#WonderwomanWednesday This weeks Wonder Woman Wednesday is an incredibly special one! You might remember us asking you to nominate your Wonder Woman a few weeks ago, when we popped for a coffee with Bundles of Joy founder Claire Raper we realised we were in the presence of one of life's rare gems! You see Claire has always been in roles involving helping others, starting out as a doula and then going on to completing her doula UK training. She was volunteering at the Goodwin trust when she was informed of a young couple expecting a baby who needed help to get prepared but as they lived outside of Hull there was no funding to support them. So using her initiative Claire decided to pop a post on her personal Facebook page to ask for help and was inundated with offers of items to be donated. So literally overnight Claire decided to start up a charity in order to be able to help more people. In fact when showering the following morning she decided that Bundles of Joy was a perfectly fitting name for a charity that helped vulnerable families in the local community. At only a year old the charity have now helped over 153 families and counting since January alone! This couldn't be possible without the generous donations from the public and local companies. Claire decided to self fund the charity for the first five months, working up to 40 hours a week herself yet to this day she doesn’t pay herself a wage. Even though she's not a fan of flying alongside six friends Claire did a skydive in May to raise £3000 for the charity! She is a mother of three: Jack 15, Katy 9 and Freddie 6, the family also have a dog, two cats and yet Claire keeps everything afloat at home whilst running the charity. She gets a huge amount of support from husband Mark, whom she couldn’t manage without! The charity has 2 other trustees........ one of which is Claire’s proud mum and the other has become Claire’s right hand woman. Clare from Hessle is also a mum of 3 and Claire says “Clare J goes above and beyond any volunteering role and without her i wouldn’t have achieved as much as I have, she equally deserves recognition too”. Both ladies work again voluntarily over 20 hours a week, they are the backbone of support and together as a team have achieved something quite phenomenal. Since It's set up Bundles of Joy have helped so many families with things ranging from prams, cots and toys to toiletries, Moses baskets and clothing for babies and children. This year Claire received the Heart of East Yorkshire Award after receiving nominations based on the selfless work she does daily. All of this and so much more is why Claire is our Wonder Woman of the Week! If you would like to volunteer you can contact Bundles of Joy directly via their Facebook page. If you would like to donate their unit address is in the comments, double buggies and cots are in very short supply at the moment, however any donation no matter what is always gratefully received.
