Charity secures its first lodge

It is the charity's first significant capital donation, which covers the cost of building a lodge on the charity’s 30-acre site outside Lichfield.

In total, the charity is aiming to raise £5 million in order to build the UK’s first holiday village offering respite breaks to critically ill children and their families.

The village will be feature 10 four-bedroom lodges that will provide a home to the children and their families during their stay as well as a central communal building.

Chairman of Kids’ Village Doug Wright said: “This is a huge moment for Kids’ Village. We are absolutely delighted to have secured this significant sum to fund the build of one of our lodges at Kids’ Village.

"The cost to build the 10 lodges is estimated at £2.5m with the other £2.5m going towards the communal facility where families will eat, worship, enjoy time together and create magic moments through many different family activities.

"The gift has been made by a generous West Midlands based family trust who have requested to remain anonymous. However, we are pleased to be able to reveal that the lodge they are funding will be known in perpetuity as ‘Jim’s Lodge’ in memory of a loved family member.

"We look forward to working with this trust in the future to ensure that it is a special and magical place for families to stay at Kids’ Village. We have a significant task in front of us to raise the £5m we need to build Kids’ Village, but this is an amazing start."

Mr Wright added that there were nine more lodges to fund and the charity would love to hear from anybody interested in funding one of them.

"Whether you are a business, community, place of worship, University, family, trust or grant we need your help to create a UK first facility here in the Midlands. We have planning permission and the land, now we need to secure all the funding to get us started on site.

"This is the story of Kids’ Village and I would love you to be part of it."

A spokesperson for the trust, which has provided the initial support, said: “Kids’ Village is an incredibly special project that will ultimately make a significant difference to the lives of 1000s of children and their families.

"We understand how challenging it can be to raise funds at the start of a capital build when all that exists are plans and dreams, but we believe in Kids’ Village and the impact it will have, and are delighted to have been able to support with this donation to cover the build of the first lodge on the site.

"We hope it will encourage others to follow suit and to get behind Kids’ Village so that this magical place can become a reality as quickly as possible.”