A Wishaw kids charity boss has told of his sleepless nights following a decision to cut back on the number of children it can help due to COVID.
Les Hoey and his DreamMaker Foundation team made the gut wrenching decision to focus only on children with cancer and leukaemia due to the lack of funds.
During the pandemic the charity has been forced to cancel numerous fundraisers and collections as well as calling off numerous events since March last year.
Les told Lanarkshire Live : “We’ve been left with no option. We have to cut back due to COVID.
“It has been so hard to raise funds, an example of this was the recent Kiltwalk.
“In the past funds raised were between £50,000 and £60,000 but this year it was just over £20,000.
“We were very thankful for it but it does show what we are up against.
“There has been a few sleepless nights over this.”
In a statement on the charity’s Facebook page, the DreamMaker Foundation stated: “Previously we tried to support every child with a life threatening illness that applied to us.
"Unfortunately the past year has shown us this is not something we can continue to sustain.
“We have over 400 children registered with us and expect a lot more children that have been diagnosed in the past year to apply to us once we are able to accept new applications again.
“So unfortunately some of the children who have already benefited from our charity over the past seven years will no longer be able to benefit.
“Children with cancer, will always be our top priority as that is where it all began all those years ago but we also have other illnesses that will still be able to support in some way.”
Despite having to make the difficult decision, Les remains convinced that DreamMaker will be back bigger and better than ever once COVID restrictions are lifted.
This includes moving the charity’s base to a more central location in Wishaw town centre.
“We will be back stronger than ever,” added Les.
“I have no doubt about that.
“We are hopeful of moving into new premises over the next few weeks. That will help us with our costs.
“If we can get restrictions lifted then we can get back to getting the kids to concerts or meeting their favourite footballers.
“I’m really hopeful of having her Christmas party and we have already people saying that they will be organising events and nights to help us.
“We continue to get great support.”
