Fantastic news! We have been awarded a grant of £75,000 to sponsor two of our Brian House staff nurses for a year, following a visit from representatives of the Kentown Wizard Trust and the submission of a grant application.

We hope it will be the beginning of a long-term relationship and feel very fortunate to have the support of this local organisation.

Ken Townsley is a man who made his fortune in tourism and established this Foundation last year to support children with disabilities and life limiting / threatening conditions, especially in the Blackpool area.

Ken started work at Blackpool Airport at the age of 15 as a Traffic Department Apprentice, doing everything from handling luggage to shipping cargo. In 1970 he opened his first travel shop in Church Street, Blackpool, with just two members of staff, but 40 years later his Gold Medal Travel Group was Britain’s largest privately owned tour operator and he sold it to Thomas Cook in a multi-million pound deal.

Brian House is benefitting from Ken’s generosity at a time when finding new sources of funds to cover our work is so important: it costs £1.3m each year to run Brian House but we currently raise only £500k in dedicated donations.

A massive thank you to the Kentown Wizard Trust from everyone at Brian House.