To help celebrate the launch of its brand new website, Bents Garden & Home recently ran a festive competition to find a very special person – someone who deserved to have Christmas made for them, with an impressive prize package worth over £1,000.
With hundreds of entries, the decision to choose a winner was one of the hardest ever made, but having considered all nominations a unanimous winner was chosen and Bents welcomed 15 year old Jasmine Beedles and her family to the Centre to collect the prize.
Jasmine, from St Helens, who was nominated by her mum, Samantha, has a life limiting heart and lung disease which means each Christmas could be her last, so her family plans to make Christmas 2017 even more extra special than usual. Jasmine goes through so much every day, and is on a ventilator and oxygen to breathe for her and is fully wheelchair dependent.
Says Samantha: "When she is well enough Jasmine loves coming to Bents, especially to look at the Christmas decorations so when we saw this competition we knew we had to enter! We are delighted to have won and plan to turn her bedroom - and outside her bedroom window - into a little grotto so when she is too unwell to get out of bed she can enjoy looking at all the lights."
From Christmas trees, indoor Christmas lights, ornaments and decorations to homewares, seasonal plants, gifts and festive pet treats, Bents has everything required for the perfect celebration and in what is its 80th year it wanted to make someone's festivities even more special in the shape of a fabulous Christmas prize.
Says Matthew Bent, Managing Director at Bents Garden & Home: "2017 has been a very special year for Bents, celebrating our 80th anniversary and launching our new website so we wanted to extend the celebrations and make it a special year for someone else too. And we really hope we have been able to do that for Jasmine. It was a very difficult decision, as there were so many amazing entries, but Jasmine's story stood out and having met her we know she really is someone very special."
Worth over £1000, the prize includes a 2.3m pre-lit Christmas tree, a 1.2m outdoor LED snowman, a charming Christmas carol scene with moving figures and £250 worth of Bents vouchers, which Jasmine was able to spend at her lesiure.