Brand the Bus - Winner!
We are absolutely over the moon and so grateful to have won this fantastic opportunity to boost awareness for the work of Blue Skye Thinking. There are so many deserving Charities in Oxfordshire, and to have stood proudly alongside many of the big players was an honour indeed. We are thrilled that the Oxford Bus Company have continued with this unique competition to give smaller, but no less significant Charities, the chance to publicise what they do for the community.
Blue Skye Thinking was set up to strive to fill a gaping gap in the funding of paediatric brain tumour research, to support well-being projects at the Oxford Children’s Hospital and to promote awareness of early symptoms parents can look out for.
Fundamentally, we are not tackling a particularly easy subject which is why brain tumours have gained the reputation as ‘the unspoken cancer’. Like many industries, the wonderful medical researchers have taken a huge hit due to the pandemic. We need desperate support now more than ever. However, our approach has always been to conduct ourselves as our son did, with hope, dignity and positivity and we would very much like this to be reflected in the bus design - to inspire, and ‘lift’ people’s spirits in Oxfordshire when they see our bus and to #DREAMBIG whoever you are!
In a statement this morning from Phil Southall, managing director of OBC said “The response to the competition has been overwhelming and is a timely reminder of the good causes in our community, especially during this challenging period. While it remains difficult for transport operators during the pandemic, we felt it was important to maintain the Brand the Bus competition to give something back and continue to support good causes at a time when it is needed more than ever.”
We would like to thank everyone from the bottom of our hearts who took the time to pause from their manic lives to vote for the cause of Brain Tumour Research and the work of Blue Skye Thinking. A huge thank you also, to the dear bereaved families, who contributed a piece of their soul to help us put together our video pitch, I know it was not an easy undertaking. Having so many people support and believe in you drives you to fight on, however difficult that may be at times. We also want to extend a warm thank you to two good friends and exceptionally busy people, Steve Wright from Syndicut and Richard Gillingwater from Emotional Branding in volunteering to help us put our video pitch together.
Together with the Oxford Bus Company, we hope we can come up with a bus design worthy of the cause.
For more information about the work we do, please visit www.blueskyethinking.org
Sally Hall
Director and Founder