Cash quest hits £18,000 mark

Among the guests was Blackpool Mayor Coun Ian Coleman who has adopted Blackpool Carers Centre as his main civic charity for his year in office.

The party, which featured a spectacular themed cake, also celebrated the end of this year’s Cash Quest for Carers.

In three months 24 teams have raised more than £18,000 to fund the Young Carers’ Champion post – handed to Rachel Lambert – and allied services.

The Sandcastle Water Park team, fronted by mascot Bling and marketing lead Mark Wilkins, made the biggest splash, raising £10,000.

Carl Vidoretti, of CV Maintenance Solutions, won the Most Innovative Award after organising a bonus ball draw on social media to win a football shirt signed by Charlie Adam.

Carl and fellow DIY SOS volunteer John Greene have also continued to work at the centre along with others from the programme.

The event featured presentations by staff and heart-warming testimonials by carers of all ages with the warmest applause won by a 13-year-old schoolboy who revealed how alone and broken he felt looking after his mum.

Gazette Best of Health Carer of the Year Adam Simpson also spoke movingly about looking after his wife Laura.

The centre has seen a huge rise in referrals since the award-winning DIY SOS team took on the epic challenge of transforming a derelict landmark property on Newton Drive into Beaverbrooks House – as the new base of Blackpool Carers Centre – in June 2016.

The sheer scale of the task inside and out saw the Big Reveal delayed.

The wraps stayed on – long after the charity had moved in and started to build its own offices upstairs – until the Big Build for Children in Need was broadcast in November.

The help in kind given by 872 individuals and organisations – donating time, services and products to transform Beaverbrooks House – has been valued at £905,275.

And Blackpool’s young carers touched the hearts of 3.9m viewers – who in turn raised almost a third of a million for BBC Children in Need.

It fell to former Young Carers’ Champions Amy Gunniss and Camilla Ball, both trained social workers, to present the charity’s case to the nation.

The charity has provided 4,438 carers with support this year, with 1,008 carers receiving one to one support.

New Young Carers’ Champion Rachel, 26, was born with achondroplasia, a form of dwarfism.

She said: “I don’t think disability should stand in your way.

“If you want to do something find a way of doing it.

“For me, it’s all about being treated equally,”