Waste to good wishes: Allwood Recycling Solutions donates to The Lewis Foundation

At A Good Thing we make matches between businesses with items to donate and charities who can re use them. This is one of our recent matches.

A Good Thing helps businesses support incredible causes while saving items from landfill. Recently, Allwood Recycling Solutions, based in Warwick, donated two white desks and three under-desk lockable cabinets through our platform. These much-needed items found a new home with The Lewis Foundation, a Northamptonshire-based charity supporting adult cancer patients.

Sustainability meets social impact

Allwood Recycling Solutions is a leader in the recycling and waste management industry, turning an impressive 60,588 tonnes of waste into valuable resources every year. It helps businesses work towards net zero strategies to support sustainable futures, stating:

“In today’s society, the practices and processes we rely on every day are being reimagined to ensure minimal impact on future generations, and this ethos runs deep within the waste management industry.”

Darren Andrew, Commercial Manager at Allwood, first discovered A Good Thing in a previous role while aiming to build connections with his local charities. He immediately recognised the platform’s alignment with Allwood’s ethos, which is to “protect the environment and promote reuse wherever possible”.

Thanks to Darren’s forward-thinking approach, he’s already looking at more opportunities to give back through our platform.

A gift with purpose

Allwood’s donated furniture went to The Lewis Foundation, a charity that packs and hand-delivers free gift bags to adults undergoing cancer treatment in hospital. The Foundation requested the furniture to be used in a new office space dedicated to preparing these gift packs, which bring so much comfort to patients, as Lorraine Lewis, Co-founder, The Lewis Foundation, explained:

“We will use this furniture for our charity to create office space for us to use for our gift packing for adult cancer patients in hospital.”

What’s inside a gift pack? Essentials like tissues, lip balm, face flannels, toiletries, puzzle books, miniature radios and even sweets. The packs represent small but powerful gestures that make a hospital stay more bearable. And the support doesn’t end there: for some patients, The Lewis Foundation volunteers are their only regular visitors.

Lorraine and Lee Lewis, co-founders of The Lewis Foundation

Here’s what Sarah Evans, one of The Lewis Foundation’s recipients, had to say:

“Thank you all so very much for the last gift bags I received from you. In the last year I have been admitted to Talbot Butler Ward at least five times. Each gift bag I have received during this time has always been very truly gratefully received and very appreciated. The two packs I received (three bags of sweets and a pamper pack) were amazing: words can’t explain how much they were needed and appreciated. They made such a difference to my stay. I had soft tissues, sweets to suck, lip balm, a soft face flannel, moisturiser and other bits to make me feel so much better. Your thoughtful gifts made things so much better for me, so thank you from the bottom of my heart. My long journey in facing this blood cancer (myeloma) will always be made easier by kind, caring, thoughtful people like yourselves and all who help you.”

Founded in April 2016, The Lewis Foundation now has nearly 50 volunteers and delivers over 2,500 gift packs each month to 17 hospitals across the Midlands. All of this is made possible by community support and by donations like Allwood’s.

Spreading the word

A Good Thing first reached out to The Lewis Foundation after hearing about its work with adult cancer patients. We quickly connected with co-founders Darren and Lorraine, offering a donation of journal books from local businesses, which were then used for free journal gift packs for adult cancer patients in hospital.

Lorraine encourages charities and businesses alike to join us:

“From a business perspective, you may have products that you have no purpose for, which would normally just go straight in the bin. That is an easy option. These products can be diverted away from landfill and re-purposed for good, which can actually make a real difference and impact on people in the community. A donation to a charity like ours enables people to feel supported following a cancer diagnosis, and not wallow. It shows the scale of the impact a donation can have in making the work we do possible.”

Lorraine praised our simple matching process and its impact on her local network:

“It’s so helpful when a business and charity can connect, understand one another’s work, and make an impact locally.”

From desk to delivery: A Good Thing

A Good Thing is all about connecting businesses that care with charities that make a difference. Let’s keep the good things coming.

At The Lewis Foundation, a little goes a long way: a donation of £3.60 creates a gift bag! Donate here to make a difference.

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If this has inspired you to learn more about how you can join us in sending less to landfill and more to good causes, then you can find out how we help businesses and charities by clicking the button below.