Children In Need fund was established in 1983 and our aim is to provide help through hospitals and other organisations in the UK, for sick, afflicted and poor children, to offer gifts, holidays, food and provide all other welfare facilities possible.

Although our criteria is to help the individual child we do, on occasion, give funding to schools and other organisations who cater for children with special needs and also fund families who cannot afford a holiday in certain circumstances as well as pay for child/ren and schools or organisations that provide child/ren summer camps and breaks to ensure all children feel equal and are not left out for financial reasons.

We also fund equipment for children with special needs to enable them to participate in educational
programmes, holidays, mobility etc. In this vein we have funded specialist equipment for children with
cerebral palsy and also children with speech, hearing and language difficulties. And for conditions such as Spina bifida we provide easy access car seats, hoists for bathing and putting children in and out of bed.

We help with travel expenses when a child has a long stay in hospital and the parents live out of the area where the hospital is. We also provide wheelchairs and tricycles for children with Spina Bifida. We have funded specialist treatments such as physiotherapy, reflexology and remedial and neuromuscular massage, all of which were unavailable through the NHS.

We provide funding for school uniforms and also
specialist equipment for children’s playgrounds. We even funded specialist shoes for one child that
wanted to play golf but had problems with walking with ordinary golf shoes. We have also provided funding to enable a hospital to have murals painted on the walls of a children’s ward to provide a form of therapy for the children.

On occasions we provide funding for white goods if the child has a special need after a long stay in hospital.

We have ongoing cases where we fund children through an organisation who provide therapy for behavioural problems. We have also funded office rental for an organisation that brings children to the
UK for facial surgery. We have funded “wishes” for very sick or terminally ill children to enable their dreams to come true.

We do not fund raise and any donations that we receive are used solely for the purpose of helping the children. All expenses and overheads are borne by the Trustees.

In addition to working with various organisations we also work with various doctors, religious
leaders, citizens advice bureaus, social services, special needs groups and other individuals.