£245,000 of Funds
£245,000 TO HELP SICK AND INJURED PEOPLE
The Chairman of the WPH Charitable Trust has recounted the highlights of his first year in the chair after steering almost £245,000 of funds to help make life easier for sick and injured people.
More than 170 grants – medical and non-medical – have been handed out since Consultant Respiratory Physician Peter Handslip took the helm.
All grants were awarded to people with physical or mental health issues living in the Coventry and Warwickshire area.
The smallest grant – for £50 – was used to buy a microwave oven while the largest – for £14,325 – was used for home adaptations to enable the occupant to live downstairs in their own home.
Other recipients over the past 12 months include the Police Community Clubs of Great Britain which used its £700 towards a programme for primary school children in Coventry and Leamington to raise awareness of gang culture and knife crime on the streets.
In Coventry, Ezekiah Alphonse, who was diagnosed with glaucoma at the age of 13 and gradually lost his eyesight throughout his teens and 20s, received a new lap top, screen reading software and speech software to enable him to study an access course in social sciences with a view to reading for a degree at Coventry University.
The Trust also donated £2,500 to enable a Warwickshire woman and her special needs son to relocate to a new home after leaving a violent relationship.
Warwick Medical School received £3,935 to train 200 medical and life sciences students to deliver certified life-saving CPR and defibrillator training to fellow students on the Warwick University campus and to members of the community.
The Trust also awarded £5,000 bursaries to three medical students at Warwick Medical School.
The bursaries are awarded to students with a connection to Coventry and Warwickshire who would otherwise struggle to finance their degree, and who have been accepted into WMS.
Mohit Sembi was among those to receive the bursary last year.
He said: “Receiving this award towards my first year of university has allowed me to accomplish a number of things without the financial burden that being a student brings. It has allowed me to purchase a range of tools, equipment and software to help aid my learning, but has also helped with the smaller things such as transportation costs and food shopping – I would typically have to work alongside my course to fund these.”
Speaking of his time in the chair Peter said: “Over the past year we have made a number of awards which are not large sums of money but have helped make a huge difference to people’s lives. For just a few hundred pounds we have been able to change people’s fortunes which has been excellent.
“I am proud of our achievements over the past 12 months and we all look forward to continuing to build on this over the year to come.”
For further information on how the WPH Charitable Trust can help you or your organisation log on to https://www.warwickshirehealthcharity.org.uk/
