Individual Grants - stories of improved lives
These are some of the people whose lives have been made a little better through our individual grants programme.
To respect privacy all names have been changed and the images are a representation only, but otherwise the stories are genuine accounts of the lives of people who have been awarded grants.
Pat
Pat lives in Cornwall with her husband Greg and their 4 year old daughter.
Greg was diagnosed with aggressive lymphoma and is unable to work; Pat had to give up work to care for her family which meant a drastic fall in income. As a result of this and rising costs they became unable to meet their household bills or buy food.
We made an award of £300 of vouchers to spend at the supermarket of their choice.
Richard
Richard is from Kent. He has a history of schizophrenia having spent much of his childhood in care; in and out of homeless shelters. After receiving support from another charity he was rehoused but his new home didn't have anything in it . The charity which rehoused him knew that if Richard was going to thrive he needed to make his house a home. They asked us if we could provide funds to help with essential household items.
We supplied £500 vouchers so that he could buy a bed, bedding and sofa. He is now on his way to recovery.
Beatrice
Beatrice lives with her 14 year old daughter in North Yorkshire. She was subjected to years of abuse from her former partner. When he started to abuse her daughter they both fled to a women's refuge, leaving everything behind.
Eventually her partner was imprisoned for the abuse, they were offered an unfurnished flat and Beatrice started work part time. However when they had fled they had left everything behind so they asked if we could help them with a fridge freezer to help get them started in their new life.
