Team Margot is dedicated to encouraging people to register as stem cell donors as well as supporting people and projects, charities and research related, to bone marrow / stem cell transplants, blood disorders like Leukaemia. The charity will also reach-out to those caring for child cancer patients.
Martini said: “As a family we have taken strength from putting our efforts, both physical and emotional, behind the Team Margot Foundation. As hard as it is, particularly when Margot’s passing is still so raw for us all, it’s important that we focus on celebrating her life, celebrating the level of awareness about this terrible illness Margot generated and most importantly, celebrating the number of lives this on-going campaign will save.
Benevolence
“Early estimates suggest that during our search for a donor for Margot we added over 35,000 people to the stem cell register and raised over £275,000 for Leukaemia related research & charities. This was in large part thanks to the benevolence of those in the trade, particularly the Bridge Walk 2014. The last gathering of this bi-annual charity fundraiser event, was championed by Beds and Bars CEO Keith Knowles, raising a huge sum.”
As the charity is launched, Beds and Bars will begin an awareness initiative - placing the Team Margot Foundation at the centre of its charitable giving.
Chief executive Keith Knowles said: “We as a board don’t just pick a charity. We seek to consult with our team and customers. The decision to support the Team Margot Foundation was a unanimous one, voted for by our employees from across Europe at the 2014 AGM.
“The first step will be to get the awareness campaign and the fund raising for the foundation into all of our backpackers hostels, bars and pubs across seven countries. The step after this will be to extend the awareness drive to our friends at Europe’s Famous Hostels, which will take us into more than a dozen additional countries. Our young and internationally diverse customers are ideal potential stem cell donors, so we’re going to communicate in every way that we can, just how easy it is to register as a donor.”
Awareness
The Beds and Bars fundraising drive for the Team Margot Foundation will centre around key card deposit donations across the St Christopher’s Inns backpacker hostels, in addition to events held in the Belushi’s bars, and traditional pubs.
Travellers checking out of the Beds and Bars backpacker hostels will be given the choice of dropping off their key card in a special check out box, therein waving their key card deposit in favour of Beds and Bars making a donation to their chosen charity – the Team Margot Foundation. Over the past two and a half years a similar Beds and Bars initiative raised tens of thousands of pounds for Build Africa.
In addition to branded key cards, the Beds and Bars websites, e-newsletters, in house notice boards and cutlery sleeves, will carry key awareness messaging.
Support
Martini added: “The family are touched by this gesture from the team at Beds and Bars and hope that it’s the start of a number of different activities across the trade to raise global awareness and encourage donors.
“The support from the pub trade has been fantastic, demonstrated recently with the Bridge Walk in London where £100,000 was raised for both Great Ormond Street Children’s Charity and Delete Blood Cancer UK. It’s worth remembering that the pub trade raises over £100m each year for charity so in many ways, it should be no surprise that we have enjoyed such selfless support from this great industry.
"We are of course so grateful to the Beds and Bars team and also to everyone in the industry for all their wonderful support, fundraising efforts and generous donations. Thank you.”