About us
Cards for Bravery is an organisation dedicated to brightening the days of hospitalised and seriously ill children mainly through the distribution of uplifting handmade cards. This makes a huge difference to these children through their most tough and isolating times.
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Beginning through the distribution to one hospital, we have grown over the years to delivering cards to hospitals and children all over the United Kingdom. So far, we have distributed over 20,000 cards and we aim to be able to do even more!
Our Story
Our founder, Katie Callaghan
Cards for Bravery was founded in May 2015 during a four-month-long hospital stay when I was just 13 years old. I was having a difficult time and one day I received a card from a friend which helped to brighten my day and made me smile. After a lot of thinking and a long talk with the head play specialist at my hospital, I decided I wanted to start making positive handmade cards for other hospitalised and seriously ill children. I had been wanting to do something to help other unwell children for a while and this just seemed like the perfect idea. From then on, I started my journey to create Cards for Bravery to brighten the days of other hospitalised and seriously ill children and young people in a similar situation as mine.
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I understand how difficult it is to be a kid or young person in hospital especially for long periods of time as you can often feel isolated, forgotten, lonely or scared as the world goes by and you are missing out on most things other children would take for granted such as going to school or hanging out with friends.
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A handmade card is something so simple, yet can help an unwell child feel positive, happy and remain strong as well as really brighten their day and remind them someone is thinking of them! We are starting new projects all the time. Most recently we have started organising Activity Packs for hospitalised children and teens. We have distributed thousands of cards and every day it makes me so happy that I can make a difference to thousands of hospitalised and seriously ill children and young people.
I am always amazed by the massive amount of help and support I get from the public for this organisation - we would not be able to run Cards for Bravery without your support! Together, we can and will make a difference to hospitalised and seriously ill children.