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One of the UK’s leading paediatric palliative care charities is taking a key service out into the community – thanks to the generosity of its local Mercedes-Benz Vans Dealer.
Representatives of Tŷ Hafan visited the Euro
Commercials showroom in Cardiff, where Managing Director Jeff Carne presented them
with the keys to their new and strikingly-liveried Vito crew van.
Tŷ Hafan
– the name translates literally as Haven House – offers comfort, care and
practical assistance to life-limited children and young people, and their
families.
A compact L1 Vito 119 CDI
Premium model, the van is the subject of a new sponsorship
agreement with Euro Commercials, which singled out this most deserving of
causes for its backing this year.
The charity will use the Vito
to support its successful Stay & Play days initiative. This provides
families with opportunities to access a range of sensory and creative play,
music and complementary therapy.
Historically, Stay & Play
sessions have been delivered at the charity’s children’s hospice in the village
of Sully, Vale of Glamorgan, and at an outreach base in Gwent.
However, as Tracy Jones, its Head of
Community Services & Partnerships, explained: “It has long been Tŷ Hafan’s ambition to extend the
reach of the Stay & Play service, to support other families from across our
catchment area.
“We now have a designated
Mercedes-Benz vehicle with the capacity to take some of our amazing sensory
play equipment and a whole team of specialist practitioners out and about to
community centres across Wales.”
The Vito rides on 17in, multi-spoke alloy wheels and is stylishly finished with colour-coded bumpers and a chrome radiator grille. Its colourful wrap livery was applied by Popin Vehicle Graphics, of Cardiff.
Crucially for Tŷ Hafan, as a crew van it has a second rows of seats, so can carry up to four passengers, while retaining a useful 3.1m3 of load space. TEMPMATIC air conditioning will ensure that its team travel in comfort whatever the weather, while the vehicle’s comprehensive specification also includes a Parking package and electrically folding exterior mirrors.
The range-topping 190 hp output from its 2.0-litre turbocharged engine is transmitted to the rear wheels via a slick-shifting 9G-TRONIC PLUS nine-speed automatic gearbox.
Tracy Jones continued: “We’re so grateful to all at Euro Commercials for this sponsorship. The Vito will make a huge difference in enabling us to bring Tŷ Hafan to the community and closer to the families we support.”
Euro Commercials Managing Director Jeff Carne said: “We considered various local charities that we could potentially support via the supply of a Mercedes Benz van and how that would impact on and benefit the charity.
“Given the amazing work that the team at Tŷ Hafan undertake it was a very easy choice to support and partner this fabulous charity. We are immensely proud that the Vito will take Tŷ Hafan to the community and ensure the Stay and Play service becomes accessible to a much wider audience.
“One of our company values is to ‘make a difference’ and we hope that this small gesture does just that for the children and families that Tŷ Hafan care for and support. The Vito sponsorship is just the start of our relationship with the charity, and members of the Euro Commercials team will also be supporting Tŷ Hafan over the coming months through various fund-raising and volunteering activities.
“We have huge respect for the dedicated team of people at Tŷ Hafan and I am personally committed to ensuring this will be a long standing partnership.”
Tŷ Hafan has supported more than 850 children with life-limiting conditions and their families since it opened in 1999. The charity’s dedicated Care Team offers a broad range of emotional and practical care and its hospice, which is set in beautiful gardens on the bank of the Bristol Channel, is filled with fun and laughter as the children enjoy opportunities to play together and spend precious quality time with their families and staff.
Euro Commercials sells and supports the manufacturer’s award-winning range of Sprinter, Vito and Citan models, which includes fully electric eSprinter and eVito variants, from the UK’s biggest Mercedes-Benz Vans showroom in Cardiff, and its other branches in Swansea and Newport.