cheque presentation by the Axis Foundation to Oliver Fisher TrustCare

Oliver Fisher Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Supporting a Special Care Baby Unit

Liam and Amy Hayes’ son Benjamin Jeffrey John Hayes was born on Sunday 12 May 2019 and sadly passed away 10 days later.

At The Oliver Fisher Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Medway the doctors and nurses gave Benjamin the very best care they could before he was transferred to Demelza Children’s Hospice.

The Axis Foundation’s annual charity ball in 2019 raised record-breaking sums, with the help of our generous and kind guests, which were shared between our charity partner Demelza and The Oliver Fisher Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

Read Benjamin’s story by Liam Hayes here and more about our work with Demelza here

More about The Oliver Fisher Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

In 1983, Dr Oliver Fisher created a Special Care Baby Unit in All Saints Hospital in Kent. The unit then had just two special care cots. Now based in Medway Maritime Hospital, the unit has 36 cots including eight intensive care, eight transitional care, four high dependency and 16 special care cots. In 2018, The Oliver Fisher Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, admitted 1226 babies. The unit serves Kent, London and the South East.

The work

The Unit cares for babies born prematurely or who are sick and need intensive care in a highly specialised facility, with skilled staff and sophisticated equipment. It provides all neonatal medical intensive care (excluding cardiology) and also Cooling Therapy for babies with Hypoxic Ischaemic Encephalopathy: a brain problem following lack of oxygen and blood supply at birth.

The team

The team comprises two Paediatric Surgeons, jointly appointed with Kings College Hospital, and a dedicated Neonatal Transport Team.

Quality of life

The Oliver Fisher Neonatal Intensive Care Unit has increased the number of babies for whom they care. And the team has also increased the percentage of babies who have survived – and survived well, to have good quality of life.

Oliver Fisher Special Care Baby Trust

The Oliver Fisher Special Care Baby Trust (OFSCBT) raises additional funds to purchase essential equipment for The Oliver Fisher Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

 

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Woman’s Trust

Pioneering support for women victims of domestic abuse

Our donation of £3,350 to specialist mental health charity Woman’s Trust will pioneer new group therapy sessions for women victims of domestic abuse.

“We know that some of the biggest issues women victims of domestic abuse have to contend with are around isolation. Group sessions allow them the opportunity to connect with other survivors. So they create networks through interaction. They receive encouragement, support, and empathy in a non-judgemental environment. And many of the women go on to form lasting friendships. Women value the support from each other, which differs to the support received  from agencies, families or friends. It provides the potential for a lasting resolution” –  CEO Heidi Riedel

COVID-19 update from Woman’s Trust

Women arriving at Woman’s Trust report increased/worsened abuse

  •  48% report suffering depression; 44% have suicidal thoughts; 98% report high stress/anxiety (all percentages are higher than pre-pandemic)
  •  65% of women reported 5+ types of abuse whereas before, 46% reported 5+.
  • There are increases in specific types, including sexual abuse (from 29% to 40%) and technological abuse (from 15% to 30%)

In addition, many women are stuck with court cases going nowhere and in unsuitable/unsafe temporary accommodation as all services are halted or delayed due to the pandemic.

“Women are telling us that they were struggling with the idea of their therapy ending with us. We therefore decided to also allow particularly vulnerable and at risk women to attend the group so that they may lengthen their time at Woman’s Trust and benefit from wraparound support that would increase the positive outcomes achieved and enable them to better cope once they had left our service. We ran the two groups using Zoom (rather than face-to-face, due to Covid-19 restrictions)”  –  CEO Heidi Riedel

More about Woman’s Trust

Woman’s Trust is a specialist mental health charity providing free counselling and therapy for women who experience domestic abuse. Domestic abuse is the single largest cause of depression in women across the UK. It has links to drug misuse as well as addiction and other mental health conditions.

The Woman’s Trust has supported more than 14,500 women and provided the equivalent of over £4.5m in vital mental health care for survivors. Their counselling and workshop therapy sessions give vulnerable women a chance to recover and deliver a long-term, positive impact on their mental health.

