The Team

Behind us, and without whom we could not do what we do, is a great bunch of family and friends. They span from young to the more mature but they all love doing what we do and believe in the end result, making the quality of life a bit better for the children and their families we help.

The four founders of the charity, Chris & Ursula Downton and James & Kirsty Denny are supported by an amazing TEAM who make CWCF what it is today!

Chris

Being a founder, means that Chris has been in from the start 10^th July 1998.

“Although it doesn’t sound professional (so I’ve been told), the four of us were sat round a pub table, out for a drink and wanted to ‘have our own baby’ within the community.

So we went around the table saying what our passions were, with the belief that if we were passionate about something, it wouldn’t be hard work, but FUN. Two things came out of this conversation around the table, Children & Cancer.  So we decided to call ourselves  ‘Children with cancer fund’ or CWCF.

I consider myself lucky to be doing what we are and to be able to have a little input to the lives of the families going through cancer locally.”

Ursula

Ursula is one of the founders of CWCF and a trustee.

“I really can’t believe the charity has been such a huge part of our lives for nearly 25 years now! In this time we have had our 3 children and we now have 3 grandchildren too, with one of them being involved with charity life already!

I feel very proud of what we have achieved with CWCF but know this has only been possible due to the overwhelming support and help we have received from our family, friends and the local community over the years. Our amazing staff enable this to all come together and we are extremely lucky to have them all, making us the CWCF family that we are.

Many of the families we have supported over the years have become our friends and this is an honour I still find hard to believe – they allow us into their lives at such a dark time and we gain friendship and love from their awful place.

The best gift would be closing CWCF as we are no longer needed because childhood cancer has been eliminated. Sadly, however I can’t see this ever happening, so here’s to the next 25 years of CWCF!!”

Sylvie

Sylvie is our wonderful fundraising trustee, meaning she is always out and about helping with raising funds for us in the community. Sylvie brings a massive smile to her role and always makes the team laugh with her infectious laughter and jokes!

Helen

Helen joined our CWCF family in August 2021, although she has known Chris, Ursula and their family for many years. Initially, Helen worked on creating a hard copy newsletter, which is done in-house. This keeps the newsletters dynamic and they can be bespoke for our various independent fundraisers. In October 2022 Helen joined the Trustee Board of CWCF.  Her previous career in Social Work gives her the necessary skills required to work with our families, Helen is the Trustee responsible for the family events and supports Jess in her role of Events Co-ordinator.

Chloe

Chloe is our wonderful office manager, her role involves keeping all the office afloat and being in charge of the day to day runnings at CWCF. When Chloe is not running the office, she is searching for funding opportunities and writing our grant applications. This helps to raise funds to continue supporting local families affected by childhood cancer and keep the charity running. If you know the charity then you would have probably already met Chloe as she has been with the charity for over 10 years! She has worked all roles at various points at CWCF and knows it all inside out… Therefore making her perfect for being in charge.

General enquiries: [email protected]

For anything grants related please contact: [email protected]

Holly

Holly is our wonderful admin administrator her role involves all things admin, granting wishes, liaising with the families and much much more. She would most likely be your first port of call when contacting the charity.

Contact: [email protected]

Janette

Janette is our amazing family events coordinator. She is the face behind all the organising that goes into all CWCF events. Janette is an enthusiastic part of the team and nothing is too much trouble, making her THE perfect event coordinator!

Contact: [email protected]

Irene

Irene is our incredible Charity Fundraiser here at CWCF. She organises our fundraisers, coordinates our volunteers and liases with the amazing supporters who fundraise for us. If you need a sponsor form or organising your own fundraiser for us, Irene, is the lady you need.

Contact: [email protected]

Claire

Claire is our sensational media & communications officer at CWCF! She runs all the social media platforms, composes the monthly E-newsletter, creates our blog posts and news articles to spread awareness in the local community and help raise funds. She is also our resident photographer.

Contact: [email protected]

Poppy

Poppy is our wondrous PA. She is in charge of following up enquiry emails, networking and supports Chris with corporate correspondence, all things letter writing & thank you letters.

Contact : [email protected]

Lucy

Lucy is our super financial admin warrior, ensuring all data entered is accurate.

Mick

Mick is one of our amazing volunteers, he arranges the holidays for the families we support as well as the logistics for everyone such as posters, spreadsheets and organising the ‘Run to Run’. He’s a man of many talents.

Contact: [email protected]

Elaine

Elaine is also one of our wonderful volunteers, helping us with the day-to-day running of the office such as with administration jobs which include making posters and laminating, organising the fundraising cupboard, and preparing gifts for the annual Christmas party for our families.

Jim

Jim is another of our fantastic volunteers, he counts all of the penny pots, cash and cheques that come in, writing the receipts and filing them away, he is a wonderful help around the office!

Keith

Keith has also joined the team as another fantastic volunteer. Keith helps us with all things accounts, his knowledge is a great asset to the charity.

Diane

Diane is another of our wonderful volunteers who helps us with our admin, we are very lucky to have so much amazing help!

Of course, the CWCF team is more than the trustees and staff. It’s our extended family of volunteers and friends who help out at every occasion.

We are always very grateful to those to donate their time to our cause.