Transforming a tragic story into a positive legacy

Keith Williams, General Manager of JustGiving, looks back at the digital giving revolution

Lisa Wells was diagnosed with terminal bowel and liver cancer shortly after her second daughter was born

As we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Happy List, and the selfless acts of kindness of 50 of the UK’s most inspiring people, I’d like to ask you to cast your mind back to the year 2008.

Forget about what you would have been wearing, or what tragic hairstyle you might have had. I want you to specifically think back to what you would have done if you were faced with a personal crisis and needed to raise funds quickly.

Some of you might have been able to rely on personal savings or receive support from family and friends. But many others were not as fortunate and didn’t even have the means or the know-how to generate that type of help.

A decade ago, you probably would have laughed if I told you that people were more compassionate than you could have ever imagined, and that in the not so distant future, an online community would exist to offer financial support – and that all you had to do was tell your story and simply ask for help.

What I have just described is the result of the digital giving revolution; which has redefined how people ask for help and how others donate to support. At JustGiving we have created a way for you to raise funds for personal causes, we call this JustGiving Crowdfunding. We are so proud to have enabled millions of people around the world to help transform one person’s personal cause into a positive and fulfilling legacy.

Since 2015, JustGiving has supported more than half a million crowdfunders and their amazing stories, and whilst they are all incredible in their own way, we wanted to share with you 10 stories of JustGiving’s past and present that have helped spread happiness and make a real difference to the lives of thousands of people.

1: Lisa Wells (pictured above)

Shortly after her youngest daughter was born, Lisa was diagnosed with terminal bowel and liver cancer. She knew she wouldn’t get to see her girls do the things most mothers would - picking out their wedding dresses, or getting the keys to their first home, but with the help of aptly named #LisasArmy, she has raised £15,000 by doing a 20K walk to raise money to leave them a lasting legacy. Not filled with sadness, but with joy, laughter and love.

2: Helen Brannigan

Primary School teacher Helen, raised £1,025 to help run a primary school for refugee children in Athens. She rollerbladed the entire length of the Bakerloo line, wait for it… covered in marmalade! It took over 6 hours, but thankfully she had time for a quick marmalade sandwich at Paddington station.

£11,535 was raised to help cover the veterinary bills to treat Domino who was attacked in his paddock

3. Ian Ashley and Domino the horse

Ian raised nearly £12,000 to help towards the veterinary bill of Domino (above), a horse that was cruelly attacked in his paddock, leaving him in a critical condition. Thanks to this campaign, Domino has made a full recovery and has been reunited with his owner.

4: Lisa Howells

Lisa met a homeless woman on the street and decided to buy her something to eat. After learning more about her story, Lisa set up a crowdfunding campaign to help make a positive impact to her life. Lisa raised £22,950, which helped the woman find accommodation, pay medical bills and look after her pet dog, who was acting as her unofficial guard dog, whilst living on the streets.

5: Charlotte Chamberlin

After the tragic death of her close friend, Tom, Charlotte ran a marathon, raising £1,457 for the Tom Wilson Memorial Charitable Trust – which was set up to help raise awareness of organ donation and advancing sporting related concussion and head trauma research in Tom’s memory.

6: Samantha Barber and the Manchester Bees

In response to the Manchester Arena attack, Manchester’s tattoo parlours were determined to tattoo as many people as possible with Manchester bees – as a symbol of courage, strength and defiance. Over 10,000 people donated money to the appeal and got their tattoo, raising over half a million for the families affected by the tragedy.

7: Abi Flynn

After being diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, singer Abi, decided to raise funds to help sustain her health and wellbeing, and secure a place to live whilst receiving treatment. During this time, Abi wrote inspirational blogs and performed songs with the aim of spreading happiness and encouragement to those who were also facing emotionally and physically challenging journeys. She also wanted to demonstrate that you can still live a fulfilled and creative life whilst living with cancer.

8: Leila Taleb

Social justice campaigner and graduate Leila Taleb, crowdfunded to help her dreams of becoming a lawyer come true. She raised the bar, after £13,302 was donated to her campaign, enabling her to fund training to become a qualified barrister.

9: Muhammed Haque

After receiving a Stage 4 cancer diagnosis and being told he had a 'small chance of success' Muhaummed raised £63,090 to help fund his immunotherapy treatment which isn’t available on the National Health Service. He’s even written a book about his experience - raising money to save his own life.

The Monger Family set up a JustGiving crowd funder to help fund the care, treatments and therapies Billy requires

10: Billy Monger

Over £755,000 was raised for 17-year-old racing driver Billy Monger (above), who had to have both legs amputated after a high-speed crash. The Formula 4 racer returned to the track with the assistance of Team BRIT, which helps disabled drivers and injured servicemen to compete in motorsport. Billy's appeal became the fastest ever JustGiving fundraising campai​gn.

For more information visit justgiving.com/crowdfunding​. See the Independent's Happy List 2018 here.