Nelly’s Grand Year

After Nelly’s Tetralogy of Fallot repair in September 2024 her parents wanted to give back, so took on the ‘Have a Grand 2025’ fundraising challenge with the aim of raising £1,000.

They opened their JustGiving page in January 2025 and by the end of the year raised an incredible £12,468 for CHSF! 🤯🎉

We spoke to the family to find out how they raised so much money and to help give inspiration for future fundraising challenges…

Nelly had life-saving open heart surgery at just 7 months old at the Leeds Congenital Heart Unit. Nelly is celebrated her first heart day in September.

Read her full story here.

Why did you want to do the ‘Have a Grand 2025’ challenge as opposed to any other challenge?

“We felt ‘Have a Grand 2025’ gave us the flexibility to do a number of fundraising initiatives throughout the year whilst we both worked full time, raised two young children and to raise as much as we could financially for the charity.”

What fundraising activities did you do to raise as much money as you did?

“We started off by setting up our JustGiving page and sharing it on our social media. We have a big family but were still completely blown away by the initial influx of donations made by family and friends.

 

“We wanted to plan something for later in the year where people had the chance to get something back for their donations so decided we would host a family fun day fundraising event with a raffle, live music, catering, soft play and bouncy castle.

 

“We reached out to local businesses to ask for raffle prizes and were incredibly lucky with the prizes we were donated. We ended up with over 70 prizes with a combined prize amount of just short of £4,000 from overnight stays, to restaurant vouchers, hair and beauty treatments, family tickets, hampers and gift sets. We sold raffle tickets 5 for £10 and raised over £5,000 in selling raffle tickets alone.

“We got a discounted rate on the venue, soft play and bouncy castle due to the event being for charity and had family and friends who are in the music industry to provide live music. Although we saved a lot of money by doing it this way, we put a lot of our own time, effort and money into creating the fundraising event, but it was so worth it for the amount of extra donations we raised.

 

“We also held a further awareness and fundraising event at a local rugby club, and held a bake sale at a large local businesses head office.

“We wouldn’t say it has been easy – and at times has been like having another full time job outside of work and raising the children – but all the hard work we put in really has paid off. We’ve raised so much more than we ever imagined when we first decided to take on the challenge.”

Is there anything you’d say to future families taking on fundraising challenges?

“It really is what you make it, but equally we have been so incredibly fortunate for all the adhoc donations made by family and friends. We really couldn’t have achieved half of what we have without them and are beyond grateful to everyone who’s contributed towards the final amount raised.

 

“Whether it was family and friends, local businesses, our own employers, people we don’t even know who contributed, we appreciate every single donation and are so happy we’ve been able to give something back to the charity that supported us so much throughout Nelly’s heart surgery.

 

“Anything at all goes towards making such a difference to families going through some of the toughest times and we’ll forever be grateful for what the charity helped us through.”

Raise £1,000 your way this year

Kickstart 2026 with a challenge of purpose where every penny you raise will go towards supporting our heart unit, patients and their families.

Join us in making 2026 a ‘grand’ year for fundraising!

We can only keep being there for our life-saving heart unit, patients and families with your help. Make a donation today to help us continue our vital work.