How the THHN was set up - June 2010

I first got the idea to set up the THHN after watching an episode of Channel 4's Secret Millionaire early last year.
The episode featured multi millionaire scrap merchant Gary Eastwood visiting the town of Blackpool to find worthy causes in need of financial help. 

Here he found a couple called Len & Barbara Curtis who set up and run a charity called Donnas Dream House, tragically Len & Barbara lost their daughter Donna to Cancer on new years day in 1996 aged just 20 yrs old. During the four years that Donna bravely fought her illness she encountered many very sick young children and she wanted her legacy to help make whatever time any sick children had left as enjoyable as possible. Len & Barbara made it their labour of love to fulfil their little girls only fairytale wish, to set up a wonderland styled holiday home for sick children and their families, which they have now successfully achieved on an incredibly tight budget. Donnas Dream House gives free holidays to families with sick children and has different themed rooms for the children to stay in. 

Gary along with the camera crew went to Donnas Dream House to film and here you saw the great work and results that Len & Barbara were achieving in giving families with sick children quality time together and helping them build incredibly precious memories of their beloved children whom a great many were preparing to lose. The programme showed how Gary made a very large donation to DDH and how the money would help them to expand their accommodation and great work. 

Being a father of two healthy boys this footage really struck a chord with me and made me realise how insignificant my problems were and at the same time how incredibly lucky I am to have them. So I sat down and thought to myself that I really was in a position to be able to help people in a similar way that Len & Barbara do. Being a hotel owner I could offer free holidays to families whenever we had quiet weeks and bookings were not going to be at 100%. Ok so it was not going to be a holiday in a themed wonderland but it would still be a holiday away from hospital appointments and time for the families to have quality relaxing time together and a chance to build up those all important and precious memories! 

After a little bit of internet research I found NACCPO - National Alliance of Childhood Cancer Parent Organisations who refer families to Donnas Dream House for holidays. I called them and asked would they be interested in offering an occasional free holiday staying at my hotel to deserving families? They were thrilled with my offer and said they would get back to me in a couple of weeks to get it organised. During those two weeks my brain continued to buzz and thought why not try and get more hotels on board to offer the occasional free holiday. So I asked my uncle from the Marine Hotel in Paignton if he was interested in helping out and he was and so thankfully were other hotel owners such as the Downs Babbacombe, Morningside Hotel, and Anchorage Hotel. I then thought why not see if we can get some tourist attractions to offer free entry to the families whilst they are on these holidays and so the THHN was born and the ideas of businesses who could help just snowballed as did peoples generous offers of support. 

In August 2009 the THHN gave away its first free holiday to the Jones family from Chester whose 16yr daughter Hannah has a brain tumour. Hannah is an incredible young lady who despite 3 major brain surgeries and a stroke has raised £70,000 for brain tumour research all on her own. She recently won BBC switch Teen Hero Award which she was awarded on National BBC1. They stayed for 7 nights at the Hotel De La Mer and had an action packed holiday which included using their THHN Family Pass to get free trips to the Hi Flyer Balloon, Woodlands Adventure Park, The Babbacombe Model Village, Bygones Museum, a free lunch at Hanburys Fish restaurant, a free afternoon tea at Angels Tea Rooms and free theatre trips to Babbacombe and Princess theatres. Hannah also drove a car at Westpoint during her stay which fulfilled one of her wishes from her wish list, this was thanks to Grants School of Motoring who are members of the network. The family actually visited again in November and I arranged for Hannah to drive a double decker bus at Westpoint so I don't know what I can arrange for her next visit, I may have to look up Exeter airports number! They had an amazing stay and you can read an account of their holiday on the THHN website www.thhn.co.uk 

This type of holiday is now the norm for families visiting on THHN holidays! On a families arrival they are given a welcome pack which contains a plastic credit card styled family pass, these were very kindly produced free of charge by Concept Card of Crediton. The cards can gain families free entry into over 20 tourist attractions, free theatre trips, ten-pin bowling and boat trips to name but a few things. The holidays offered are not only in hotels but in self catering holiday homes and B&B's too. When families stay in self catering homes we organise for them to have food hampers delivered from various suppliers such as AW Luscombes Butchers, GB Fisheries, Riverford Organic Home Delivery and Bristol Fruit Sales to name a few. The THHN has now given away nearly 50 free holidays in the region and I really hope to reach 100 before 2011! 

