Doncaster cancer charity Firefly presented with prestigious honour from King Charles

Firefly Cancer Awareness and Support has been presented with The King’s Award for Voluntary Service – the highest award a local voluntary group can receive in the UK, equivalent to an MBE.

Supporters gathered for a special ceremony at the city’s Eco-Power Stadium where representatives of the King were on hand to present the glittering honour.

The Firefly charity was founded in 2006 by Denise Dunn after her personal experience with cancer.

It helps local people in their time of need, making a difficult time a little easier, providing free transport to cancer appointments across the region.

Firefly is now run by Dee’s fiancé Ian “Chewy” Bacchus and close family friend Paul Taylor after Dee passed away in 2014, with a promise to Dee to keep her legacy running.

Through a team of volunteers, a suite of 12 Firefly Express vehicles provide free transport to local cancer patients and their families in the borough of Doncaster to regional treatment hospitals. The charity currently has a fleet of eight vehicles to cope with the ever-increasing requirements.

Earlier this year, the charity teamed up with The Doncaster Free Press to launch Mission Firefly, a £25,000 fundraising campaign to purchase a new vehicle for the organisation.

You can find more details of our campaign and how to make a donation below.

A Firefly spokesperson said: “This is the first time in Firefly's history that so many members of the Firefly family came together under one roof to celebrate this great achievement.

“I would like to thank everyone in attendance and hope you all enjoyed the day.

“To top it all the sun was out in force and added to the occasion.”

Firefly was one of 262 local charities, social enterprises and voluntary groups to receive the prestigious award this year.

Their work, along with others from across the UK, reminds us of all the ways fantastic volunteers are contributing to their local communities and working to make life better for those around them.

The King’s Award for Voluntary Service aims to recognise outstanding work by local volunteer groups to benefit their communities. It was created in 2002 to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee and, following his accession, His Majesty The King emphasised his desire to continue the Award.

Representatives of Firefly received the award crystal and certificate from Professor Dame Hilary Chapman DBE.

In addition, two volunteers from Firefly were picked to attend a garden party at Buckingham Palace in May and June, along with other recipients of the award.

For further information about Firefly visit www.firefly-support.co.uk

Here’s how you can support our Mission Firefly appeal

Money has started coming in for our ambitious appeal to raise £25,000 to buy a new vehicle for Firefly Cancer Awareness and Support.

Your Doncaster Free Press is counting on you, our readers, to dig deep and support the organisation which provides vital transport for cancer patients across Doncaster and beyond with our Mission Firefly campaign.

Founded in 2006 by the late Denise Dunn following her own cancer battle, the Firefly Express provides FREE transport to local cancer patients and their families across the city to regional treatment centres using a team of volunteer drivers.

But delivering such a vital service doesn’t come cheap – and that’ why we are calling on you, our readers, to back our fantastic fundraising campaign.

And we want you to tell us all about what you are doing to raise funds too!

We want to raise a whopping £25,000 so Firefly can purchase a new, second hand vehicle to add or a replace a vehicle in its fleet and keep its much-needed and essential service running.

Drivers work hard – and the vehicles work even harder, clocking up thousands of miles each year, zipping patients and their families across the region for treatment.

The project, now in the hands of Denise’s partner Ian Bacchus and friend Paul Taylor following her death in 2014, is determined to keep its fleet of vehicles running – and our campaign aims to boost their service even more.

Ian, known as Chewy, said: “The Firefly Express vehicles provide free transport to local cancer patients and their families in the borough of Doncaster to regional treatment hospitals, using our fantastic team of volunteer drivers.

"We currently have a fleet of 12 vehicles to cope with the ever-increasing requirements.

"Firefly help local people in their time of need, making a difficult time a little easier.

“Firefly is about life – living it to the full, and enjoying every second of it.

"We want to remove the stigma and embarrassment of personal cancer problems in young men and women, giving them the confidence to communicate with friends, family and health professionals should the occasion arise.”

He added: “Using our personal experiences, we are determined to change the journey for cancer patients while raising awareness, particularly amongst young people, to spot the signs before it advances.”

We want to raise enough cash so Firefly can purchase a new or replacement seven seat vehicle to keep the trips up and running, with the vehicle fleet doing as much as 6,000 miles a week.

A huge team of 70 volunteer drivers can carry as many as 80 patients a day – and a dedicated maintenance team make sure the vehicles are kept in tip top shape. Trips from Doncaster head to treatment centres in Sheffield such as Weston Park, The Royal Hallamshire and Northern General – with drivers whisking patients from their doors straight to the hospital, before returning them home afterwards.

All you have to do is scan in the QR codein this story to make your donation and get the ball rolling on our campaign to buy a new vehicle for Firefly.

So get scanning, get donating and do your bit to help support our campaign and a fantastic Doncaster charity.

And if you are organising a fundraising event, please contact our campaign reporter Darren Burke via [email protected] and we’ll give you a shout out to your fundraising efforts.