Warwick children's wishes charity faces demand spike

The charity was founded by the parents of Molly Ollerenshaw, who died after being diagnosed with cancer

A charity says the cost-of-living crisis is making it harder to grant wishes to seriously ill children.

Molly Olly's Wishes supports children with life-limiting illnesses and their families from a base in Warwick.

Co-founder Rachel Ollerenshaw said despite people having less money, donations were still strong, but more people were coming to them for help.

According to health professionals, the charities to which some people normally turned had closed, she added.

Ms Ollerenshaw and husband Tim established the charity in 2011 following the death of their eight-year-old daughter Molly from a rare kidney cancer.

Wishes and requests are granted via a team comprising the couple, their volunteers and four part-time staff.

'Don't want to say no'

"Now suddenly we're getting a huge volume of requests for help," Ms Ollerenshaw explained.

She said: "We kind of said to the health professionals that we were closed for a few weeks in July to try and give us a bit of a break, but actually we still had as many wishes that we would have got done in normal months two years ago - we've had that when we're supposedly closing and saying 'we're not open for wishes'."

She added: "Donations we've kind of been okay for, but actually, because there's been a huge increase in demand and there's also been an increase in the things we need to get to help people, you know, we need to raise a lot more.

"Because they're urgent requests for children that sadly aren't going to be here for much longer, we wouldn't not help them."

She said: "We don't want to have to say no to people, but the rate at which they're coming in we will have to look at that and keep an eye on that carefully."