De Montfort Hall’s pantomime audiences have raised thousands of pounds for a local charity.
Theatregoers donated a total of £6,102 to ADAPT Prembabies, which helps premature babies born in Leicester.
The hall put out a call in December for local charities to apply to hold bucket collections after performances of the family pantomime, Peter Pan.
ADAPT Prembabies is a local small charity which provides support to parents and families with premature and poorly babies that need specialist neonatal care at Leicester Royal Infirmary and Leicester General Hospital. They also provide ongoing care after families have returned home.
Sam Bailey, X Factor winner and star of Peter Pan, said: “Both myself and Martin Ballard had premature babies, so it was an honour to be able to help encourage audiences to dig deep and give something back for the amazing work they do.”
Sue Williams, Trustee and Development Coordinator for ADAPT, said: “We rely solely on charitable donations and the generosity shown by Peter Pan customers is phenomenal and we are blown away. It actually costs us about £3,500 a month to run ADAPT helping over 750 families a year and thanks to these donations we hope to help many more.”
This is the second year that De Montfort Hall supported a local charity, with collections of just over £4,000 in 2017 for The Carers Centre charity.
Antony Flint, General Manager for De Montfort Hall, said: “We chose ADAPT Prembabies as they are a small local charity and we knew that the money raised from the collections would make a big difference to them and the families they support. In the autumn we will open up the process to apply for collections during Aladdin and we will again be looking for a similar sized charity whose primary focus is families. We’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone who donated this year.”
