[quote MrsNoah2020]I used to work on a paediatric burns unit. We had kids with horrific, life-changing injuries - devastating for the parents, as most of the injuries were caused by tiny cock-ups that happen to us all as parents, but that most of us get away with - e.g. toddler flings itself on you when you're holding a cup of tea.
This is a great small charity run by a burns survivor, which gets help to affected families very quickly - www.dansfundforburns.org/contentHelpDonations.php[/quote]
Wow.
Very inspiring!
Our family experience of life threatening paediatric illness is that there are hundreds of these small charities shoring up the NHS, making real, positive difference to children’s lives.
I don’t know if I find it heart-warming or depressing (that there are so many gaps for them to plug) but I am grateful to each and every one.
I will always pick these small charities over national ones now, because I know they will make my money go further.
I suppose Mermaids was one of these once-upon-a-time, I wonder where all these giant corporate and celebrity donations go now?
They don’t offer much in tangible terms to service users - the majority of the ‘work’ seems to be delivering inaccurate ‘training’ and lobbying politicians, public bodies and media companies.
They advertise a helpline and web/text support, but I can’t tell if they are staffed mostly by volunteers or paid, trained staff?
I’m going to assume mostly volunteers because there is only one staff member listed as a helpline operator and they can’t be working the 12 hours a day, 5 days a week that the helpline is advertised as open (and the text service is 24/7, apparently):
mermaidsuk.org.uk/staff-and-trustees/