Summer 2020
The Thyroid Trust secures emergency funding to keep going through the Covid19 pandemic
Less than a year after completing our registration with the Charity Commission, the global Covid19 Pandemic hit and suddenly all charities were facing catastrophic funding challenges as there was no such thing as "business as usual". We don't have lots of established relationships with funders yet, we don't have any legacy income, we don't yet have lots of people making regular monthly donations to support our work, we don't yet have financial reserves to protect us in hard times, or an active base of lots of community fundraisers around the country holding tea parties, quizzes, or other activities to raise extra funds to support our vital work. We are still really just getting started and working towards building up all of these things. Setting up a brand new national charity has been an epic task and now it all looked exceptionally precarious in the face of these unprecedented times.
And so we are thrilled to announce that our application for emergency funding to see us through the pandemic this year has been successful!
We have been awarded £15,000 through the National Lottery Reaching Communities Fund. We found out in June and have been using the funds since then to keep going, in particular supporting our community of thyroid patients and working to continue to build and connect our volunteer team, on awareness raising activities, our events programme which is now online, sharing reliable information, collecting patient experiences and working behind the scenes to devise our long term strategy and develop our advocacy resources and plans, to push for improved access to treatment options and better care and understanding of the needs of thyroid patients.
All of this work is vital and it has to continue. We hope to emerge from the pandemic stronger and in better shape because everything we are doing now is about strengthening the platform we have created, to give thyroid patients more of a voice and better access to information and support, to work collaboratively with partners, sharing information, learning together and growing our impact, together.
Everyone who has supported us to date and who is coming on board to support us now is amazing and we are so grateful, but when you look at other health conditions and see the scale of the organisations which represent other patient groups, well we are nowhere near being what we need to be, to be able to do all the things that need doing for thyroid patients. And of course most of us have thyroid disease and that can be debilitating at the best of times. The shock of the pandemic has knocked us all a bit for six, as it has done to everyone, everywhere and every type of organisation.
Back in March, we had been excitedly planning entering a team to run the Asics London 10K, which would have been our very first mass participation fundraising event. After weeks of uncertainty over that, the event was of course cancelled. One of our fundraisers, Mike, was training for the Milton Keynes marathon as well and garnering support for that, including from his lovely colleagues at Transport for London. Of course that event was cancelled too. Undaunted, the Team continued to fundraise and planned their own solo activities centred around International Thyroid Awareness Week in May, Lorraine and Helga ran around their home towns dressed as butterflies (the thyroid is a butterfly shaped gland thing), tracing routes that spelled THYROID, Karen devised a 25km cycle route in the shape of a butterfly, taking photos on the route to spell THYROID, brother and sister Sam and Victoria ran 10K round the Isle of Thanet and our brilliant treasurer Stephen ran 10K in London - between them the team (pictured above) raised an amazing - £3276, including Gift Aid!
So it is with a sense of enormous gratitude to everyone who has supported us so far - and determined optimism for the future, that we post this update.
THANK YOU to our volunteer fundraisers, everyone who has supported them and all who have make direct donations to support our work. And for this hugely significant grant - THANK YOU to everyone who has ever bought a National Lottery ticket.
Your support means the world!
And so we are thrilled to announce that our application for emergency funding to see us through the pandemic this year has been successful!
We have been awarded £15,000 through the National Lottery Reaching Communities Fund. We found out in June and have been using the funds since then to keep going, in particular supporting our community of thyroid patients and working to continue to build and connect our volunteer team, on awareness raising activities, our events programme which is now online, sharing reliable information, collecting patient experiences and working behind the scenes to devise our long term strategy and develop our advocacy resources and plans, to push for improved access to treatment options and better care and understanding of the needs of thyroid patients.
All of this work is vital and it has to continue. We hope to emerge from the pandemic stronger and in better shape because everything we are doing now is about strengthening the platform we have created, to give thyroid patients more of a voice and better access to information and support, to work collaboratively with partners, sharing information, learning together and growing our impact, together.
Everyone who has supported us to date and who is coming on board to support us now is amazing and we are so grateful, but when you look at other health conditions and see the scale of the organisations which represent other patient groups, well we are nowhere near being what we need to be, to be able to do all the things that need doing for thyroid patients. And of course most of us have thyroid disease and that can be debilitating at the best of times. The shock of the pandemic has knocked us all a bit for six, as it has done to everyone, everywhere and every type of organisation.
