A Huddersfield charity has been conned by cruel tricksters to get free holidays.
Now Slaithwaite-based Ruddi’s Retreat is changing the way it checks people out before allowing them to go on badly-needed respite breaks to its caravans on the east and west coasts.
Ruddi’s Retreat was founded after Ruddi Waterworth-Jones from Linthwaite survived cancer as a baby and his mum, Ali, set the charity up.
They were provided with a free caravan holiday by the charity Candlelighters in those tough days and benefited from it so much.
That inspired Ali to set up Ruddi’s Retreat which provides free caravan breaks for families with children battling serious illnesses such as cancer, have life-limiting conditions or have suffered bereavement.
It has four caravans on the Primrose Valley Holiday Park near Filey with a fifth at Newton Hall Holiday Park in Blackpool.
But it turns out that one family has lied and used aliases to get free holidays they had no right to have.
Ali (pictured above with Ruddi) said: “It is with deep upset and regret that it has come to our attention that the charity has been scammed.
“A single family using up to 10 different aliases has successfully taken eight holidays from us over a two-year period.
“They lied to our team, claiming that children had lost their parents and siblings. They completely abused our good nature and our mission.
“We are utterly heartbroken. We are left questioning how we can change our processes to hopefully ensure that this never happens again.
“We are left feeling embarrassed that we didn’t find our mistake earlier and we are also asking ourselves how anyone could lie about losing a child or a partner, thus taking precious holiday space away from genuine families who are truly in need.
“Because of the actions of this one group, we are forced to change how we operate with immediate effect.’’
To protect the charity and ensure the holidays only go to people who genuinely need them the charity will now ask for proof of bereavement during the application process and all applications for a holiday due to the loss of a parent or child will require a letter of support from a doctor, school or social worker, along with a copy of the death certificate.
In cases where a child is ill the charity will now need a letter proving diagnosis from the hospital where they are being treated.
Ali added: “We are so deeply sorry to have to do this. We do not want to ask for such personal and sacred documents and we did not come to this decision lightly.
“However, this is the only way we can safely carry on gifting holidays to genuine, grieving families. We simply cannot afford to give holidays away to people who don’t actually need or qualify for them.’’
To apply for a holiday if you have a child affected by cancer, life limiting illness or bereavement go to www.ruddisretreat.org
Written by ANDY HIRST who runs his own Yorkshire freelance journalism agency AH! PR (https://ah-pr.com/) specialising in press releases, blogging, website content, copywriting and ghost-writing autobiographies.
