RAFT need to keep raising funds to carry out their valuable work into researching skin cancer.
If you have been interested by any of the subjects raised by SAVE YOUR SKIN, or you or one of your friends or family have been touched by skin cancer, you might want to help by raising funds – with a little help from your friends.
THE RAFT CHARITY
RAFT became an established registered medical research charity in 1988. RAFT are particularly concerned about the rise of melanoma skin cancer amongst young people. RAFT is heavily involved into researching and into prevention and early diagnosis of melanoma. Their Chief Patron is the Duchess of Kent, who heads up a whole host of respected patrons who support the work that RAFT do. RAFT relies heavily on charitable donations to do its wonderful work – that’s where you come in!
HOW CAN I RAISE FUNDS?
It doesn’t matter how much or how little you raise, what matters is that you feel strongly enough about the issues surrounding the campaign, you may want to help RAFT to raise funds to continue their research into skin cancer.
If you are in secondary school one thing you could do is ADOPT RAFT AS A CHARITY YOU WANT TO RAISE FUNDS FOR. It could be in your friendship group, your form or tutor group, your year group, or any other group you are a member of at school. If you decide you would like to do this, YOU MUST GET PERMISSION FROM YOUR SCHOOL. All you need to do then is to decide on what you want to do to raise funds.
Popular ways of fundraising in schools are :
• Sponsored events – you could try a traditional event but why not try something a bit out of the ordinary? Have a non-uniform event and wear some holiday outfits – the worse taste outfits the better! Get a judging panel to decide on the winner. A sponsored hula hoop competition could also get everyone in the holiday mood – get everyone who takes part to get sponsored per second. Or have a karaoke competition using holiday tunes and again decide on the winner, and charge the audience a small fee to watch.
• Do an assembly – if you have the chance to do an assembly, then use the information on this website to tell your school mates more about skin cancer. Get permission from tutor or Head of Year to help you, to make sure you put together a really good presentation. Then after the assembly you can have a small collection during the day.
• Have a tan party! If you want to do something outside of school, why not have a sleepover tanning party? It doesn’t have to be expensive if you get together with a few friends and arm yourselves with a few bottles of fake tan. Make some ‘mocktails’, play your favourite tunes, and put on your oldest and comfiest PJ’s. (Make sure you warn whoever is in charge at home first, though, before they get invaded by your fake tanning gang). Everyone who comes along can pay a small donation and there you have it – a simple way to raise a few pounds and you get to look great at the end of it. A quick word of warning: if you are using airbrush tans, make sure you cover your bedroom with some old sheets! You might like a tan but we can guarantee your dressing table won’t. Patch test everyone who is coming to your party with the fake tan you will be using 24 hours beforehand, too, just to be on the safe side.
There are so many different ways of raising funds, and we find that young people are far more creative of thinking up ways of raising money than anyone else – anything that involves people having a good time is usually the best way forward. Please remember that at the moment, a lot of families are short of money and people may not be able to afford a lot, so you must stress this in your fundraising – whether it is a penny or a pound, every single contribution counts. INVOLVE AN ADULT OR ADULTS AT SCHOOL TO HELP WITH YOUR FUNDRAISING ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARRANGE A SPECIAL EVENT. You must get your school’s permission before you carry out any fundraising on school premises. If you decide to have a party at home, you must get permission from your parent, guardian or carer, and so should everyone who is attending.
WHAT DO WE DO WITH ANY MONEY WE HAVE RAISED?
To find out more about fundraising with RAFT go to www.raft.ac.uk You can donate online but you will need to do so with a debit or credit card, so you may need an adult to help you with this process.
If you have raised funds you can send a cheque made payable to RAFT to:
Christine Miles, Senior Fundraising Manager, The RAFT Institute, Leopold Muller Building, Northwood, Middlesex HA6 2RN.
Again, if you are not old enough to have a bank account that includes cheques you will need an adult to help you with this process.
If you do decide to take part in fundraising, SAVE YOUR SKIN would like to thank you for your efforts. RAFT’s work is so important and the funds you have raised will literally help to save lives. Go on, give yourself a pat on the back!