The THHN runs on a simple concept that if an accommodation provider feels they would like to donate a holiday they contact me and give me a date they would like to offer, I then circulate the date amongst our member charities and they then nominate suitable families for the holidays. Businesses can offer as much or as little as they like even if it is a one off offer it will make a big difference to a family. Regular contributors who are members get free advertising space on the THHN website. 

The THHN now has 75 member businesses all offering free holidays and services to families who have terminally ill, seriously ill and recently bereaved children. We have nearly 20 charities, groups and hospitals offering our holidays including Great Ormond Street Childrens Hospital, Rainbow Trust Childrens Charity, Winstons Wish and branches of CLIC Sargent to name but a few. 

I have been absolutely astounded by the local business community's generosity by continuing to support the THHN and offer free services to families going through turmoil. These holidays really do make a huge difference to people who really need a break, invariably one parent has to quit their job to care for the sick child and this has a huge impact for the family to try and survive on just one wage during a time of such terrible stress! 

Since setting up the THHN Gary Eastwood has been in contact with me and we have set a link up between the THHN and Donnas Dream House where by I can now refer local families for holidays in Blackpool staying at Donnas Dream House and vice versa. 

I recently had a local family get in contact who sadly lost their 2yr old daughter to a rare genetic condition last may, they were very keen to help out with the network and wanted to know how they could help? They 

are now actively seeking new accommodation providers for the network as we have a backlog of families waiting for holiday dates as dates offered to them before have not been suitable due to the dates clashing with their childrens treatments. The family also very kindly offered to raise funds for a beach hut to be built at Goorington beach for the THHN! I have since been in contact with Jewsons who are donating all the building materials, Torquay Decorating Supplies are donating all the paint and decorating equipment and Carpenter Tim Maynard is building it free of charge! The hut will be in place and ready for families to use by the middle of May. 

To celebrate the THHN's first birthday I have organised a charity ball that will be held at the Riviera International Conference Centre on 21st August. We have been lucky enough to have the event sponsored by one of our member businesses Stagecoach South West and we will be aiming to fill the venue with 450 tickets going on sale very soon! Again I have been amazed by people's generosity in offering their services free of charge and tons of support and advice from the local business community. On the night we will be raising funds for NACCPO and Hannah Joneses Umbrella fund of the Samantha Dickson Brain Tumour Trust. We have a great line up of local entertainers offering live entertainment right the way through the night from 7pm - 2am. Our guests of honour will be the now not so Secret Millionaire Gary Eastwood and his family and Len & Barbara Curtis from Donnas Dream House. 

The THHN continues to grow on a weekly basis and is now beginning to be recognised on a national scale with new hospitals, hospices and charities frequently contacting me to ask if they can be included in our offers to families. Just this morning I had Cardiff childrens hospital contact me after they had heard from one of our charities what a huge help we had been to one of their families in offering them a much needed break. 

For the future I can see no reason why there can not be networks like the THHN set up all across the country in tourist destinations and would like to think that the generosity of our region could inspire others to do the same in the same way that Len & Barbara and Gary inspired me. 

All in all setting up the THHN has been the most rewarding thing I have ever set out to achieve and it has put me in touch with some amazing people, enlightened me to some truly incredible stories of courage and made me realise just how lucky I really am to be surrounded by a healthy family and the people I love! I hope the THHN gives business owners a unique opportunity to give something back and see the results first hand. We are always seeking new members who can help the network and welcome any input anyone would have to offer. 

Luke Tillen
Network Founder & Coordinator

News & Stories