All proceeds from the raffle at The Greats Awards event go to The Light Fund charity body.

What's It All About?

The Light Fund is the industry's umbrella charitable body that raises funds for specific charity projects covering children, women and men.

Since its inception The Light Fund in 2004, it has raised well over £270,000 for a number of charities including The Children's Trust, Teenage Cancer Trust Hospital, Multiple Sclerosis Resource Centre, Cancer Backup, The Orchid Trust and Prostate Cancer Care.

The Light Fund was set up five years ago, spearheaded by Max Publishing directors Jakki Brown and Ian Hyder. Together with a group of like-minded people from the licensing and greeting card industry they set about raising funds for specific charity projects covering the children, women and men.

Above: Some members of The Light Fund visited The Children's Hospital recently to witness first hand what great use the monies raised had been used for and to present a cheque to the charity.(Right-left) Jakki Brown (LSB), David Scott (Rainbow Productions), Alison Pilgrim (Golden Bear), Ian Downes (Start Licensing), Ian Hyder (LSB) with Angie Turner of The Children's Trust.

Everyone gives their time for nothing and there are no admin charges - meaning all the money we raise goes direct to the causes. Over the last year alone The Light Fund raised over £110,000 which funded some fantastic projects:

2008 Beneficiaries
The Children’s Trust	£30,000 - for a special playground
The Orchid Cancer Appeal Campaign	£15,000 - for a male cancer awareness campaign
Multiple Sclerosis (MSRC) specialist equipment	£17,000 - for a film about MS and some
Kidscape	£10,350 - for anti-bullying workshops
Teenage Cancer Trust Hospital	£20,000 - for a waiting area in Manchester
Guide Dogs for the Blind	£5,000 - for a guide dog puppy, Eddy
Douglas Bader Foundation days	£5,000 - for disabled children's flying
TOTAL	£102,350

Above: LSB's Ian Hyder (right) and Rainbow's David Scott tried out a soft play unit at The Children's Trust for the severely handicapped children which was paid for by The Light Fund

Above: The Light Fund has also paid for the publication of a number of Cancer Backup's booklets on various aspects of female cancers.

Above: Cancer Backup's TIC website, which is partly funded by The Light Fund, provides help, advice and social networking for teenage cancer sufferers.

The Orchid Trust - where it has funded the production of Know Your Balls, a DVD on testicular cancer as well as a resource pack for schools and colleges.

We raise the funds through organising impressive raffles and auctions at Max Publishing's industry awards events (The Henries, The Licensing Awards, The Retas and The Greats). These mega nights are attended by retailers, manufacturers and those from the licensing industry.

We also organise an annual, legendary Quiz Night in London each Autumn and this year held another Quiz Night event in Manchester. In addition, in May 2008 a foolhardy (but fit) team undertook to swim around Malta and its neighbouring islands in order to raise funds for The Light Fund.

For more information on The Light Fund contact either Ian Hyder or Jakki Brown at The Licensing Source Book (founders of The Light Fund) on 020 7700 6740 or ianh@max-publishing.co.uk or jw@max-publishing.co.uk, Trevor Jones at Danilo (who is the current Chairman of The Light Fund) on 01992 702900 or trevor@danilo.com