Abuse victim – In her own words

“I have been in domestic violence relationships for many years and l just bore it. But two years ago I had enough and l left. I do still have a sad days and flashbacks of the events, but l feel much stronger as an individual. I don’t have to ask a permission to do something as l had to before. I am free woman, who is just getting better in getting to know herself again. It is amazing. Woman’s Trust gave me the best support and positive energy to fight for myself and my child.”

To find out more, visit www.womanstrust.org.uk.

 

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Group pictures of volunteers at one of WellChild's Helping Hands projectsCare

WellChild’s Helping Hands project

Making homes and gardens accessible for young people with exceptional health needs

Many children and young people live in homes which are not suitable for their needs. The Axis Foundation has donated £6,250 to WellChild, supporting children and young people with exceptional healthcare needs. Their Helping Hands project regularly enlists volunteers to create safe, stimulating gardens in the homes of sick children.

A donation like this will allow us to offer more help to families who really need it. We are very grateful to Axis for this kind donation to the WellChild Helping Hands programme.”- Lorna Pedersen, Head of Wellchild

Our funding will give at least four more children accessible sensory areas to enjoy. A sensory garden can be a haven for children with complex needs because it’s a place that allows them to develop. It is also a familiar environment, so children get the opportunity to actually enjoy playing outside.

More About Wellchild

Having children with complex conditions often makes going out as a family impossible. So Wellchild’s projects are a lifeline for families who need an outdoor space to spend time in together. The project offers organisations a unique opportunity to have a direct impact on their local community. Through volunteering days companies can have fantastic team building experiences, while improving the lives of many people. WellChild has already worked on over 390 gardens UK wide and has over 90 successful London projects.

To find out more, visit www.wellchild.org.uk.

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Cyclists Fighting Cancer

Bikes and adapted trikes for children with cancer

The Axis Foundation donated to £5,000 to Cyclists Fighting Cancer (CFC), a charity which donates bikes and adapted trikes to children with cancer in order to support their work which improves lives and well being.

“The Axis Foundation’s generous donation will allow us to purchase 10 bikes or 3 specialist trikes for those children who are successful in their application to Cyclists Fighting Cancer. Your donation will help us to change the lives of children and young people living with a cancer diagnosis… on behalf of the whole Cyclists Fighting Cancer team, thank you for the generous donation” – Alice Wragg, Fundraiser

More About CFC

We know that cycling is good exercise. And for children with cancer it is even more beneficial. Some children may be unable to ride a conventional bike as a result of treatment – they may have balance issues, numbness, fatigue or have had amputations or be wheelchair-bound. CFC makes required adaptions to bikes and trikes.

Fundraiser Alice Wragg explains: “Exercise is an effective way to improve both the mental and physical side effects of cancer and its treatment. Cycling in particular is a great way for children with cancer to enjoy exercise as it is low impact, sociable and a great escape from hospital visits and ongoing treatment.”

CFC works closely with the 21 paediatric oncology units around the UK, as well as with other charities that work with childhood cancer (i.e. CLIC Sargent, Teenage Cancer Trust, The Rainbow Trust etc). Their specially trained Cancer Exercise Specialists regularly offer advice regarding physical fitness and on-bike and trike applications.

The charity has donated 5,000 bikes and adapted trikes to children with cancer since the charity’s inception in 2005.

 

 

 

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Axis foundation helps to fund specialist bathroom to young girlCare

Bathroom for Isabella

Specialist bathroom for disabled child

Aged two months, Isabella was diagnosed with a serious birth defect – neuronal migration disorder – and epilepsy. Her parents, Nicola and Robert were of course devastated by this news. Now aged four, Isabella has very limited mobility and is confined to a wheelchair. She is unable to speak, and her family, including her young siblings, is on constant guard as the risk of seizure is never far away.

To give their daughter more freedom of movement, Nicola and Robert moved to a bungalow and adapted it – widening the doors for example – with the aid of a grant.

