THE PLATFORM PROJECT GOES ORANGE FOR THE KIT TARKA FOUNDATION HELPING TO PREVENT BABY DEATHS

The team at Swindon’s Platform Project are supporting a ‘Go Orange’ fundraising campaign for the Kit Tarka Foundation and have to date raised more than £1000.

A team of interns at The Platform Project have arranged several fundraising activities including a sponsored 200 metre ‘dino obstacle race’ with participants dressed up as giant dinosaurs, a cake sale and a 13 mile hike across the Ridgeway undertaken by youth worker, Phoebe Jerman.

In addition to this, they are setting up an online gallery, which will showcase some of their work around the fundraiser from artwork to poetry and they have also designed t-shirts that will be sold with all proceeds going to the Kit Tarka Foundation.

The Kit Tarka Foundation works to prevent new-born baby deaths; primarily through raising awareness of neonatal herpes (HSV Type 1), also known as the cold sore virus. The virus is found in 70% of adults and, although often asymptomatic, is fatal when passed on to babies. 

Sadly, in February this year, Fiona Simpson, a part-time youth development manager at The Platform Project, lost her nephew, Joshua, to the virus at just eight days old.

Fiona Simpson said: “I’ve been overwhelmed by the support of the interns and our ever-growing team of staff who have been extremely supportive with this fundraiser. The interns decided to support this charity as part of their social impact project, which is one of the many projects they work on whilst they are on their internship program.”

The Platform Project, based in the Dorcan area of Swindon, is now in its fourth year and is a social enterprise that runs developmental internships to help prepare young people between the ages of 16-21 for the work environment and take their next steps into a career. 

Fiona and The Platform Project team hope that their fundraising efforts will not only help raise money for the Kit Tarka Foundation but, more importantly, raise awareness of something that very few people know anything about. Donations can be made here https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/ThePlatformGoOrange

*There are various images of the team of the team at The Platform Project taking part in obstacle races to raise money for the Kit Tarka Foundation in memory of baby Joshua.

For more information about Kit Tarka, please go to https://www.kittarkafoundation.org/.

To find out more about The Platform Project and their internship program, you can go to: https://www.platformproject.co.uk/internships