Back in March, we had been excitedly planning entering a team to run the Asics London 10K, which would have been our very first mass participation fundraising event. After weeks of uncertainty over that, the event was of course cancelled. One of our fundraisers, Mike, was training for the Milton Keynes marathon as well and garnering support for that, including from his lovely colleagues at Transport for London. Of course that event was cancelled too. Undaunted, the Team continued to fundraise and planned their own solo activities centred around International Thyroid Awareness Week in May, Lorraine and Helga ran around their home towns dressed as butterflies (the thyroid is a butterfly shaped gland thing), tracing routes that spelled THYROID, Karen devised a 25km cycle route in the shape of a butterfly, taking photos on the route to spell THYROID, brother and sister Sam and Victoria ran 10K round the Isle of Thanet and our brilliant treasurer Stephen ran 10K in London - between them the team (pictured above) raised an amazing - £3276, including Gift Aid!
So it is with a sense of enormous gratitude to everyone who has supported us so far - and determined optimism for the future, that we post this update.
THANK YOU to our volunteer fundraisers, everyone who has supported them and all who have make direct donations to support our work. And for this hugely significant grant - THANK YOU to everyone who has ever bought a National Lottery ticket.
Your support means the world!
More about the National Lottery Award
The Thyroid Trust, a newly registered patient-led charity for people affected by thyroid disease, has been awarded £15,000 by the National Lottery Community Fund, to keep going through the pandemic. This funding takes us through to the end of 2020.
Prior to the pandemic our events have so far all been held in Central London, with plans to do more in other areas as we grow our volunteer network. We have been alternating between Crown Court Church in Covent Garden and Palestra in Southwark, kindly supported by Transport for London. Since March 2020 all events have been online and we have been learning how to make best use of the technology, including publishing videos of some of our previous talks and making new videos.
We peer support and access to reliable information for thyroid patients in London and from further afield. The charity also advocates for thyroid patients and raises awareness of thyroid health related issues at a national level.
As a new and very small charity, which has grown from a group of patients who have been meeting regularly in London since 2010 and who have been advocating for thyroid patients nationally since 2017, we are overjoyed to have this recognition of the quality and importance of our work, which comes on top of funding already recieved last year from National Lottery Awards for All, for our ongoing events programme.
Thyroid disease is common and can be highly debilitating, though it’s effects are often not well understood or taken as seriously as they deserve.
We are continuing to fundraise energetically to support our vitally important advocacy, development and awareness work and for our future events from 2021 onwards. If you are interested in supporting us we'd love to tell you more about our plans and ways you can get involved. Please support us.
The Thyroid Trust has been primarily supported, to date, by Federated Foundation, whose generous support is ongoing. We are now starting to reach out to other potential funders who can help us deliver our plans for this year and our ambitions for the future – to increase our impact over time. St James's Place Wealth Management have kindly given us a grant of £1,000 to support our work to develop our volunteer team. We are working hard to identify other potential Trusts and Foundations who may like to help us.
Everyone is welcome at our events for people affected by thyroid disease, including friends, family and interested professionals. Find out about our upcoming events here: Events.
We peer support and access to reliable information for thyroid patients in London and from further afield. The charity also advocates for thyroid patients and raises awareness of thyroid health related issues at a national level.
As a new and very small charity, which has grown from a group of patients who have been meeting regularly in London since 2010 and who have been advocating for thyroid patients nationally since 2017, we are overjoyed to have this recognition of the quality and importance of our work, which comes on top of funding already recieved last year from National Lottery Awards for All, for our ongoing events programme.
Thyroid disease is common and can be highly debilitating, though it’s effects are often not well understood or taken as seriously as they deserve.
We are continuing to fundraise energetically to support our vitally important advocacy, development and awareness work and for our future events from 2021 onwards. If you are interested in supporting us we'd love to tell you more about our plans and ways you can get involved. Please support us.
The Thyroid Trust has been primarily supported, to date, by Federated Foundation, whose generous support is ongoing. We are now starting to reach out to other potential funders who can help us deliver our plans for this year and our ambitions for the future – to increase our impact over time. St James's Place Wealth Management have kindly given us a grant of £1,000 to support our work to develop our volunteer team. We are working hard to identify other potential Trusts and Foundations who may like to help us.
Everyone is welcome at our events for people affected by thyroid disease, including friends, family and interested professionals. Find out about our upcoming events here: Events.
for everyone affected by thyroid disease
We are a small independent charity. We receive no government funding and are reliant on donations for our income. Please support us.
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Please contact us if you would prefer to make a direct bank transfer to donate via any other means, or if you are interested in volunteering. Proud members of the following organisations
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Supported by National Lottery Community Fund. Thank you to all National Lottery players.
Correspondence ADDRESS71-75 Shelton Street, London, WC2H 9JQ
The Thyroid Trust is also known as TTT and Thyroid Friends Network,
Registered Charity Number 1183292 Registered Address: 15 GREAT COLLEGE STREET, LONDON, SW1P 3RX Copyright asserted 2019 - Our consititution and all policy documents can be viewed on request. Read our Privacy Policy updated 23/5/18, . |
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