Yorkshire brewery launches fundraising campaign to help premature babies access breastmilk

Yorkshire’s Black Sheep Brewery has teamed up with charity Human Milk Foundation (HMF) for the second year running to fund their biker scheme, which quickly transports donated breast milk to hospitals.

Established in Hertfordshire by a group of parents, scientists, milk bank experts and doctors in 2017, HMF provides donor human milk to over 40 NHS hospitals and thousands of families across England and Wales, alongside specialist lactation support to help them to go on to fully breastfeed their babies wherever this is possible.

Instructions on how to donate £20 to the HMF will be included on every bottle sold of the brewery’s Milk Stout drink.

Charlene Lyons, CEO of Black Sheep Brewery, commented on the campaign: “We’re delighted to once again partner with the incredible people at Human Milk Foundation to launch this fundraising campaign.

“We consider the blood bikers to be real heroes; when they receive the call, they do whatever it takes, day or night, to pick up the donation from the nearest milk bank and quickly but safely transport the milk to the necessary hospital or family in need.

“The fundraising campaign to support HMF will run for four weeks, in which we will aim to raise £15,000. However, our mission to raise awareness of HMF and the Blood Bikers will continue indefinitely”.

Black Sheep said it supports HMF in normalising discussions about equitable access to human milk, largely among dads aged 30-45, who could be lone fathers or dads-to-be, whoare among their key demographic.

Natalie Shenker, co-founder and Director of the HMF, added: “We are delighted to again partner with Black Sheep brewery as we aim to raise further funds to save the lives of sick and premature babies, as well as supporting the ‘blood bikers’ in their incredible efforts.

"The support of Black Sheep has allowed for the expansion of our milk bank operations so we can make safe, screened donor milk available via the blood bikers for hospitals and families across England and Wales.”