Installing a specialist bathroom for Isabella

Nicola and Robert desperately wanted to install a similar specialist bathroom at their home. Sadly, their local authority was only able to offer a shower: the costs of installation were well beyond Nicola and Robert’s budget.  At this point, the Axis Foundation stepped in, funding a specialist bath costing £10,000, paying for installation and materials, and turning a dream into a reality.

“We can’t believe it! Grateful doesn’t even cover it! You guys will never know how much this means to us! THANK YOU!” – Nicola and Robert, Isabella’s parents

Respite stays at Demelza Hospice for Sick Children provide comfort and practical support too – for all the family. Here Isabella benefits from using the sensory room while their specialist bathroom is both practical and safe for her and her carers. Demelza is the charity partner to the Axis Foundation and parent company Axis Europe plc.

The Axis Foundation has reached a milestone of 10 years of donations to small, local, impactful causes. #10YrsGiving

 

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Beyond The Streets – Door of Hope

Helping provide routes out of prostitution for women in Tower Hamlets

In 2019, The Axis Foundation’s first donation of £5,000 supported Beyond the Streets’ Door of Hope. This project offers hope, support and routes out of prostitution for women in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in East London.

“Thank you for the generous donation… Your support will enable our Door of Hope team to continue to provide specialist support and genuine routes out for women involved in prostitution on the streets of the East End. You are ensuring that we can reach more women to offer consistency and a compassionate response to overcome the barriers they face. Thank you for standing with us, we are stronger with your support to tackle sexual exploitation in our community” – Josephine Knowles, Co-Director for Services

In 2023, the Axis Foundation Trustees agreed to make another award – of £1,286 – towards Door of Hope. This second donation will cover the cost of personal alarms (to help the women feel safer when in the area at night), identity documentation (including replacement birth certificates to them to get a Citizens Photo ID card for free which means they can then access vital services such as benefits and housing) and personal toiletries (to ensure that women do not have to sell sex more frequently in order to purchase basic products like toothpaste, shampoo, shower gel, deodorant and sanitary towels).

“Thank you so much for this award! It will make a real difference to the women we journey alongside” – Victoria Curtis, Grants Manager

More About Beyond the Streets

For over 20 years Beyond the Streets have been working with women experiencing sexual exploitation as they journey to safer, heathier and happier lives. As a specialist charity they have an in-depth understanding of the complexity’s women face, the underlying causes of entry, and the multiple barriers to exiting. Working directly with women, the Door of Hope project provides a safe space for the women’s voices to be heard and for them to receive support and advocacy via specialist Women’s Support Workers. Using a trauma-informed, person-centred model, women can process feelings and safety plan whilst increasing their confidence and self-agency, so they themselves can identify their own needs and devise their own journeys to a future where they can thrive.

Alongside the Door of Hope project, Beyond the Street delivers a remote, UK-wide, free and confidential call-back service, Beyond Support, that also provides support and advocacy to women involved in selling sex. In both projects they work with local, specialist services to provide holistic and accessible support for women. They also run an affiliate network for 35+ other organisations who work within the theme; develop and deliver training for the third sector and statutory professionals; as well as create practitioner resources and reports that are uniquely informed by up-to-date research, lived experience and practitioner experience.  This is all with the aim of reducing stigma and barriers to support services, and to create much needed systemic change so no women are compelled to sell sex due to poverty, coercion, or violence.

CASE STUDY kindly provided by Beyond the Streets
April’s story

When we met April, she was using crack and heroine, involved in the criminal justice system for drug related offences, and selling sex frequently on the street. Our street outreach team connected with her until she got to a place where she wanted to access our 1:1 daytime support. Our trained Women’s Support Workers (WSW) provided 1:1 non-judgemental specialist listening space. Utilising a trauma-informed and women-centred approach, April had the opportunity to process her feelings and the trauma she had experienced early and later in life. This helped her develop confidence and self-agency in preparation for change. The WSW helped her access services by directly advocating for her with professionals and through partner referral organisations. This prevented her from having to re-tell her ‘story’ and risk re-traumatisation.

