Wednesday 24th February WellChild, the national charity for seriously ill children, in partnership with The Jockey Club, is calling on children across the UK to send in their brightest and most creative horse racing themed drawings as part of a new competition to celebrate The Festival supporting WellChild and this year’s WellChild Cheltenham Gold Cup.

This year, Jump Racing’s flagship event, The Festival at Cheltenham Racecourse, and the sport’s most prestigious race, the Cheltenham Gold Cup, are supporting Cheltenham based WellChild, one of the UK’s leading charities helping seriously ill children and their families.

This new children’s art competition celebrates the partnership and the winning artists will have their artwork showcased on the course and across coverage of the four days of this year’s Festival.

The competition will be judged by an expert panel from the charity and world of racing, including WellChild Ambassador and ITV Racing lead presenter Ed Chamberlin.

To take part, all you have to do is send WellChild a Festival-themed drawing on an A4 piece of paper – either scan and email it to [email protected], or post it to: Festival Competition, WellChild, 16 Royal Crescent, Cheltenham GL50 3DA by midday on Thursday 4th March 2021.

Please also include a little bit about yourself – your name, your age, where you live and a couple of sentences about you.

Your drawing could be a picture of the WellChild Cheltenham Gold Cup, your favourite horse, or jockey - just make sure your picture is as bright and bold as possible!

WellChild Ambassador and ITV Racing Lead Presenter, Ed Chamberlin (pictured above left) said:

“Celebrating this year’s partnership between The Festival and WellChild through children’s art is a fantastic initiative and sums up what this partnership is all about. It is a great opportunity for children across the country to get involved in this year’s Festival and maybe even see their art on display at the event itself!”

Ian Renton, who runs Cheltenham Racecourse as The Jockey Club’s Regional Managing Director, said:

“We’re delighted to launch this exciting children’s competition with WellChild and are very proud to be supporting such a fantastic charity who’ve had such a challenging year. We really look forward to showcasing some of the children’s creativity over the four days of The Festival supporting WellChild.”

Several million people in the UK will watch The Festival supporting WellChild between Tuesday 16th and Friday 19th March, broadcast on ITV’s main channel and via its digital platforms.

Based on Government restrictions for professional sport, currently the event’s 28 races would be staged over four days without any spectators present at the racecourse.

To find out more about the competition, visit: www.wellchild.org.uk/festivalcompetition

WellChild provides essential and practical support to ensure that the increasing number of seriously ill children and young people in the UK have the best chance to thrive - properly supported at home with their families.

The charity, which has The Duke of Sussex as its Patron, provides a national network of children’s nurses, who work with families to ensure that children with complex care needs can leave hospital and return home and, through its Helping Hands scheme, WellChild enlists the support of volunteers to tackle practical projects in the homes of children with serious health needs.

Through its family training and support services, the charity ensures parents and carers are properly supported and empowered to care for their children safely at home.

During COVID-19, WellChild set up a crisis response service to source and distribute Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to shielding families so that they can let external carers back into their home.

The charity has now distributed more than 270,000 items of PPE to vulnerable families across the country since the crisis began.