Archive

The 2019 Charity Partner is.....Spinal Injuries Association (SIA)

Posted by Narinder Uniacke on 21st May 2019

The October Club is delighted to announce that their charity for 2019 is Spinal Injuries Association.

“At Spinal Injuries Association (SIA), we believe that all spinal cord injured (SCI) people have a right to live a fulfilled life, with the same opportunities as everyone else.

Shockingly, this is not the case. Two out of every three newly-injured people (around 1,700 people every year) are not admitted to a specialist spinal injuries centre. Instead, they are treated and cared for, sometimes for extended periods of time, in non-specialist settings. Many of the healthcare professionals in these non-specialist settings lack the knowledge and skills to meet the most fundamental life-challenging needs of people with spinal cord injuries. Consequently, a crisis is emerging, risking people’s lives.

In response, SIA pioneered a SCI Nurse Specialist project. Our expert SCI Nurse Specialists work alongside healthcare professionals in non-specialist settings to ensure that the basic needs of spinal cord injured people are met, for example, their bowel, bladder and skin care management. They respond to daily requests for help from SCI people across the country as well as enhance SCI expertise amongst healthcare professionals through the delivery of a wide range of training courses.

Through our partnership with The October Club we will transform care for spinal cord injured people by rapidly upscaling this successful project and, at the same time, building the evidence base that will drive lasting changes to policy and practice. As a result, people across the country who are paralysed by spinal cord injury will at last be able to rely on the essential care and support they need to rebuild their lives and achieve their full potential.”

Nik Hartley OBE, Chief Executive, Spinal Injuries Association

Henry Knapman, Chairman of The October Club said:

“The October Club has a very successful 31 year history of supporting smaller charities and their transformational projects. We have a transparent and rigorous application and selection process and are delighted to announce that, from many initial applications, our 2019 charity will be Spinal Injuries Association. We greatly look forward to working with them to transform the reach and impact of their pilot, supporting 1,000 spinal cord injured people directly per year, educating 1,000 healthcare professionals per year and building the evidence base that will drive lasting changes to policy and practice."

We hope that you will join us in trying to raise as much money as possible for this truly amazing cause.

www.theoctoberclub.co.uk

www.spinal.co.uk

Notes: For the past 32 years The October Club has been transforming good causes. Each year we identify a UK-based charity with a project, or projects, in several UK regions which could be transformed with our funding. In total the Club has now raised just over £11m and in recent years the average raised per dinner has been £500k, making our event the single biggest of its kind in the sector today.