This work involved helping her to reduce her drug use through our partnership with a local specialist service and advocating for appropriate housing for her until she was placed in funded supported accommodation. April was also struggling with mental health difficulties,  processing trauma, and had been experiencing domestic abuse by her long-term partner. April’s Women’s Support Worker was able to secure free counselling. She also helped her access Universal Credit to support April and remove her money worries so she could focus on reaching her identified future goals. April was able to maintain zero contact with the perpetrator of the abuse she had previous suffered, who up until this point had remained in her life.

April has since applied for, and successfully secured a new job.

April has shared with us that ‘You never gave up on me and often you were the only support holding me up –I’m a new person and I’m excited about my future.”

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HOPE

Support for children with epilepsy and their families

The Axis Foundation’s £2,000 donation to HOPE will buy Anti-Suffocation Pillows for children with Epilepsy. Anti Suffocation Pillows help those lying face down with convulsive seizures to breathe more easily thereby helping to prevent brain damage and death.

“The HOPE Team are absolutely thrilled that the Axis Foundation has agreed to make a donation to help HOPE fund Anti Suffocation Pillows for children with Complex Epilepsy. From the bottom of my heart thank you to you all at the Axis Foundation for this generous donation! We can help so many children now with our Anti Suffocation Pillow Project. It’s truly amazing and We are over the moon. Once again, thank you Axis Foundation for assisting us carrying on our work”
Dr Nadine Gurr – Chair

“We are extremely grateful to the Axis Foundation for their kind donation to HOPE. Childhood epilepsy can be stressful for the whole family, particularly as many children with epilepsy also have additional needs. This generous donation will help us in our aim to support children with epilepsy and their families. It will be used to buy Anti-Suffocation Pillows, which families tell us can help to reduce their worries about their children sleeping in their own bedrooms at night”
Dr Sophie Bennett – Vice Chair

More About HOPE

At HOPE children with epilepsy can meet each other, have fun, learn to “enjoy life” and not feel so alone. Volunteers play with the children and their siblings and provide respite for the parents. HOPE encourages parents of children with epilepsy and carers to meet, relax over refreshments, share information and build relationships. This helps reduce stress and anxiety enabling them to be better emotionally equipped to support their child.

Overall, HOPE aims to promote awareness regarding the problems and circumstances of families living with epilepsy. The children who attend London-based HOPE suffer from complex epilepsy with different seizure types. Many have other conditions associated with complex epilepsy such as autism, developmental delay, ADHD and physical disabilities.

HOPE’s Anti Sudden Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP) Project provides Anti Suffocation Pillows free of charge to any child living in the Greater London area who suffers from convulsive seizures

 

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Group of adults at Paul's Cancer Support CentreCare

Paul’s Cancer Support Centre

Training volunteers to help cancer patients

Volunteers at Paul’s Cancer Support Centre provide emotional, physical and psychological support for 500 cancer patients a year. The Centre also has a Home Visiting Service for 100 patients who are too frail to make the journey to the premises in south west London.

The Axis Foundation has made two donations to Paul’s Cancer Support Centre. Our first donation (£3,300 in 2017) recruited and trained four massage therapists, three reflexologists and one befriender; our second (£2,500 in 2018) trained nine new Home Visiting Service volunteers.

“On behalf of the Trustees, staff, volunteers and clients at Paul’s Cancer Support Centre, I would like to thank you and your Fellow Trustees for all your support. We are truly grateful” – Scheherazade Ameer, Fundraising Manager

“Funding into our volunteers’ training is vital for us to provide support for cancer patients. We are so appreciative of the grant we received from the Axis Foundation. We cannot deliver our services without volunteers” Marisca Ribeiro, Services Manager

More About Training

Scheherazade Ameer, Fundraising Manager, explained: “All our Home Visiting Service volunteers have to complete our high-quality, specially-designed 32-hour course. A nationally recognised expert in cancer and bereavement counselling has assessed our course as ‘a model of excellence’. We then match our Volunteers to Home Visiting Service clients once we receive their DBS approval.”

