Day for Life provides practical support to thousands

Thanks to the generosity of parishioners up and down the country who gave to the Day for Life collection last year, Life, the charity dedicated to helping and supporting thousands of men and women through its work in Caring, Education, Housing and FertilityCare has just received a cheque for £70,000.

The Right Reverend Bernard Longley, Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster and Bishop for Day for Life visited the Life House in Dartford last week to present the cheque. There he was able to spend time with current and former residents of the house, including a nine month old baby boy called Jason and his mum, Katie. The Dartford house provides accommodation and support to pregnant women and mothers of small children ­ helping them move towards independent living.

"It is important to acknowledge that it is only through the generosity of parishioners up and down the country that we are able to be here today and to offer our Day for Life donation - we are only really a channel ­ a channel between the generous parishioners and people who contribute to the Day for Life collection each year and the organisations, families and individuals who most need and deserve the Church's support," said Bishop Longley who went on to explain to Life representatives why the charity was chosen. "Last year's day, (the Day for Life 2007 collection is being distributed now), focused on helping people understand why the Church is opposed to abortion and at the same time, highlighted the many different ways in which the Church supports organisations and people who give practical, spiritual and emotional support to women who face difficult decisions about the life of their unborn child. Day for Life supports Life because we believe that you provide that practical care and emotional support to women and babies in need. We would like to say thank you for all the work that you do in Life Caring, Life Education, Life Housing and the FertilityCare Programme."

At the presentation, Chief Executive of Life, Martin Foley said: "We are tremendously grateful to Catholic parishioners throughout England and Wales for generously supporting Day for Life. We intend to use the funds right across the country to support various Life projects. As you can imagine there is quite a call on the funds - some of the money will be used to help renovate the gardens in our Life houses and to install play equipment to make our houses real homes from home; some will be used to support some new care initiatives we are launching in the Midlands and the South East; and some will be used to support our education programme in schools ­ right across the whole range of Life Services. I would just like to reiterate how enormously grateful we are to the Church for remembering us through Day for Life."

Last year's Day for Life aimed to explain why the Church opposes abortion and at the same time highlighted the practical care and emotional support offered to women and babies in need. Proceeds from the Day for Life 2007 collection held in parishes in England and Wales have been given principally to Life and the Linacre Centre for Healthcare Ethics; £25,000 was also donated to Ethical Stem Cell Research and a series of smaller grants will also be given to life related charities ­ these will be publicised in the coming weeks.