Enjoy a coffee for a good cause

Coffee fans can help a dad raise money for the hospital where his new-born son was cared for.

Luke Underdown, who runs Garage Coffee Roasters in Herne Bay, Whitstable, Canterbury and Margate, has chosen East Kent Hospitals Charity’s Tiny Toes campaign as the firm’s charity until March next year.

Customers are charged 10p for a take-away cup, with the money going towards the special care baby unit at the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital in Margate.

Luke, 31, who lives in Herne Bay, has raised £11,000 since introducing the scheme, and hopes to collect around £3,000 for Tiny Toes.

He said: “We used to give people a discount if they brought in their own take-away cup, but then we realised we could turn it around and add an extra 10p which we would donate to charity.

“It’s amazing to see how all those 10ps add up and it’s a great way for us to be able to say thank you to the hospital teams who looked after my wife Alice and our son Ronnie.”

Ronnie was born five weeks early, weighing just 3lb 14oz, within 15 minutes of Alice arriving at the hospital in October.

He spent two weeks in the special care baby unit before he was able to go home.

Luke said: “Luckily we were already on the way to the hospital as Alice had noticed Ronnie wasn’t moving as much.

“On the way it became clear we needed to get there quickly, and the team found the placenta had started to come away.

“The care they gave was fantastic and he is now doing really well and we are so grateful for everything they did for us.”

For more information on Garage Coffee Roasters visit https://www.garageroasted.co.uk/ and for information on East Kent Hospitals Charity and how you can donate, visit https://www.ekhcharity.org.uk/