A Trainee Home Visitor told us: “Helping others is a humbling experience which also provides a great amount of satisfaction. I hope to gain a better understanding of the challenges those with cancer face so I can provide more effective and supportive massage treatments to them and contribute to improving their predicament, even if for a short while.”

A Home Visiting Service client said: “During a time when I was housebound, barely able to move about and seeking psychological and emotional assistance, this was the only local organisation who was able to provide face-to-face counselling in my own home; I am so grateful for that, and for how quickly it was organised.”

 

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Omega

Support for End-of-Life Charity

Omega, the National Association for End of Life Care, is a multi-award winning charity which helps families and clients who are to coming to terms with terminal illness. Their motto is: “Caring is everyone’s business.”

In 2018, the Axis Foundation donated £2,000 to Omega’s peer support groups including Chatterbox Befrienders.

“The clients we help are often socially isolated and benefit enormously from peer support. Omega groups are a gateway to other sources of help and information offered by Omega and our delivery partners,” explains Tom Memery, Development Director.

Chatterbox Update

In FY 2021/22, the Chatterbox programme worked with over 369 clients and helped and signposted an additional 71 potential clients to other services and specialist agencies.

Thanking the Foundation Tom said: “With your valuable support we have been able to raise the profile of the Chatterbox programme and target clients who need us most. We have further developed relationships with a growing number of referrers. We now work with over 180 individual referrers and referring agencies (40% from within NHS primary care).”

New Award 2022

In 2022, The Axis Foundation made a second award to Omega, this time to support their army of vital volunteers – over 335 of them!

Omega delivers inductions and monthly support groups to their volunteers via video link. The grant of £5,000 will upgrade their IT and help Omega support their volunteers – and recruit and retain more.

They will also use the grant to make some minor changes to install additional electrical sockets and a upgrade the lighting as well as buy more office furniture.

‘We value the relationship we have with The Axis Foundation. We have found Axis to be a discerning and very supportive grant making trust who take a particular interest in the good causes that they support. With their help, we can now upgrade our ageing ICT equipment and buy much-needed office furniture. This will help us support our volunteers and the vulnerable clients we serve,’ said Tom.

More About Omega, the National Association for End of Life Care, here 

 

 

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Momentum Children's Charity hospital room decorated with wildlife theme.Care

Momentum Children’s Charity

Transforming hospital experience for children with cancer and life-limiting illnesses

The Axis Foundation donated £3,500 to help Momentum Children’s Charity‘s transformation of the Frog Isolation Room on the Rupert Bear Paediatric Ward in Croydon University Hospital.

Momentum supports families of children with cancer and life-limiting illnesses living in South West London and Surrey. Children who have cancer and life-limiting illnesses often spend a huge amount of their time in hospital, from their diagnosis and throughout their treatment. Isolation rooms ensure they do not catch any further infections and some children can be in these rooms for up to 10 days at a time.

Bearing this in mind, the new decor at Croydon University Hospital features Momentum’s mascot Mo the Owl and other wildlife including frogs, ladybirds and butterflies and plants. This redecoration project has created a bright and happy space providing the young patients with positive distractions and enriching toys to make their time in hospital a little bit easier.

“We wanted to make a difference for the children and to make their memories of staying in hospital positive. Something as simple as improving the environment can make a huge difference. The Axis Foundation and our other supporters have allowed us to make a massive difference in the hospital and for the children” – Tara MacDowel, Head of Fundraising and Communications

“Enhancing the healing environment in hospitals is a large part of Momentum’s work. Studies have shown that a good hospital environment can greatly improve a child’s recovery time and of course the staff also benefit from a brighter, more welcoming place in which to work. So we are grateful to all of you at the Axis Foundation. With your donation we have been able to transform the Isolation Room at Croydon University Hospital into a wonderful welcoming space for our young cancer patients. … thank you again for your support” – Bianca Effemey, Co-Founder

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