Hands up if you love cake. Us too! That’s why a bake sale is the perfect fundraiser to take on for our Small Change Makes a Big Difference campaign this summer.
Brand new to our fundraising calendar, the concept is simple. We believe that small change adds up to make a much bigger impact across our charity, helping to support our vital work and ensuring the UK gets to grips with guts. We’re encouraging supporters to take on simple fundraising ideas from a bake sale or dress-down day to donating the cost of a takeaway coffee and everything in between.
We caught up with Guts UK supporter Amy, who recently ran a bake sale at her workplace, to raise vital funds for our charity. Her top reason for choosing a bake sale? “We love a bake sale at work because you’re getting something for your money. You get a bit of cake that will make you happy, so it’s a nice little reward for your donation.” We can’t say fairer than that, Amy!
Talking about why she wanted to support Guts UK, Amy candidly shared her health problems with us. Having battled cervical cancer at just 20 years old, Amy underwent radiotherapy, which caused complications affecting her bowel and bladder.
“After having cancer, I’ve had all sorts of symptoms from diarrhoea to constipation and everything in between, nobody really labelled it and they put it down to the damage done by radiotherapy.
“I have faecal incontinence and I’m sick every weekend. I can’t eat. I can’t do a lot. In recent years, I’ve had so many tests which have shown I have SIBO, Bile Acid Malabsorption, and a partial blockage.”
With a desire to be able to go on days out and enjoy time with her young daughter, Emily, aged 6, Amy is awaiting surgery for a stoma to be formed. It was whilst researching the procedure that Amy found patient information from Guts UK, followed our Instagram account, and began supporting our work.
Amy has worked at Williams, a plumbing and heating merchant, for over 20 years. She joined the company at age 15, where she began an apprenticeship as an office junior. Throughout the years, Amy has had various roles and is now a commercial assistant.
Amy said, “My workplace is like my family, they’ve practically raised me and have always been so supportive, especially when I had cancer. I’m like an open book, and everyone knows about my issues.
“It was a colleague who first mentioned Guts UK to me, as his wife has pancreatitis. Another colleague has a stoma, and other gut health issues affect our team and their family and friends. We often do bake sales, and we choose a different charity each time. Ahead of my surgery, it felt fitting to choose Guts UK.”
Amy and the team at Williams raised £490 through their office bake sale, which is an incredible amount. We asked Amy what the key to bake sale success is.
“We do the bake sale over two days to maximise profit, and we find people come back the next day and donate again for more cake.
“Lots of emails go out at different intervals to remind people about the bake sale and to check what they’re bringing, so we don’t duplicate. It’s also advertised through posters in our office and in the office building where other businesses are based. We even send a small selection of cakes to the trade counter so any tradesmen who come in can buy a cake too!
We have QR codes to donate so it can be done digitally, plus we don’t price items individually; we ask for a general donation. People will give £20 and then just help themselves throughout the day.
“This is the most successful bake sale we’ve ever done. I think it’s because when you know somebody is going through something and the cause is personal to them, it’s relatable. I do feel like people were more generous because they know my story. It’s not the number of people that took part, it’s that people donated higher amounts because we all know each other.”
We want to say a huge thank you to Amy and everyone at Williams for their amazing fundraising efforts. If you fancy running your own bake sale, remember small change makes a huge difference! A donation of just £30 could fund one hour of research by our early career researchers to better understand how to prevent, diagnose, and treat digestive conditions.
Download our FREE fundraising guide and kickstart your fundraising today.
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