Action for Children’s annual Byte Night event has raised more than £1 million to help vulnerable children and young people living in the Midlands and across the UK. More than 200 technology and business experts in the Midlands bedded down for the night on St Paul’s Square in Birmingham on 2 October, joining almost 1,200 people across the UK for the challenge of sleeping rough to raise vital funds for the charity.
Mike Gibbons, CIO of Aggregate Industries and co-chair of the Byte Night Midlands board, said: “We are proud to have played our part in raising more than £1 million to support Action for Children’s vital work for the third year running as all children and young people should have a safe place to call home. We are already thinking about how we can help even more children and young people by making Byte Night 2016 bigger and better than ever before.”
Byte Night has raised more than £8 million since it launched in 1998. This year, simultaneous sleep outs took place in London, Thames Valley, Cambridge, Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester, Belfast and Edinburgh. The money raised will support services such as the Ladywood Family Centre in Birmingham, an incredibly important local service that helps young people have a safe and loving place to call home.
Sir Tony Hawkhead, chief executive of Action for Children, slept out in Belfast. He said: “It’s a fantastic achievement to hit the £1 million mark again and a huge thanks has to go to everyone that bedded out across the UK as part of Byte Night 2015. This collective effort will help make a big difference to the young people we help who don’t live in a safe and loving home or even have the luxury of returning to their own beds after a night of sleeping rough.
“We cannot rest on this achievement, so we are already working on how we can make Byte Night 2016 an even greater success. With registration already open, I would urge Midlands businesses to make an early New Year’s Resolution and sign up now to join us for next year’s sleep out.”
If you would like to donate to Byte Night and support Action for Children, please text BYTE15 £5 (or the amount you wish to donate) to 70070 to donate £5 to the leading UK charity. To find out more about Byte Night please visit bytenight.org.uk
