Family’s £2,861 Catch For Sick Kids

A Black Country father, his family and a group of keen fishing friends were named Charity Champions after reeling in over £2,861 for Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity at an annual memorial fishing contest, in honour of his son.

Simon Wilkes and his family, from Brierley Hill, have been organising the yearly match, held at Elmbridge Fishery, since 2018, after his son, Olly, tragically passed away at just 22-years-old.

Olly had shared in his dad’s passion for the lakeside sport so for Simon, it felt only right that one of the ways he, his family and friends should honour Olly’s life, was with a fishing contest to raise funds for various worthy causes in his name. Every year, up to 32 fishing enthusiasts come together to cast off in the hope of landing the heaviest catch.

Along with his wife, Lynn, and son, Ben, Simon chose Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity to benefit the anniversary event. It’s a cause close to the family’s hearts as Lynn was treated at the hospital as a child 52 years ago.

More recently, in 2013, Simon was diagnosed with a rare blood cancer called Myelodysplastic Syndrome. He began actively encouraging young people to sign up to join a stem cell register and continued this drive at a football tournament in Olly’s memory, at St George’s Park last year. Simon invited Hagley youngster, Finn Hill, affectionately known as ‘Finn the Fabulous’, who has a rare immune disorder called Familial Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis, to be their guest of honour.

Having spent many months recovering from two life-saving stem cell transplants and receives ongoing care at Birmingham Children’s Hospital meeting Finn, further inspired Simon and his family to support the hospital.

Simon said: “Not a day goes by where we don’t think about or miss our Olly so our annual fishing contests are really special events for our family and to see them grow every year warms our hearts. Our first contest raised £350 so to count almost £3,000 raised in Olly’s name this year just means so much. We can’t thank everyone enough for taking part.”

“We’d also like to share our gratitude to Soffio Lounge cafe-bar in Stourbridge and the loyal customers of The Vine Inn in Lyde Green for supporting us with extra fundraising at their venues.”

Annie Eytle, Head of Public Fundraising at Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity, said: “It’s a true honour to be part of the way a loved one is remembered so we’re humbled to have been chosen by the Wilkes family to benefit from this year’s fishing contest in Olly’s memory.

“Simon, Lynn and Ben chose to donate the incredible funds their friends and family raised to our iMRI Appeal, thanks to which, we can bring intraoperative MRI technology to our hospital to transform life-changing brain surgery for children with brain tumours and epilepsy.”