Barton Grange Garden Centre supports Preston disability charity this Christmas

Skiggle co-founder, Christine Singleton Pic: Lakes PR Ltd

For the second Christmas running, Barton Grange Garden Centre is helping to raise much-needed funds for Preston-based disability charity Skiggle.

Skiggle first partnered up with Barton Grange in 2021 with a desire to raise awareness of people living with disabilities and make sure their voices were being heard. A Christmas bell bauble was conceived, and due to its success, has been extended this year to raise funds for even more charities.

Skiggle – the only charity of its kind in the UK – provides vital help and support to people with disabilities, their families, and carers. The innovative charity operates an emergency SOS system and runs an online Marketplace for people to urgently access specialist disability equipment, care consumables, and other products – regardless of where they live in the UK.

The unique charity was founded by Christine Singleton and Helen Taylor when Christine urgently needed to get hold of spare milk feed for her profoundly disabled son, James. Being away from home, she had nowhere to turn and didn’t ever want to imagine other people experiencing the same feeling of panic and distress in future similar situations. Hence the concept of developing Skiggle – a community of members who share or gift, unused, unopened items to those in need.

Christine said: “All charities are experiencing extra tough times at the moment with so many people impacted by the rising cost of living. We are all being affected by reduced income and donations whilst our operating costs and SOS messaging costs are continuously rising. This comes at a time when people need Skiggle’s help more than ever.”

A combination of stock shortages, enduring challenges faced by Covid and Brexit, plus the increased cost of living, has seen demand for Skiggle’s services jump exponentially in the last two years. People living with all kinds of disabilities as well as those caring for people with other health issues such as dementia are increasingly turning to Skiggle for products – everything from feed to incontinence pads.

Christine added: “Having the support of the amazing people at Barton Grange for the second Christmas in succession means the world to us. We’ve visited their sparkling Christmas wonderland as a family for many years and if we could encourage visitors this year to add an extra charity bell to their shopping, a small disability charity would be hugely grateful.”

£2 from the purchase of every Skiggle Christmas bell at Barton Grange Garden Centre will be donated to the disability charity. Bells can also be purchased directly from Skiggle’s website.

Have you bought one of the Skiggle Christmas bells? Let us know in the comments.