Trusts and Foundations

Thanks to our funders
We are very grateful to our Trusts, Foundations and other grant-making bodies for their support. They enable us to maintain and improve our current level of service, cover core costs and provide new equipment to our members. We can continue with established projects and provide new ones, thereby making it possible for our charity to improve the physical and mental health of people affected by Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s and other related neurological conditions.

Thank you for your support!

The Harpur Trust
A local Trust that has been inspiring and supporting the people of Bedford to help them improve their lives for over 450 years. They have provided us with a generous grant to kick-start our Parkinson’s initiative, enabling us to offer our services to this new community in summer 2024. We now have over 50 people with Parkinson’s benefiting from our therapies and services.
Please do contact us if you have Parkinson’s and are interested in what we can offer.

Panacea Charitable Trust
This charity has provided almost £5 million of funding to more than 100 local organisations and educational programmes.
We have been grateful recipients of their grant for several years, most recently for our project: ‘A Holistic Approach to MS’, which considers the whole person, not just the illness, and supports physical & mental health through core and complementary therapies.

Wixamtree Trust:
Another very supportive Trust, they focus most of their support on organisations and projects that benefit the people of Bedfordshire. We received a generous grant from them for one of the core therapies we offer, our physiotherapy service.

National Lottery Community Fund
We are incredibly grateful to The National Lottery (and the players of the lottery) for awarding us a generous multi-year grant that will help secure the future of our charity. This funding gives us vital stability and confidence to strengthen our impact and continue delivering meaningful work in our communities. Whilst being deeply thankful for this support, we are aware there’s still more to raise; however, this grant provides a very strong foundation for the years ahead.

More support
A heartfelt thank you to the James Tudor, Albert Hunt, and Douglas Arter Trusts for their incredible support. Your generosity enables us to enhance our services, create accessible spaces, and provide life-changing opportunities for everyone who uses our Centre.

Gale Family Charity Trust, Sandy Charities, Bedfordshire Charitable Trust, Potton Consolidated Charities, Northampton Municipal Trust Charities, Ivan & Rebecca Twigden and several other local Trusts
These local Trusts and others that prefer not to be named have been supporting our services for several years. To all of you, a very big thank you for supporting not just our core services, but also the hydro-pool extension that has enabled us to take this therapy to the next level.

National Highways
With sincere thanks for enabling us to redesign our kitchen to make it fully accessible, invest in new equipment to create a more well-rounded and inclusive gym, and transform a former storage area into a dedicated therapy room. Your support has made a lasting difference to the people who use our Centre every day.

February Foundation
We’re hugely grateful for their ongoing support. Over the years, they’ve funded various projects and offered invaluable guidance and advice. Their latest support is for our very popular Oxygen Therapy, helping us reach more people and making a real difference to the people who use our Centre every day.

Frank Branston Charitable Trust
We would like to extend a big thank you to this Trust, managed by the Bedfordshire and Luton Community Foundation, for their support of our hydrotherapy service. This has enabled us to continue providing this essential therapy to our members, several of whom are experiencing a better quality of life, and greater confidence in their daily lives.

The Amateurs Trust
The Amateurs Trust supports charitable causes in Bedfordshire, amongst others, in particular, health related charities.
We would like to thank them for their generous grant towards the exercise therapist role that will have a primary focus on helping people improve their cardiovascular fitness and strength.

Roger & Jean Jefcoate Trust
Roger Jefcoate is a patron of our charity. He was made a CBE for services to disabled people, was awarded the Order of St John and in 2011, he became a Deputy Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes.
The Trust has generously supported our charity for several years.

St John’s Hospital Trust
Formed in the late 1100s, it is one of the oldest trusts in the UK. It was set up to provide a Hospital for poor and destitute males of the Borough of Bedford, who had fallen on hard times. A very supportive Trust, they have provided us with a grant for core services.

Sport England - Movement Fund
We’re incredibly grateful to Sport England for awarding us a generous grant to support our physical activity projects. This funding will make a real difference in helping people who face barriers to being active, whether that’s due to confidence, access, or other challenges. Our projects break down those barriers and create welcoming, inclusive opportunities for everyone to get involved.

Thank you to you all!
We are also very grateful to the Woodroffe Benton Foundation, E A Timson Family Trust, the Strangward Trust, Robert Lucas, the Page Fund, the Samaritans and several others over the years that have made it possible for us to provide our 43 years of service to the neurological community.

Recent Projects

Hydrotherapy pool project:

Hydrotherapy provides multiple health benefits to people with neurological conditions and we refurbished and replaced our old hydro-pool this year in 2023. This has made it possible to extend our hydro-pool facilities to people with other health issues.

We could not have undertaken this large project without the support of several Trusts and donations from members and organisations that appreciate the physical and mental health benefits provided by our hydro-pool.

We would like to thank all the Trusts for their support. We received the first grant for this project from The Childwick Trust. Several other generous donors have asked not to be named.

Equipment:

More than 75% of people with MS have problems with balance, and falls are highly prevalent; it is estimated that 56% fall at least once in a 3 month period. Injuries are common if manual lifting and handling is attempted.

We needed a mobile hoist to enable us to move members with limited mobility without putting unnecessary strain on them or their carer, and reduce the risk of an injury to the lowest level possible.

The Hospital Saturday Fund provides grants of over £2.3million to illness or disability charities. Their generous grant has allowed us to purchase a mobile hoist to help prevent injuries to our members.

Funding our work

If you are considering supporting our work by making a gift through your charitable trust or foundation, we would be delighted to hear from you. We are always happy to talk about all aspects of the therapies and services we provide to people affected by MS.

We will identify the activity or project most suited to your charitable objectives, provide clear proposals and applications outlining the outcomes of your donation, along with the costs for the project.

We can provide you with reports and feedback on the difference your gift has made to our charity.

You are very welcome to visit the MS Therapy Centre and speak to our members, Trustees, volunteers and staff about the work we do and the benefits it provides.

Please get in touch

Please email Swarupa Vaingankar, our Trusts and Foundations Fundraiser today or call us for an informal chat.

Email: trusts@mscentrebedsandnorthants.com
Call: 01234 325781