Raffle for brave Sheffield girl fighting leukaemia raises thousands

The raffle was drawn at the weekend, with the proceeds of the tickets going to little Heidi Howson, from Orgreave, as she battles leukaemia. Around 150 prizes were donated for the raffle, ranging from a two night stay in a Derbyshire cottage to a six inch reindeer cake.

People that watched on the livestream draw commented that it was the “biggest raffle they’d ever seen”.

The raffled was drawn on Saturday at Dragon Fitness, the gym Heidi’s mum Lucy goes to regularly. The fundraoser was organised by owner Jacqui Thompson-Sheppard.

“It was overwhelming, we had so much support and loads of people tuning in to watch live. It’s been a lot of hard work for myself and Jacqui but it’s been worth it. We’ve made lots of people happy and they all said to us it’s not about the prizes, it was about donating to Heidi,” said the youngster’s mum, Lucy Howson.

“So many people bought tickets and there are all the local businesses that donated prizes as well, we are really grateful to them,” she continued.

One of the top donors was Sheffield’s Manuella Mosca, owner of the women’s clothing brand Sorelle UK.

Others included: Jump Inc, Marie Gregg Illustrator, ACE Makes and Bakes, HP Beauty, Memory Lane Tea Room, LJ’S Balloon Creations and The Glasshouse Hair and Beauty.

Heidi loved being able to take part and even got to draw some raffle tickets herself.

“While she’s been feeling okay she really wanted to take part. She’s in hospital next week so we had to bring it forward a week. She loved seeing who had won what,” said Lucy.

The money will go towards everything Heidi wants to do when she’s feeling better. She is said to be desperate to go to Flamingo Land in Yorkshire and if she’s well enough, a trip to Disneyland might be on the cards too.

“In December we have quite a harsh block of treatment coming up and this raffle has given me something to focus on,” said Lucy.

Heidi was diagnosed with acute B-cell lymphoblastic leukaemia in August, two weeks before her sixth birthday and will spend Christmas in hospital.

Lucy said: “She is like most six year old girls, she is happy, funny, and independent. She knows her own mind. We have a rough month ahead but Santa will find her wherever she is.”