News
Quite a lot has happened over the passed three months and it’s all good!
In December we were able to report that Rachel Thurston was now practising MLD at St. Helena’s Hospice in Colchester; with funds from Nancy’s Trust, Geoff Bowen at The Helen Rollason Cancer Support Centre in Chelmsford and a female nurse at St. Peter’s Hospital in Maldon are also about to undertake MLD training. The Trust has now helped to put in place three MLD practitioners in our ‘catchment’ area. Nancy would have been thrilled as one of her greatest frustrations was the difficulty she had in finding such NHS services available for her patients.
We have also made a great leap forward on the EFT front. This was an area we felt would be more difficult to initiate as although it is a therapy which is gaining recognition we were not aware of any local practitioners. However, along came Julie Parrott who had known Nancy by reputation and is an EFT practitioner herself. Julie has offered her services to the Trust and is currently looking at ways the Trust can raise awareness of EFT in the National Health Service and wider community. We are immensely grateful for her contribution.
Charitable Status
The most recent event is that The Nancy Salmon Trust has become a registered charity with the Charity Commission. That means that the Charity Commission recognises that the defined objectives of Nancy’s fund are indeed beneficial to those whom it addresses, currently those in need of MLD or EFT in and around north Essex. Details of the charity, including the names of the trustees and the formal objectives can be viewed on the Charity Commission web site at www.charity-commission.gov.uk/index.asp . We also have a registered charity number which is 1134730. An important benefit is that we shall be able to claim 25% tax rebate on donations made to the Trust if donors have signed a note confirming that they are UK tax payers, are resident at their normal UK address and agree to gift aid their donation. What is more, we can do this for donations already made to the Trust so in time you may find a brief note dropping through your door asking if you would confirm those simple facts and we can increase your already generous donation by 25%. Not bad!
It is about 3 months since our last update and we continue to be overwhelmed by everyone’s generosity which has resulted in the fund standing at a figure in excess of £12,000; this has been reached only in the last few days when we received most generous donations from The Stanley Drapkin Primary School, Steeple Bumpstead, Little Yeldham Parochial Church Council, and the collection at Paul Bateman’s Christmas concert in Castle Hedingham last Saturday; together these groups contributed around £1400. I’m afraid our variety of exclamations has dried up but what can we say except enormous thanks to everyone.
The other really good news is that we have started to spend the money! Lymphoedema Nurse Rachel Thurston at St. Helena Hospice in Colchester has completed her course and in this instance we jointly funded Rachel’s training with the Macmillan Cancer Support charity. Rachel passed her final MLD examinations with flying colours and is already able to provide more comprehensive treatment to her lymphoedema patients. We are thrilled and know that Nancy would have been too.
CHARITABLE STATUS
When it became clear to us that Nancy’s Memorial Fund was developing into something larger than we had originally anticipated we decided to make a formal application to the Charities Commission to become a registered charitable Trust. This means that the Trust will be able to benefit from gift aid which adds an extra 25p for every £1 donated.
We were pleased that Kath Ross (formerly Dr. Kath Morgan) and Alan Collard, both of whom can bring a wealth of experience to the Trust agreed to join us as Trustees.
Our first task was to choose a name for the charity.
We all felt that Nancy who was a very positive, no nonsense person would have wanted the name to be short and simple and undecorated, hence the choice of ‘The Nancy Salmon Trust’.
We expect the Trust to become formally registered early in the New Year.
Any money that is held in the ‘Dr. Nancy Salmon Memorial Fund’ account will be automatically transferred to ‘The Nancy Salmon Trust’ account, as they are in fact one and the same.
Toppesfield's infamous Red Barrows organised a concert at the Green Man in Toppesfield on Saturday, 5th September 2009. It was a wonderful evening's entertainment culminating with Robbie Gladwell of Cockney Rebel fame, backed by Lincoln Anderson and Adam Houghton bass guitarist and drummer respectively who set the audience dancing until the early hours.
For all of their effort the Red Barrows raised an amazing £1,220 on the evening which leaves the Fund standing at more than £10,000.
What a caterpillar calls the end of the world the master calls a butterfly.
Richard Bach
It is 3 months since Nancy’s funeral and when we set up the fund in her memory we had no idea what the response would be. We have been overwhelmed by everyone’s generosity which has resulted in the fund now standing at an amazing figure in excess of £9,000.
THANK-YOU
We have acknowledged donations whenever possible but to those we have not been able to reach, including the sponsors of Alan Collard’s Coast to Coast Walk who have given an amazing £790 so far and the patients at Castle and Great Yeldham Surgeries who continue to donate, we send our heartfelt thanks. It is clearly an indication of how Nancy was loved and valued as a doctor, healer and friend that so much money has been given.
CHARITABLE STATUS
Now that we can see and understand the significance of how the fund is developing we have decided to register it as a charity with the Charities Commission. Naturally there is some work to do to achieve that but in due course we will be registered and able to quote a charity number and be eligible for gift aid status.
WEB -SITE
In the meantime we are also progressing the development of a web site for Nancy’s Fund. It is taking longer than we had anticipated but we hope that the end result will justify the wait. It will have the benefit of publicising the fund to a wider audience and providing information about where the fund stands, and more importantly, how the money is being spent.
EDUCATION
Although Nancy’s Fund was set up to provide training in EFT and MLD we have started by educating ourselves regarding lymphoedema and the services which currently provide support for sufferers. Awareness seems to be an issue – especially in relation to the life changing value of Manual Lymphatic Drainage to lymphoedema sufferers. It appears that information sharing is as vital as training, rather like the chicken and egg syndrome! There are other charities in the country providing support over a wider area but our initial remit was to concentrate on the local area.
NELS
The really good news is that our search for a local service led us to the St. Helena Hospice in Colchester which houses the North Essex Lymphoedema service (NELS). This independent unit of two nurses, a physiotherapist and a manager was set up a year ago to help patients across the geographical area of North and part of Mid Essex and is presently funded by the Macmillan Charity. It has been very successful but still welcomes extra funds to use for training.
OUR FIRST PEBBLE IN THE POND!
Having met this enthusiastic and dedicated band we had no hesitation in agreeing to help fund additional training for one of the nurses so that she too can use Manual Lymphatic Draining (MLD) techniques with her patients. We anticipate that Rachel will be trained by the end of the year.