Toy pri-mates to help seriously ill children stay connected with classmates

Area:

Wales

Programme:

Awards for All Wales

Release date:

19 2 2013

Toy monkeys will act as substitutes for schoolchildren while they are away from class with a brain tumour or other serious illnesses thanks to a project launching in Wales for the first time.

Some 43 community-based projects across Wales share in the £164,203 awarded under the latest round of the Big Lottery Fund’s Awards for All small grants programme (full list of awards at the end of the release. Please contact Ben Payne to obtain full project descriptions).

Launching across Wales, Brain Tumour Buddies receives £5,000 for its Monkey Buddies scheme. The group will provide ‘monkey kits’ created by the Love, Chloe Foundation (USA) which include the large soft toy monkey substitute for the classroom and a smaller primate which stays with a child diagnosed with a brain tumour or other serious illnesses including other types of cancer and neurological conditions.

Kits will also include a journal, photo album, disposable camera, badge, pens and pencils as well as a backpack which the monkey wears to school so the child and classmates can exchange notes and photos during any absence.

And a teacher pack will have resources to help explain what is happening to the child, provide more of an understanding about brain tumours and outline challenges faced during and after treatment.

Natalya Jagger, of Brain Tumour Buddies, said: “Alongside a diagnosis of a serious illness comes time away from school. This can be a day here and there or maybe weeks or months at a time – this can be hard for a child and their classmates. Monkey kits will give children an opportunity to stay involved and in touch with one another.

“We hope to build partnerships with hospitals and organisation within Wales dealing with children with brain tumours and other serious illnesses so that we can reach as many children as possible, and help them maintain a great relationship with their teachers and classmates.”

A survey of parents, medical professionals and social workers, conducted by the project, found there was a real need for children and their classmates to stay connected.

“The survey helped us to understand the difficulties children diagnosed with brain tumours and other types of cancers go through when they have to spend large periods of time away from school and their friends,” added Natalya. “We were also able to get a better understanding of the ways we could support teachers during the patients’ illness and when the pupil plans to return to school.”

Other groups benefitting from the latest round of funding include A Different Beat which will use £4,990 to deliver 28 sensory workshops for adults, young people and children with learning difficulties in Powys and Monmouthshire. Sessions will improve communication, confidence, behaviour and development of motor and cognitive skills.

Lynn Kay, from A Different Beat, said: “It will enable us to provide multi sensory music workshops to people who could not otherwise live arts activities due to a combination of poverty, rural isolation and disability.”

Rhondda Breast Friends (RBF) in Rhondda Cynon Taff gets £4,910 to provide counselling services, a pamper day and social outing for women diagnosed with breast cancer while Yale College in Wrexham receives £5,000 to set up a new audio digital service for blind and partially sighted people, informing them about travel updates, local news and magazine-type local issues.

Rhondda Breast Friends centre manager Christina Ryan said: “The grant will provide us with a unique opportunity to reach a wider audience and raise public awareness of what RBF offers. In addition, the funding will also enable us to provide increased therapy and counselling sessions for our members, together with assisting them with transportation costs.

“Some of our members are house bound due to their illness and do not have transport, so now we can continue to provide transport enabling them to attend bi-monthly meetings held at our Centre in Porth. The funding will enable us to continue the much-needed support for our members.”

Meadowlane Primary School in Cardiff will spend £2,481 on a Clever Chefs after school club to promote healthy diets and as St David’s Day approaches, Pared Gwyl Dewi Aberystwyth in Ceredigion gets £2,258 to hold a parade on March 1.
         
Gareth Williams, Awards for All Programme Manager for BIG in Wales, said: “Awards for All is having a positive impact throughout Wales. Money is helping to establish groups, societies and clubs, promoting learning, increasing volunteering opportunities and helping to build stronger communities.”      

Available in English and Welsh, application forms are available to download from www.awardsforall.org.uk or by phone on 0845 4 10 20 30.

Full list of awards

Further Information:
Ben Payne - Big Lottery Fund Press Office: 02920 678 224
Out of Hours Contact: 07500 951 707
Public Enquiries Line: 08454 102030                           Textphone:  0845 6021 659
Full details of the Big Lottery Fund programmes and grant awards are available at: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk
Ask BIG a question here: https://ask.biglotteryfund.org.uk
Follow BIG on Twitter: www.twitter.com/biglotterywales
Find BIG on facebook: www.facebook.com/biglotteryfundwales 

Notes to Editors
• In Wales, the Big Lottery Fund is rolling out close to £100,000 a day in National Lottery good cause money, which together with other Lottery distributors means that across Wales most people are within a few miles of a Lottery-funded project.
• The Big Lottery Fund, the largest of the National Lottery good cause distributors, has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK since its inception in June 2004. It was established by Parliament on 1 December 2006.
• Since the National Lottery began in 1994, 28p from every pound spent by the public has gone to Good Causes. As a result, over £29 billion has now been raised and more than 383,000 grants given out across the arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment.

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