What it’s all about 

SUNDAY POST readers are famed for their incredible generosity. When we launched our appeal to raise money for a children’s hospice in August 2001 the response was imaginative, immediate and immense. Who could have predicted that four years later, after hundreds of different fund-raising events, we would have contributed more than £4 million to the cost of building Robin House? That was an award-winning campaign and it proved you care about important causes.

Help Which is why we’re now asking for your help again. Today we’re launching The Sunday Post Sick Children’s Appeal. Scotland has four children’s hospitals — in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Each receives an allocation for equipment every year from an ever-increasing NHS budget. However, all four hospitals remain short of money to pay for vital specialist equipment and research which, if available, would help to save children’s lives or ease their conditions. The Sunday Post has agreed to team up with the hospitals to help fund the shortfall. And we hope you, our readers, will step in and make a difference. Each hospital has provided us with a list of requirements surgeons need to treat their young patients. Over the coming months we will explain the types of specialised equipment they want and introduce you to some of the children to whom they would mean so much. Equipment We’d like you to do whatever you can to raise as much money as possible so that together we can help them get that equipment — and improve the lives of thousands of children every year. From experience we know there are no limits to your fund-raising ideas and efforts. Whatever you decide to do, we’d like to hear from you. We hope your generosity will fuel our campaign and as it gathers momentum we’ll report back to you with weekly updates, highlighting your good work. So how can you get involved? Maybe you’ll organise a sponsored walk along the West Highland Way, or a jumble sale in the garden, or ask friends and relatives for a donation instead of birthday or anniversary gifts.  Or perhaps you could arrange a fashion show at your school, or a coffee morning at the local club.  No limits Or it could be something weird and wacky like dressing up as St Trinian’s schoolgirls and asking for donations on a city centre street — like a bunch of male students from Fife did for the CHAS campaign. We know from past experience there are no limits to your imagination when it comes to raising money for a good cause. And we love to tell your fund-raising stories. And rest assured that every child treated at these hospitals will benefit from your kindness. The money raised will be divided equally among the four children’s hospitals.  And they’ll keep us, and you, informed about their purchases.  That way, you’ll be able to see on a regular basis how children in Scotland are benefiting from the money you donate.

You can e-mail us at: hospitals@sundaypost.com