As Brook Food reach the half way point of their Silver anniversary celebrations, the chosen charity for June was UKIST (UK Infantile Spasms Trust). Brook Food Processing who pride themselves on being a family run business, for the second month running decided to make their donation to a charity close to the heart's of some of their team.
The UK Infantile Spasms Trust (UKIST) provides a network of support to families with children affected by the rare seizure disorder infantile spasms, also known as West syndrome. The charity offers a lifeline to anxious parents via its online community, and works alongside medical professionals to raise awareness of this little known condition, which can be very difficult to recognise – but potentially very damaging if left untreated.
Samia and Steve Sanders who have worked at the Williton based company for a number of years, were left devastated when their daughter was diagnosed with this condition in 2012 and fought as a family for a very long time to get Jorgie’s seizures under control. In 2017, Samia along with a group of other parents whose children had the condition set up UKIST to get awareness and support to parents in a similar situation.
On Sunday 7th July, Ann Wells was delighted to present a cheque to Samia and Jenny Rawling from The UK Infantile Spasms Trust for £1700 and said “It was lovely to donate this month to UKIST. Our colleagues Steve and Samia have been dedicated to raising awareness of Infantile Spasms since their daughter was diagnosed and to support a cause that otherwise receives little understanding or recognition but can be potentially life threatening illness is an honour”.
Jenny who was accompanied by daughter Faith said “We are delighted on behalf of UKIST to accept this cheque, in our second year as a charity we are now in a position to be able to offer Small grants for equipment or therapy to our member families, financial contributions towards epilepsy research and also training sessions for primary healthcare staff, we will be putting this money towards our next round of family grants – thank you very much“.
Samia who was accompanied by Jorgie at the presentation said “this means so much to me, from the day of Jorgie’s diagnosis to now I have had so much support from work from time off for hospital visits and appointments, holding Purple fundraising days, to time off to set up the charity and attending Epilepsy workshops – the support has been huge, to get a cheque for the charity which will help families that are in the same position we were in is amazing – Thank you“.
The Donation to UKIST takes the amount donated so far to various charities a staggering £10,000, By the end of 2019 Brook Food hope to have raised £20,000 for good causes.
