Alan Shearer, Malmaison and Hotel du Vin bring Sunshine to the North

Written by James Gadsby-Peet 8th February 2010

Variety Club supporters Malmaison and Hotel du Vin have presented their second Sunshine Coach to the pupils of Barndale House School, Alnwick. The hotels have raised the money needed for the specialist minibuses with the Variety Club through a number of fundraising events and staff initiatives.

On hand to unveil the brand new 13 seater coach was Newcastle legend, football pundit and friend of Variety Club, Alan Shearer.

You can see what this means to the kids. They were really excited when I handed over the keys and they loved getting their picture taken. I am never tired of doing things like this, it's always a pleasure. It's just my way of trying to give something back to society.

Alan Shearer

Barndale House caters for pupils with a statement of special needs. These include severe learning difficulties, profound and multiple learning difficulties, social emotional and behavioural difficulties, speech and communication difficulties, hearing impairment, visual impairment, multi-sensory impairment, physical needs and autism. 16 of the pupils are residential. Their minibus will be relied upon for every day activities and their retiring Coach has become a lifeline for pupils.

The bus will be in constant use for a range of activities. During the school day the bus will be used to take the children on educational visits and it will be used on evenings and weekends by our respite facility. As a school we could not afford to buy a new bus and the old one was looking a bit tired. It's great that the charity and hotels have been able to help us out

Les Gair, Headteacher of Barndale House

Hotel du Vin and Malmaison are part of the AHG/MWB Group who are massive supporters of The Variety Club's work. In the 9 months since our partnership started, the Group has already raised over half a million pounds to help fund our vital support for sick, disabled and disadvantaged children and young people across the UK.

I am delighted that the bus was given to this school. The work they do is fantastic, they give kids a really good life. The children leave the school very happy.

Robert Cook, Chief Executive of Malmaison & Hotel du Vin