Donations to the DebRA charity soared after a Warwickshire Rotary club and Tui UK collected left over foreign coins from flyers.
A staggering £22,000 was raised when the unwanted spare change from passengers returning from their holidays and business trips was collected thanks to a brain wave from David Maugham, President of the Rotary Club of Meriden.
David, who at the time worked for Thomson Holiday in the Foreign Exchange Department at their head office in Coventry, contacted Tui UK (Thomson Holiday’s parent company) to ask whether Rotary could have the proceeds from the 600 collection boxes at Thomson Holiday Shop’s foreign exchange counters.
After a year of collections, the final donation was made to broadcaster and former politician Michael Portillo at the national Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland Conference recently.
David Maugham said: “Two years ago I saw a presentation and video from DebRA. I was so moved by what I saw that I knew that DebRA was the charity I wanted to support in my year as President of the Rotary Club of Meriden. I knew that Thomson was not going to support a national charity that year and so I saw an opportunity!
“At the end of the year I was thrilled to receive a cheque from Tui UK for a staggering £19,300. Adding the sum of £2,700 raised by our club so far this year from other events made up the £22,000 I was privileged to present to Michael Portillo."
DebRA is the national charity working on behalf of people with the genetic skin blistering condition, Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB) – a very rare genetic condition in which the skin and internal body linings blister at the slightest knock or rub, causing painful, open wounds.
06/05/09
