2018 marked the 20th anniversary of the Eve Brook Scholarship Fund and we put a lot of effort to celebrate this landmark. For the past 20 years the Fund has been supporting Birmingham City Council’s care-leavers by helping them to go to college or university and embark on successful careers. We have raised over £300,000 over the years and spent the vast bulk of it directly to support over 180 young people. We intend to continue for many more years!

We made special efforts to raise more funds in 2018 by appealing to our many supporters and other charities to help our cause. We had a great deal of success and we want to thank those of you who helped us raise an extra £35,000 over the year compared with normal years. This is phenomenal and will help us support even more young people in their quest for success!

Firstly, our donations rose from around £10,000 in 2017 to £38,000 in 2018 – a rise of 290%. This is due both to the generosity of individuals who responded to our appeal and to the support from a number of other charities to who we applied for funds. The latter were particularly generous in their support and we are very grateful and hope they will continue to help our cause.

Secondly, our Just Giving account rose from £3,350 in 2017 to £9,260 in 2018 – a 176% increase. This was largely due to the 20:20 sponsorship challenge. This is an initiative that invited our supporters and friends to undertake challenges and to raise money from sponsorship via Just Giving. For example, Kevin Morris climbed the three peaks in 24 hours; Nigel Brook cycled 210 kilometres in Northern France; Phil Smith walked up Ben Nevis; Michael Dale did a triathlon; Emma Manton is running 1000 miles for the Fund; Emily and Meg Wild both completed punishing challenges for the Fund, including walking the Pennine Way! The 20:20 continues into 2019 with a parachute jump in June and several other events are in the pipeline. We are so grateful for all those who have and are taking part in this initiative.

Thirdly, our usual fundraising activities – our curry night, our summer celebration event, our jazz and rock evening and our quiz – continued and all did well. In addition David Edgar, our Chair, put on a special performance of his one man show at the MAC which raised nearly £600.

The Fund would like to thank everyone who has contributed to this fantastic achievement. The extra funds provide us with the opportunity to pursue our aim of helping more young people who have been in care be successful in higher education.