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James Hopkins was born in Gloucestershire Royal hospital on the 17th of September 1987, but his life was cut tragically short and he died on the 29th May 1989 from an infection. To learn more about James then click HERE James' life may have been short but it was not without purpose. When he died he left a circle of family and friends, inspired not just with the desire to keep his memory alive, but also to do the best they could to help children like him. The simple basic principle behind Vance and Heather Hopkins' inspired vision was to enable children to be cared for at home so that other families could experience the same love and bonding that they were able to share with James.
In the last 18 years we have helped over 350 children and families, in every corner of the county, to the staggering amount of over 150,000 hours of nursing - all of it free to those that needed it. Put another way, this is 75 years at 38 hours a week for a nurse - approaching three entire careers!! |
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Click on a year to see the highlights 1990 : 1991 : 1992 : 1993 : 1994 : 1995 : 1996 : 1997 : 1998 : 1999 : 2000 : 2001 : 2002 : 2003 : 2004 : 2005 : 2006 : 2007 : FEBRUARY: The first newsletter appeared and consisted of a folded sheet of paper but it contained our Kite logo; the first £1000 raised from a 1989 Christmas raffle; the 3 aims which exist today and our first "thank-you" list with many names that still support us to this day JULY: Our second newsletter which contained details of our first Marathon runner; Tim Thorne Newsletter 3 and our first auction. Also first big company cheque £500 from Whitbread who still support us Confirmation of our registered Charity number and a second marathon runner - David Page. Invested in 50 collecting boxes and a four figure donation from ITV's telethon (remember that!). It was our first full year as a registered trust and despite the recession, our income increased with each quarter, to the point that we could fund the equivalent of 2 full time nurses and still be able to fulfil our other two aims; the provision of specialised equipment and financial help when attending specialist hospitals. Things were going from strength to strength, however as a footnote, our respite provision for the whole of 1991 is less than one months respite care from 1998 onwards! John O'Groats to Land's end Cycleathon, gallantly cycled by our chairman, Malcolm Nelmes and friend Alec Grubb in 7.5 days and our largest donation to date. £2500 from the proceeds of Blaison Hall fete. Also launch of our 52 club . Click on the reference to join! Also establishment of our own James Hopkins Nurses Our first Christmas cards based on 4 watercolours by Frederick Moir Bertie. Also a special event in the form of the Three-Peaks Challenge: Roger Owen, Paddy Bettesworth, Steve Green and Dieter Loraine ran up and down the three highest mountains in Scotland, England and Wales in an amazing time of 21 hours and 17 minutes (and this includes road travel between them!!) The Trust was awarded, in London, a certificate to commerate Her Majesty the Queen's 40th Anniversary Challenge for our work with children. Adopted by Mayor of Gloucester, Ben Richards, as his sole Charity of the Year, the highlight of which was a concert in the Cathedral, followed by a Civic dinner in the North warehouse. A handsome 3 year grant was received from the BBC Children in Need appeal as well as formal recognition from the local statutory bodies for the value of our community services. This was in the form of a community partnership agreement which gave direct help to those children 5 year and under, with severe disabilities and their families. A year of consolidation, coinciding with our 5th Anniversary but demand for our services was increasing and had reached nearly 600 hours of nursing care per month. Also, Wendy Langley RGN had become our home visitor. We moved into our new premises in February. Up until then the Trust has successfully been operated from the homes of the Chairman and co-ordinator but we had become too big to continue this way. The new premises gave us a new sense of purpose and we set to work improving the public's awareness through two eye catching ways: The first advertising was in the shape of milk bottles - 13,000 of them in all! Through the good offices of Cotteswold dairies in Tewkesbury and Managing Director Roger Workman in particular, we have Trust information permanently printed on the bottles. The next method was a slogan franked onto all letters that passed through the Royal Mail in Gloucester for one month during the summer. This meant that hundreds of thousands of letters bore the Trust name and logo over Gloucestershire and beyond. In order to extend our reach to more parts of the community, our trust leaflet was translated into Gujaranti, in co-operation with Tapestry Translation and Interpreting based at the Gloucester City Council Human Resources department. The year ended with the marvellous annoucement that we had reached our first half a million pounds raised (and mainly spent!) This year saw our first Christmas party especially for Children helped by the Trust. This has continued annually since and is one of the most rewarding Trust activities for all involved. Also on the Christmas theme it was our first Carol Service and also the first of our Christmas cards painted by Alec Brown. We were adopted by "The Citizen" as their first Charity of the Year. They have continued to be regular supporters. Also, this year saw the first International Kite Festival at Tewkesbury incorporating the James Hopkins Trust. Full time office administrator taken on. New premises campaign launched, including our ‘Buy-a-Brick’ appeal. A real highlight (excuse the pun) was when Tony Penning ( leader of 1998 British Expedition) climbed the Greenland peak and named it after James. Another very prestigious event was a Reception at House of Commons for James Hopkins Trust. We formed a Bereavement group this year also to help families come to terms with their loss of their special children that do not survive. A real milestone - the 10th Anniversary of Trust. This coincided with a Grant from National Lottery Charities Board towards premises. Events included our first Royal Open Garden Day at Nether Lypiatt by kind permisson of their Royal Highnesses Prince and Princess Michael of Kent. This has continued this year. Adopted by the Mayor of Cheltenham, Dave Banyard, as a beneficiary This year got off to a great start when we were announced
as a National winner of the SmithKline Beecham Impact Award. We manage to purchase 0.7 acres of land close to our offices in North Upton Lane. Co-incidentally it is on the Jordan's Brook site, but hidden by tall fir trees. We buy it off the City Council for £350,000 We get our architect to start detailed planning and set up sub-teams of nurses, professionals etc to develop the 'customer requirements'. Hope to start building by the end of the year. Fundraising to pay for the building still underway. Able to update our website with photographs of the land we have purchased. First sod for our new Nursing Respite Centre cut by a group of our
Children in March. Building work well underway with an outlooked
completion of the end of 2002. Still frantically fundraising to pay for
the building, with projected total costs of over £750,000 Early January and we are preparing our new building for occupation. By
March we have been inspected by OFSTED, and passed. We are now able to
take children on a day-care basis into our new premises which we have
called Kite's Corner. We have started regular sessions for families and
nurses to bring the children to so that they can experience to wonderful
facilities we have. Plans for the Sensory Garden now complete, fundraising well underway,
so building it is started. Our Sensory Garden wins ‘Heart of England in Bloom 2005 Judges Personal Award’ The Glass plaque, certificate and a cheque were presented to Vance Hopkins, Trust Manager by the Mayor of Gloucester, Cllr Lise Noakes. Discussions with another local charity about a possible merger, break down after they find alternative accommodation. Informed by Zurich financial services that our partnership has been extended to the end of 2008. This is good news as it enables us to continue using their staff's skills in skillshare requests. Delighted to hear that we had been chosen as one of the 90 charities to receive £10,000.00 as part of the RBS “Make it Happen” Children’s Charity Awards in conjunction with the readers of the Daily Mail. It was with great sadness that we were told of the loss of Alec Brown who died peacefully at home on 22nd February 2007, on the eve of his 88th birthday. Alec was the artist who painted the wonderful designs of the Gloucestershire area for the Christmas cards and pictures that we sell. Alec was a true friend to the Trust and supported us in many other ways to raise money to help the families that we provide respite care to. He always donated original watercolour paintings to our annual auction which consistently won one of the highest bids of the evening, and more recently he produced a beautiful book of his paintings dedicated to his late wife Machili, donating all the proceeds of the sales to us.
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