Following over 200 nominations from our people, we are delighted to announce our charity partners for 2023/24: the UK-based Children’s Heart Unit Fund (Chuf) and Spanish-based Aladina.

Chuf supports children and families who receive treatment at the Children’s Heart Unit based at the Freeman Hospital, Newcastle, and the many other hospitals providing care for cardiac patients throughout England.

Aladina improves the quality of life of children and teenagers with cancer, providing support to families and collaborating with over 20 public hospitals across Spain.

Over the coming twelve months both charities will benefit from numerous fundraising efforts throughout the year by teams at tombola. We’re delighted that our people have chosen to direct our efforts to two such worthy charities, doing vital work to support families in some of their toughest moments.

tombola has a rich history of supporting charities across the UK and the announcement of our first official partners allows us to focus our efforts to deliver significant and targeted support throughout the coming year.

We also match all fundraising efforts by individual people at tombola, and offer two days paid leave for anyone who would like to complete charitable work in the local community.

Speaking about the partnership, Alicia Clovis-Mothalib, Corporate & Trusts Fundraising Manager at Chuf, said: “tombola’s generous pledge to support Chuf as one of its chosen charities will help us to support Heart Families into 2024 and beyond. We have some very big and exciting plans for the next few years, and having the tombola team on board will help to ensure that we can deliver incredible impact. It’s amazing to have the support of such a prominent international company that prizes its local community, it’s people and their well-being as well as having fun at its heart.

We’re so grateful to several heart parents within the business who nominated Chuf because they experienced first-hand the work Chuf does and chose to share their stories with the rest of the tombola team. We can’t wait to share what tombola gets up to as part of their fundraising activities over the next year.”

Nominations for charities to support were left open to staff at tombola to make suggestions, with several people having previously received direct support from Chuf.

Speaking of his experience with the charity, tombola Chat Moderator, Alex Harker, said: “My son, Teddy, was born last year with only half a heart. He spent the first three weeks of his life in hospital before going back in at two months old for his first open chest surgery. He then underwent open heart surgery at 13 months old and will go back for another before he starts school, eventually needing a heart transplant at some point in his life. 

"Chuf have been amazing to us for since Teddy was born and I know that we're not the only family within tombola that have or know a child with a congenital heart condition, so the opportunity to partner with the charity and give back is an incredible way for us to say thank you for all they’ve done.”