise in 2026 — whether as a family, individual or corporate team — we’d love to support you.

• Families: talk to us about fundraising for your child
• Individuals: secure a free charity place in a challenge event for Tree of Hope’s general funds
• Corporates: partner with a children’s healthcare charity as part of your CSR strategy
• Local Businesses & Schools: host a community event or nominate us as charity of the year

Get started:

Challenge Events & Free Charity Places

Tree of Hope is a charity partner with Run for Charity, giving supporters access to events and challenges throughout the UK — from beginners to advanced, from 5km runs to triathlons. Where possible, we can secure free charity places for supporters (not including the London Marathon).

Browse our events page for inspiration

Join Our 2026 Fundraising Community

Whether you’re running, walking, baking, cycling, skydiving, hosting a gala or organising a sports day — every fundraiser helps a child access essential medical support and brings a family one step closer to hope.

We can’t wait to see what 2026 brings.