Cheltenham Festival raised nearly £200,000 for WellChild charity

The Cheltenham Festival raised nearly £200,000 for the charity WellChild.

The four-day meeting, held last week, featured the new link-up with The Jockey Club track.

For the first time, the WellChild Gold Cup was staged, which was won by the Henry de Bromhead-trained Minella Indo.

WellChild's vision is for every child and young person living with serious health needs to have the best chance to thrive.

Over 100,000 children and young people are living with such illnesses or exceptional health needs across the UK.

Colin Dyer, WellChild Chief Executive, wrote an open letter of thanks to the racing community in response to the support from Cheltenham.

"Quite simply, Thank You!" he said.

"Last week The Festival at Cheltenham was run in support of WellChild thanks to a ground-breaking partnership created by The Jockey Club and supported by thousands of people from across the racing community.

"Like so many of you, I watched the outstanding Festival coverage on ITV which, through host and WellChild Ambassador Ed Chamberlin along with fellow Ambassadors Oli Bell and Sir AP McCoy and the whole team, allowed the WellChild message to reach millions of people around the world.

"Ed, the team at The Jockey Club, and others close to WellChild had told us in the build up to The Festival just how generous and warm the racing community is – but even that didn’t prepare us for the overwhelming response we have had over the past few days and weeks, an incredible and much-needed boost at such an important time.

"WellChild is a voluntary-funded charity based in Cheltenham. We work across the UK with some of the country’s the most seriously ill children and young people. Like so many other organisations, the Covid-19 pandemic hit us hard, threatening more than 60 per cent of our regular income and creating unprecedented demand from families caring for children with exceptional health needs.

"A remarkable number of people have reached out in the past week, and we are close to £200,000 already raised from The Festival partnership (and counting) – all of which will go towards the support services we have in place for some of the most vulnerable in our society.

"From everyone at WellChild, we can’t thank the racing community enough for coming together to support us in this way and making such an incredible impact for thousands of families. The legacy of this partnership will last for many years to come."

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