About Kids' Village
Kids' Village are building the UK's first holiday respite village for critically ill children and their families — a place where, for a wonderful moment, life can be magical again.
Why we need Kids' Village
Critical illness steals a child’s childhood. It silently takes away those unremarkable, everyday things that so many of us take for granted.
The trips to the park. The friends’ birthday parties. Even the school run.
Instead, the child's life revolves around hospitals appointments, treatments, medicines and uncertainty.
And for the parents trying to hold everything together, life quietly stops too. Relationships come under strain. Work becomes impossible. Their social life disappears – and all of it happens while carrying a weight a worry that never quite lifts.
For 99,000 families living in the UK right now, this is every single day.
Kids' Village is there for these families.
Escape to a magical world
Kids' Village are creating something special. Something we’ve never had in the UK before – a place to escape the daily challenges of life, especially built for critically ill children and their families.
Set in the beautiful Staffordshire countryside, just north of Lichfield, it will be a space for the whole family – to enjoy nature, get some rest, have some fun and be spoiled rotten by the Kids' Village team.
It will be a place where “critically ill children” can be just “children” again.
Stays like no other
From the moment a family arrives, Kids' Village pull out all the stops.
They're greeted with warmth and friendship, and shown to their cosy woodland lodge, decorated just for them. There’ll be a special room designed around the child’s dreams: a ceiling that transforms into a night sky, a princess wardrobe to explore, or a Lego kingdom tucked beneath the bed.
Families can choose to explore nature together, join in the super fun activities and events on offer, or head out to nearby attractions where they'll be treated like royalty, with the best seats and fast passes already sorted.
Throughout their stay, Kids’ Village’s team of “Magic Co-ordinators” will make sure that whatever the child loves, is there for them.
But most importantly, families are given the rare and precious feeling of being completely at ease.
A dream come true
Last November, Kids’ Village finally raised the money needed to make the Kids’ Village dream, reality.
Now the very first Kids' Village – named Charlotte's Kids' Village – is being built, just up the road from where we’re running Little Laps, right here in our community.
But this just the start.
They need our help for something even more important.
Making magical memories
Building the village was just the first step.
Filling it with magic, ready for the first families to arrive, is next.
Our First Families Fundraiser is here to help make that happen.
So, every lap you & your lion cubs do around Stowe Pool, every pound raised, helps fund the personalised rooms, the welcome surprises, the Magic Co-ordinators, the trips out and the little touches that make each break feel extraordinary.
You can feel proud knowing that by doing your Little Laps, you're not just raising money.
You're making a lifetime of magical memories for those First Families ♥