Charity

CHASE Ben Hollioake Fund

The CHASE Ben Hollioake Fund was set up after the death of England and Surrey cricketer Ben Hollioake who died in 2002 aged just 24. In association with CHASE hospice care for children the Fund is raising money to support life limited children and their families. These are children who are not expected to live past the age of 19. We currently support 254 families, but there are an estimated 700+ families in need in the area.

CHASE was established as a registered charity in 1994 and provides a network of care to families with life limited conditions in SW London, Surrey and Sussex. Our specially trained community team members, working throughout the CHASE area, focus on help for the whole family at home and in their community, where it is so vital they receive sustained support.

The whole family is also welcomed at the CHASE children’s hospice called Christopher’s, just outside Guildford, Surrey. Christopher’s has nine bedrooms and is designed to provide a home from home environment. The whole family can stay for a break together, or the life limited child can enjoy some independent respite while the remainder of the family benefit from a rest elsewhere. Christopher’s provides a high level of supportive respite, together with palliative and end of life care.

CHASE provides its service, free of charge, 24 hours a day, every day of the year whatever way is needed.
The journey shared with CHASE can continue from diagnosis of the child’s life-limiting condition through to bereavement and beyond. It is a relationship that can last for many years and without it, many families would find it hard to cope. At CHASE we believe a child’s time may be limited but their lives needn’t be.

CHASE has to raise over £3 million a year which will little governmental funding has to come from general charitable donation.

www.benhollioakefund.com
www.chasecare.org.uk

Babes In Arms

Cot Death is a lethal and emotionally charged condition which strikes at the most vulnerable group in our society, very young children. Despite many advances made in the fight against this condition, over 300 otherwise seemingly healthy babies die of Cot Death every year in the UK alone. The effects of this on whole families can be devastating. The Babes In Arms at Northwick Park Appeal is dedicated to funding research into developmental abnormalities which affects not only Cot Death, but intra-uterine-growth-retardation (IUGR) (babies who are small for their dates) and pre-eclampsia as well.

To date, this group has made some groundbreaking progress which has been recognised internationally, including: the discovery that Cot Death babies have poor development in some of their organs and that a combination of such abnormalities makes these babies particularly susceptible to Cot Death; the discovery that the placenta from Cot Death babies is also poorly developed; the discovery that IUGR babies also have some developmental organ deficiencies; the discovery that pre-eclampsia exists in two forms which have different outcomes for the baby but similar problems for the mother.

IUGR is a condition where foetal growth is greatly restricted. Although many people born with this condition live normal lives, IUGR is present either by itself or in combination with other abnormal developments in over half the number infants who are stillborn. Again, the effects of this on a family can be extremely traumatic. Pre-eclampsia is the most common major complication in pregnancy affecting 10% of pregnancies over all. It kills 500-600 babies in the UK, plus 3-5 mothers every year (40,000-60,000 mothers worldwide). Globally, pre-eclampsia is associated with growth retardation in 4,000,000 people. Its root causes remain unknown and it is curable only by early delivery which puts some babies at risk of dieing from prematurity, or this can cause other quality of life problems. More work is needed to understand and combat this potentially fatal condition.

The Babes in Arms at Northwick Park appeal needs more funding to discover how they are linked and how specific treatment could change the outcome for these babies and their mothers.Your support is needed and would be very much appreciated.