BLISS, the premature baby charity, is delighted with the progress of its Precious Star Fund programme. They established the scheme less than a year ago and already one of the Funds has reached the £5,000 level, at which point a star in the sky is named after the baby remembered by the Fund.

Rachel Beckett, Individual Giving Manager, told us: "This programme has been so well received by our donors. They really love the idea, and many of those fundraising for their Precious Stars seem to be finding it a very positive experience. One of our Funds has even had a website built specially to help the family raise more money" (Joshua Star Fund).

Interestingly, not all the Precious Star Funds have been established in memory of premature babies, as you might expect, reflecting the broad appeal of this idea to BLISS donors. This is one of the reasons that the Funds are given a nice prominent spot on the BLISS homepage and this is the source of many of their enquiries.

Rachel concluded, "I feel that the Precious Star Fund scheme gives something back to our donors that they really value. I'm confident that by this time next year there will be a whole constellation of our Precious Stars in the sky!"

Clare Hallsworth