Charlotte Anson, Birmingham Press Club chairman and Heart breakfast show presenter Ed James (centre), and Birmingham Airport chief executive Paul Kehoe line up to provide a timely reminder that guests at the Press Club’s annual Midlands Media Awards on September 10th will be asked to support Acorns Children’s Hospice.

Birmingham Airport is headline sponsor of the awards and charity partner of Acorns, which will benefit from the proceeds of the event’s raffle.

“Last year the Media Awards raffle raised £1,340 for Acorns and we would love to at least equal that total again,” said Paul, who added that during the last 18 years, the airport had helped raise over £52,000 for the charity.

Acorns, which has hospice facilities in Selly Oak, Walsall and Worcester serving the areas of Birmingham, Coventry & Warwickshire, Walsall, Sandwell, Dudley, Wolverhampton, Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, Staffordshire and Shropshire, provides palliative care to life limited or life threatened babies and young people and support for their families. Since being formed in 1988 it has helped over 2,200 children.

The organisation needs £8.8 million a year to maintain its present level of service – each of its three bungalow-style 10-bed hospices costing £7,500 per day to run. The majority of the money is provided through the community – from charity partners, such as Birmingham Airport and Aston Villa FC, and by members of the public through their own fund-raising activities.

“Without their help it would be impossible to carry on our work,” said Charlotte, who is Acorns’ corporate partnerships officer.

She added that Acorns was further supported by a loyal network of more than 2,000 volunteers, who also manned its 55 retail shops and helped with fund-raising activities.