Two charities are receiving donations totalling over £18,000 this January, thanks to generous shoppers in Uxbridge.

For the past year, intu Uxbridge has partnered with Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) and Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity, with the aim of helping to raise money for and awareness of their fantastic work through the local community and across the UK.

Through events, collections and fundraising, the shopping centres visitors have helped to raise a huge £10,947 for CRY and £7,470 for Rainbow Trust.

The shopping centre supported a variety of fundraising for both charities throughout 2016, including a CRY Pop-Up Charity Shop in February.

As a patron of CRY, a selection of items from Pixie Lott’s wardrobe went on sale at the pop-up shop, as well as information and merchandise from CRY, raising a total of £2,500 during their week in-centre.

Children’s charity Rainbow Trust, which supports families caring for a child with a life threatening or terminal illness, also led a handful of activities at intu Uxbridge, including Kids’ Club Halloween activities for children.

The shopping centre also treated twenty children supported by Rainbow Trust along with their siblings and parents/carers to a fun day to remember at Port Lympne Zoo in Kent last October.

Across the Christmas period, families also joined in with the festivities at intu Uxbridge including the Christmas Experience.

Young shoppers followed the activities across the centre with their Adventurer Passports before meeting Santa in his Gingerbread House.

Each passport cost £4 per child, with all monies raised split between the two charities, raising a total of £4,815.

Both charities also partook in Christmas Charity Wrapping in-centre, raising further funds.

“It is with heartfelt thanks to our generous shoppers, that we raised such a fantastic amount for two fantastic charities last year,” said Natasha House, Marketing Manager at intu Uxbridge.

“Both CRY and Rainbow Trust undertake amazing and vital work in our community and across the UK, and we are delighted to continue our partnerships with them in 2017.”

Rainbow Trust support families in England who have a child with a life threatening or terminal illness.

The charity has nine teams of Family Support Workers helping families at home, in hospital and in the community, making life a little easier.

Emma Haines, Director of Marketing and Fundraising at Rainbow Trust, said: “We are very grateful to intu and the very generous shoppers in Uxbridge.

"All fundraising efforts such as this enable us to help more families caring for a life threatening or terminal illness.”

With at least 12 young people in the UK losing their lives due to undiagnosed heart conditions, Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) has been working to reduce the frequency of young sudden cardiac death since 1995.

CRY supports young people diagnosed with potentially life-threatening cardiac conditions and offers bereavement support to families affected, as well as funding heart screening programmes and medical research.

A spokesperson from Cardiac Risk in the Young, said: “We would like to thank intu Uxbridge for choosing CRY as one of its charity partners for 2016.

"The CRY team has enjoyed working with intu staff and CRY volunteers and meeting so many intu customers at various events throughout the year.

"The partnership, CRY’s first with a major shopping centre, has given us an excellent opportunity to raise further awareness of CRY’s services, as well as funds for our vital work.

"We look forward to continuing this partnership throughout 2017."

intu Uxbridge will be continuing their partnerships with CRY and Rainbow Trust throughout 2017. For more information visit www.intu.co.uk/Uxbridge.