In drawing up our plans for our The fabl party on Monday, January 23rd, it was collectively decided that as well as sharing our good fortune (i.e. having a job, working in a lovely location) with our network of clients and suppliers, we ought to reach further afield. In others words, have fun at the party but do something charitable at the same time to help those less well off.

Now when it comes to charities and putting your hand in your pocket to divvy up your spare change, where do you draw the line? In fact, where do you even start? From the St Joseph’s Penny box to sponsored skips and non uniform days, my little boy is forever coming home from school with requests for money for good causes.

My hubby loves watching Sky Sports but I always seem to catch those heart-rending ‘infomercials’ that ask for help in saving the snow leopard from extinction or feature an earnest Ewan McGregor in his UNICEF T-shirt appealing on behalf of East Africa’s starving children. Plastic collection bags requesting donations of clothes, shoes, bedding etc from the likes of the NSPCC and North West Air Ambulance are forever coming through my letterbox and there’s nearly always someone with a collecting tin in the foyer of my local Tesco. How do you decide which cause(s) to support without bankrupting yourself?

As far as The fabl goes, we’ve decided to support a charity called Whizz Kidz. As some of you may know, our leader Mags‘ daughter Katie has cerebral palsy and needs a wheelchair. Whizz Kidz works to provide disabled children and young people with the right chair – a lightweight manual wheelchair or a powered wheelchair they can move around in independently to have fun and enjoy a better life as opposed to the bulky, heavy NHS versions that have to be pushed by someone else. It also lobbies Government and campaigns for reform in NHS wheelchair policy. Apparently, there are currently 70,000 UK youngsters stuck in the wrong chair.