Six-year-old Dhillon Manku, who aimed to raise £21,000 for a new incubator at Kingston Hospital’s Neonatal Unit has reached his target in just 18 months!
Dhillon who was born prematurely at Kingston Hospital in 2013 to parents Jas and Sharn, and cared for by its Neonatal Unit. When Dhillon was old enough to understand that he himself was born prematurely he decided he wanted to buy an incubator to look after babies just like himself. He has now raised £21,000 to help Born Too Soon who are the charity that supports the Neonatal Unit at Kingston Hospital and has been doing so since 1985. Dhillon wanted to support the charity so that they can help other premature babies the same way it helped him and his parents. Dhillon’s efforts have helped fund the incubator for the unit.
When lock-down was announced, Dhillon had approximately £5,000 left to raise. He knew he would have to find a different way to raise money during the pandemic, so he put his thinking cap on and decided to pitch an idea he had to the Kamani family who are the founders of ‘Pretty Little Thing’ and ‘Boohoo’ as he liked their colourful designs. Dhillon put a video pitch together and shared it with the Kamani family over Instagram. To his amazement he received a message from one of the owners, Aisha Kamani, praising Dhillon on his work and how much they loved his presentation. She then proceeded to tell Dhillon that they will donate the rest of the money he needed for the incubator, and true to their word he has reached his target of £21,000.
Dhillon’s other fundraising efforts included a sponsored swim, which he completed on his fifth birthday and raised £5,000, a coffee morning at his local Starbucks, a golf day raising £700, and he also carried out a ‘sponsored bounce’ at Oxygen Free Jumping trampoline park in 2019 which raised £4,500. Fifty children came along to support the sponsored bounce, who also raised sponsorship money individually to help reach Dhillon’s target. Dhillon then took part in the Richmond Runfest where he raised £2,500, plus £3,500 from various sponsors and supports which he has picked up along his fundraising journey, Metro Bank, Starbucks, Singing Dentist, DadvGirls, Peter Andre, Dr Ranj and Jay Sean to name a few.
