This year the Cats are happy to announce that the chosen charity we will be supporting is Pinderfields Burn’s Club. The club was established to help children face the challenges of suffering a burn injury, in an atmosphere of fun, support and rehabilitation resulting in an improvement in care and experience. It was developed in response to the needs of burn-injured children who lacked appropriate psychological support.
Through regular “Burn’s Camps”, the charity provides children with opportunities that they might not otherwise be given. This includes a variety of activities such as, but not limited to, caving, climbing, canoeing, high rope challenges and orienteering. These camps allow the children to interact with others with similar injuries thus removing the cosmetic stigma, giving them the opportunity to socialise without concern as well as supporting each other with the daily difficulties posed by their injuries.
Pinderfields Burn’s Club has been running for sixteen years and has been run by Tracy Foster for the past twelve years. Tracy has done amazing things in his time; in 2014 Tracey was able to raise enough money to send some of the female group members to an America camp, the camp is specifically for teenage girls who have suffered a facial burn. The charity supports around 170 children, young adults and their families thought out West Yorkshire, North Yorkshire and Humberside area with no cost’s to the families.
In order to keep the club and camps up and running the club needs to raise a total of approximately £30,000 a year without NHS support. These funds come from events which are run throughout the year, previous events have included sponsored jail breaks, masquerade balls and even a take me out event all in the name of charity. Alongside these events, Tracy works closely with the local fire services and relies on support from volunteers.
The club is run by a variety of volunteers whom are drawn from both NHS and non-NHS backgrounds. Roles are not usually part of job descriptions, although some NHS staff may be granted study leave to assist with events.
This year Pinderfields Burn’s Club is hoping to have the funding to send several families to Lapland there will be a large push to raise the money to make this possible. Tracy Foster is planning to abseil Wakefield Cathedral and Humber Bridge. The Wheeled cats are excited to be supporting Pinderfields Burn’s Club, alongside inviting the charity members to come along to one of our games; us Cats are also putting together ideas in order to help raise money for the charity throughout the year.
For more information about Pinderfields Burn’s Club: http://www.burns-club.org.uk/
