Dear Hero Golfers and Glamorous Lunchers!

What a year 2020 has been.

I do hope this finds all of you enjoying good health and having at least managed to enjoy a good summer, unaffected by the exams debacle or quarantine?

After many discussions with the amazing team at Royal Wimbledon (and with what I appreciate is very little notice), I am thrilled to announce that Down’s South London will be able to help you shake off those COVID-blues with this year's instalment of the charity’s annual golf day!  Huge thanks to all of you who have already been in touch and booked your places; for the rest of you, please do not hesitate to confirm your (or your team's) place as the COVID restrictions means that numbers are strictly limited to 30 golfers only.

Very disappointingly, the necessary regulations mean that the Club is not allowed to host a larger lunch party, so there can be no Glamorous Lunchers this year.

But that still enables all of you to play a significant part in DSL’s future.  As you will all doubtless have read and heard, the pandemic has hit charities exceptionally hard as regular donors understandably draw in their belts and purse strings.  Your collective support over the last 13 years has made an enormous difference to DSL and the amazing therapy and support the charity provides.  Those of you who were able to join us last year will doubtless remember my son Ru, himself a DSL alum, speaking to us about how important your support is.  Any support, whether financial or as auction prize donation, that you can show will be hugely appreciated.

Despite everything that has happened in these most extraordinary recent months, I am pleased to set out, amazingly for the 14th time, the day’s joining instructions. Before launching forth on those, however, some “thank yous”

 To all of you

for such tireless and generous support year in and out, meaning that we have now raised over £450,000 for this special little charity that provides so much help and support. Few things amaze and humble me like your generosity.

To the RWGC team

you are going to find the course in fantastic fettle and will enjoy the wonderful RWGC hospitality. None of this would be possible without the tireless efforts of Robert, Marie, Mehmet, Simon, Jenny and the team.

To DataSite
yet again repeating their hugely generous support of our small charity and the amazing work it does.  They really are such a great partner and have supported DSL for nearly 10 years as brilliantly as they “deliver the goods” for their clients.

Of course, it is not too late for others to follow them and stick their
hands up to co-sponsor all or part of the day 😉

Update on DSL’s activities

Also, recognising that with so little notice many of you will not be able to make it (or in the case of Glamorous Lunchers may not come this year – sorry again), here is a bit of an update on activities at the charity since we last were in touch – it would, after all, be remiss of me not to take this opportunity to remind you again just what it is your generosity goes to support, how much we value your commitment to our cause and how careful we are in managing the Charity’s resources to deliver the best services possible. 

Your donations really do go a very long way to enabling us to fund the £3,500 per year it takes to provide a free total therapy care package for a local child.  Please remember that the therapy package is:

- unavailable anywhere else in the country

- provided for free to children from the age of three months; starting this young has a real impact on future speech development as does, amazingly, the impact of OT and PT

- in great demand, as witnessed by DSL's ever-renewing waiting list and approaches from people outside our catchment area

- accessed in particular by those in society who are less fortunate than all of us and who need such support, perhaps, more than anyone else.

I am so proud of the way DSL has reacted to the pandemic

Our therapists have delivered a full schedule of sessions to all children and their carers.  Using Zoom, we have been able to keep all the children’s development continuing to progress and, at least as importantly, have been able to keep the families and carers well networked and supported.  Additionally, we have run some “Singing Hands” Makaton sessions for all families.  Below are some feedback messages we have received to give you a flavour of the impact your donations have had, and dare I say hopefully will have too…?

“We would like to say that [your] sessions are a big surprise for us and definitely strongest educational asset in lockdown that we can provide to our son...”

“DSL have been brilliant during lockdown making sure we all are safe and supported, as well as continuing [child’s name] therapy online and developing programs for home learning, and being really supportive when we are struggling.”

“I’ve also been meaning to email and say that I think all of the DSL team have done a great job of completely adapting the way you’re delivering therapy to us all in such a short period of time. It can’t have been an easy task and we’re very grateful that you’re still offering us therapy.”

“I got the most lovely email from Charlotte this afternoon - so nice what we she said about all the ways [child’s name] has developed since doing sessions on lockdown, but also the impact on her other children too.”

We start this new school year with a solid current reserves position of about £45,000.  But we are inevitably desperate to protect our financial position that will weaken very quickly if we are not successful in raising new funds.  Please remember that any donations you are able to make will be spent solely on providing therapy to the
children and secure our future in these highly uncertain times.  DSL is determined to continue to maintain its high ambitions: 

- Our continued investment in the independent assessment tool we use to evidence the progress made by the children we support is providing great insights and helping us further to evidence the impact of the charity’s work.

- Our monthly “Stay and Play” meeting for all members and their children continued to be a great hit with families until lock down.

We replaced (and enhanced) these with regular Zoom Makaton signing and singing group sessions with “Singing Hands” (www.singinghands.co.uk) to help maintain connections and support.  While the sessions were generally run for the children, the parents’ “Wine & Sign” session we ran one evening had over 70 households joining – now that really is some impact of your donations!

Inevitably, some of our activities have had to be curtailed, such as parent social evenings. As you have read above, however, we are being as creative as possible to ensure the support continues.  In fact, I would be surprised if some of the initiatives we have introduced do not endure for many years to come.

As the impact of COVID hopefully abates, we are really looking forward to restoring some of those currently paused services, as well as continue to seek new members, increasing the number children and families to support.

As you will remember, everything is focused on helping the children to accelerate their development so that they can be integrated as easily as possible into their school communities and society as a whole, as proven by those of us whose children are older and are proving just what a difference the therapy makes.

Thank you all for your support. Your generosity never ceases to humble Louise and me.  It also promises to make the day another hugely successful fundraiser for the charity.