About Karis May Darling and her charity
The Karis May Darling Foundation was formed in memory of Karis May Darling, the girl who saved five lives and continues to inspire more every single day.
Karis was a wonderful girl who loved performing arts and sports, so our mission is to give back to children just like Karis by providing support for underprivileged children in sports & performing arts to help them achieve their aspirations. We are also committed to raising awareness for organ donation, as Karis saved five lives and we encourage others to find out more about how organ donation can save lives.
We are proud to have sponsored many local sports teams & clubs with new kits, equipment and monetary donations. We have formed strong relationships with the local schools in Thurrock and have donated laptops, iPads and vouchers throughout the year. We also like to ensure that less fortunate families have Christmas gifts and essential food parcels that schools can distribute. We have helped provide pastoral facilities and are always in touch with key staff to find out ways they can benefit from our support.
It’s important to us to give back to the hospitals and ensure the Children’s Wards have some extra magic especially during the holidays. Every year we donate toys, gifts or vouchers to those unwell who will unfortunately have to spend the holidays under care. We even issue hampers to the nurses for all their hard work, compassion and dedication to saving lives.
Over the years our ‘Karis Angels’ choir has sung at various old people homes to keep their spirits up! The angels have been spotted many times at Tesco’s, Costco’s, Lakeside and at town centres with donation buckets ready for shoppers passing by. All fundraising is done by our amazing volunteers, to date ‘KMD’ hasn’t received any grants so we have a great team of volunteers to raise money, allowing us give back to those children & young people who deserve it
The Karis May Darling Foundation understands the importance of living with disabilities and terminal illnesses. We do our best to provide financial support to families, give donations towards essential equipment such as specialist wheelchairs and we organise theatre nights, days outs and fun opportunities for those children with illnesses to take a break and just be kids again!
All the events above give just a small selection of what we do here at the Karis May Darling Foundation and there is so much to get involved in!
Raising Awareness for Organ Donation
‘The Girl Who Saved Five Lives’
“In 2011 my little sister Karis passed away suddenly. She was only 12 years old when she contracted Streptococcal A, which is a form of meningitis. Myself and my sister were best friends, she had the biggest personality, a love and joy for life! All of these things made me think, wow, a part of my little sister can help and live on through others. She would have wanted nothing more than to help.”
“The fact the love in her heart could beat in someone else, and give them a chance to conquer only what my sister would have done if she could have, brought me great comfort. It wasn't easy as a young girl watching my family go through this and understanding it all can be so confusing, but even this amount of years later I can look at amazing stories of organ donation and say “my little sister did that”
- Kristi Darling, Karis’ Sister
Learn more about Organ Donation and how you can make a difference here.
The Karis May Darling Centre
Our Karis May Darling Centre is an all-purpose building to give back to our local community. It provides a home to the Little Chestnuts Preschool, after school clubs, local businesses as well as a meeting place for parents, young people and elderly visitors.
Our centre reflects how Karis lived her life as she was always helping people, and she would have been so proud to see the centre. Here Karis’ memory is still alive, we have had some great times in the centre as a team hosting a variety of baby groups, community social meets, youth clubs and ‘fun days’ within the local park where we are based.
