When it comes to charitable causes, at Sumo Group, we believe that together we can help more people, and that every small thing we do could help make a big difference.
We want to empower our people to do exactly this by creating opportunities for them to get involved in meaningful projects such as the Care & Connect project run by UK charity Solving Kids’ Cancer.
When our CEO, Carl Cavers, was made aware of the charity that offers national support, access to treatment and research to those dealing with neuroblastoma and their families, it became clear that this was one such opportunity for us to truly make a difference. The charity was in need of a large number of tablet devices for the children and their families for their Care & Connect project to be able to provide the children joy, entertainment, a distraction from their brutal cancer treatment and allow them to feel connected to the world outside the hospital.
Stacey Smith, Head of IT Service Delivery at Sumo Digital’s Sheffield game development studio, stepped up and led by example, her passion shone through as she helped spearhead our recent campaign with the charity.
Stacey felt inspired to help the charity as she has a young child herself and reached out to IT suppliers and the local community to see what could be achieved.
“I was initially approached by Steve Shreeves [Group IT Director at Sumo Group] and also Tim Wilson from Atomhawk [Sumo Group’s design business] who had been working closely with Solving Kids’ Cancer,” said Stacey. “I dared to opt myself in and asked to get involved.
“So as soon as I saw this opportunity to help, I thought absolutely, I'll jump straight in there.
“I got a list of our suppliers and reached out to a few and got a response from some but not others, but that's just the way the cookie crumbles. Fortunately, we've had some very generous donations so far.
“I put a personal pledge out on my social media as well and from that, I was quite kind of overwhelmed at the response that I got from friends and family. I've currently got 18 tablets in my spare room, which people have either bought and shipped to my house or have sent me the money to buy them. I'm just waiting to go into Sheffield to hand those over.”
After just a few months, Stacey now has 100 tablet devices for the charity, which will be used by families across the UK. Sumo’s contribution has allowed the Care & Connect programme to come to life, providing essential support packages for families that, as representatives of the charity have previously said, will be ‘everything that they would need and wish for before they even know they need it’.
"Stacey’s endeavours to provide tablets for Solving Kids' Cancer UK's Care & Connect Support Packs has been incredible and we cannot thank her enough,” said Gail Jackson, CEO of Solving Kids’ Cancer UK. “This is a project we have long dreamed of launching and because of the generosity of people like Stacey, alongside all of the wonderful people at Sumo, we can now make it happen.
“The tablets will provide so much joy, happiness and entertainment to children in their darkest days. It will enable these children to feel connected to the world outside of hospital and more importantly be a distraction from the pain and discomfort of treatment they have to endure. There are around 50 children diagnosed each year with high-risk neuroblastoma, which requires intensive treatment over many months and years – our aim is to get a tablet to each child that has been diagnosed and in active treatment right now, estimated at around 100 in total.
“Thank you, Stacey, from everyone at SKC and all the children and their families who will benefit.”
Please visit www.solvingkidscancer.org.uk for more information about the charity and details on how you can donate.