Northampton’s The Lewis Foundation shortlisted for prestigious national charity award

A well-known Northampton charity has been named as one of three shortlisted finalists for a national award.

The Lewis Foundation which was set up by Lorraine and Lee Lewis in 2016 after Lee’s mum had cancer, delivers gift packs to hospitals where adults are undergoing cancer treatment, as a way to combat loneliness and isolation during medical appointments.

Five years on, the charity has a team of almost 50 volunteers and regularly delivers packs to 14 hospitals across the region.

Now the team has been shortlisted in the final three of the ‘healthcare and medical research’ category at The Charity Awards, which is the longest-running and most prestigious awards scheme in the charity sector, recognising big-name national organisations.

Lorraine said: “We are so proud to be shortlisted for this award, especially as we are a finalist in a category with established national charities.

“A national charity award of this level recognises the amazing work that members of our team, our volunteers, the hospitals and the community do to enable us to support adult cancer patients on a daily basis.

“Whilst we may be a small charity in comparison, our work continues to make an impact that helps people who are in hospital going through treatment.

“As a charity we are always determined that we will continue to do something positive to show love and support to others during a really difficult time.

“That is why being shortlisted for an award of this nature means so much to us.”

Matthew Nolan, chief executive of Civil Society Media, which organises The Charity Awards, congratulated all the shortlisted charities on making the highly-coveted shortlist.

He said: “In the spring of last year, we took the very difficult decision to put the 2020 Charity Awards on ice, until we had clearer visibility on how the pandemic would play out.

“Throughout the year we watched with dismay as the charity sector was buffeted by a triple-whammy of losing millions of pounds of fundraising income, being forced to re-engineer services to comply with lockdown and social distancing restrictions, and facing big spikes in demand for those services.

“But 12 months on, we are so impressed with how the sector has risen to the challenges and responded magnificently to the health, social care and economic crisis that Covid-19 has wrought.

“There is no better time to celebrate charities and their incredible work, so we have decided to resurrect the 2020 awards and honour the applications that were submitted.

“The nominees on this year’s shortlist are large and small charities who are truly leaders in their field.”

The awards will be judged by a panel of sector leaders and The Lewis Foundation will find out if it has been successful in its category at a virtual ceremony on June 10.

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