Southbourne Grove traders to make Elliot’s Christmas
Starting on Small Business Saturday (7th December) a host of Southbourne Grove traders showed their support for a Southbourne family’s fundraising campaign to raise £66,300 for a life-changing operation at Great Ormond Street Hospital for their six-year-old son, who has cerebral palsy and Severe Haemophilia A.
Elliot Gower has been assessed as a suitable candidate for Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy (SDR), a pioneering operation which will make it easier for him to walk and give him much more independence as he gets older. The NHS does not currently fund this operation, despite impressive success rates in the U.K. and the U.S.
One of Elliot’s family friends, Hannah Butler, has been traipsing the streets asking traders to support the cause. TD Fruits will be donating funds for every Chirstmas tree they sell and Southbourne Cards will donate £1 for every sale of a Medici Christmas Card box. Coastal Creatives will donate £1 for every Victoria Eggs Kitchen wear product they sell and Starz Dog Grooming Salon are going to put on some fundraising events. In another show of support, the Bears Hideaway Nursery are going to donate £1 for each child on their register.
Elliot’s Dad James has been astounded by the support: “It’s amazing that our local community are rallying around like this. We are so happy. Elliot likes a good old shop and some of the traders have said that they remember him coming to visit their shop so wanted to help. We’re very grateful. It just shows how shopping locally and supporting small businesses can really add to a sense of community”.
Elliot’s family and friends launched Operation Elliot last month and have already raised over £7,000 largely through social media donations and community get-togethers like coffee mornings. They have appealed for people to organise their own events to help them reach the target.
For more information on the traders supporting Operation Elliot please visit https://www.operationelliot.org/p/shop-local.html or to donate please visit https://www.operationelliot.org/p/shop-local.html or to donate visit the family’s Just Giving page https://www.justgiving.com/OperationElliot. You can follow Elliot’s progress on Twitter @SDRforElliot and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/operationelliot
Sally Taylor
