The Festival Charity - Reuben's Retreat

Reuben's Retreat was founded in 2012 following the heartbreaking loss of 23-month-old Reuben Graham to an inoperable brain tumour. Unable to donate his organs, Reuben's Mummy, Nicola, established the charity to ensure that his short life had a meaningful impact. She raised £1 million in just 23 months and earned many accolades for her dedicated efforts. Utilising these funds, the charity acquired the abandoned Woods Hospital in Glossop in 2014 and has been renovating the facility in phases since then. Our activity wing is now complete, and we are currently fundraising to convert the rest of the Retreat into fully accessible holiday apartments for our beneficiaries to enjoy.

Our mission at Reuben's Retreat is to provide practical and emotional support to families caring for a child with medical complexities and to alleviate the grief experienced by parents who have suffered the loss of a child. We do this by walking side-by-side with our families, cocooning them in the sanctuary of Reuben's Retreat, underpinned by our army of love and compassionate hearts.

We enable those facing an uncertain future to create treasured memories away from clinical settings. Our activity wing houses a hydrotherapy pool, sensory area, movie room and playroom and we also facilitate art, animal, and music therapies. We hold large scale and seasonal events such as Santa’s grotto, teddy bears picnic, pumpkin patch and parties. We connect those walking a similar path by holding regular peer support groups for parents and siblings.

For those bereaved of a child, our services include, one-one counselling, weekend rambles, holistic therapies, a variety of peer support groups and special memorial events such as our annual dove release.

To date we have touched the lives of over 1600 beneficiaries.

To find out more about our beautiful work, Our website is www.reubensretreat.org and we can be found @reubensretreat on all social media platforms.

Evie's Artwork

Xmas Event

Dove Release