CarFest, the UK’s biggest family fundraising festival, have officially announced us as one of their charity partners. Money raised from ticket sales will help us support children and young people’s wellbeing during treatment, care and recovery, like that of Kitty, who is CarFest’s fourth ambassador.
Kitty’s journey has been one of great strength and determination, and her story of overcoming a rare, life-threatening kidney condition makes her a fantastic ambassador to represent Starlight.
Kitty will be representing Starlight at CarFest and raising awareness of the necessary work we do for seriously ill children and their families. In 2014, when Kitty was just six years old, she was diagnosed with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), which causes kidneys to ‘leak’. After being diagnosed, she went through seven years of hospital treatments – which meant years of worry and stress for her and the whole family.
Support from Starlight helped Kitty’s family keep everything together. Thanks to our play resources, Kitty and Debbi, her mother, were able to reconnect through play. Whether it was colouring-in or fuzzy felt, storytelling or jigsaws, playing helped to ease Kitty’s anxiety and made the dark thoughts disappear.
“When you get ill like I did, you can’t do lots of things. Arts and crafts from Starlight made my dialysis okay, the time goes much quicker with glitter and glue.”
Right now, Kitty is in remission and her family is very hopeful about her future!
Created by TV presenter Chris Evans to raise money for charities, the festival brings everyone together to enjoy performances from some of UK’s best artists, admire fast cars, eat yummy food and meet some of UK’s TV, theatre, music and sports legends.
Most importantly, 15% of CarFest’s ticket price is automatically donated to their charity partners, including us. Their support helps us deliver our life-changing play services and boxes to seriously ill children across UK healthcare settings.