DREAMFLIGHT, and CRUSE
The Speaker at the May monthly meeting was Miss Ruth Graham NI Co-ordinator of Dreamflight, an organisation founded in 1986 by Patricia Pearce and Derek Pereira. The charity’s aim to bring seriously ill children between the ages of 8 and 14 on the Holiday of a lifetime to the theme parks of Florida. The first trip was for 288 children for a period of 5 days and was supposed to be a one-off experience but it was so popular it was decided to keep going. The NI Group consists of 16 children and is called the Scooby Doos. The charity is run by 5 Trustees and invitations are assessed in June, attend a safety training day in London in September, and the trip goes out on 17th – 27th October accompanied by a Leader, 1 doctor, 3 nurses, 1 physio, and 3 non-medical assistants. In America there are weekly and daily helpers. The cost per child is £3,000 and the total cost is in the region of £700,000. Anyone can nominate a child for Dreamflight. BA assist to an extent but Ruth gave examples of the benefit of Dreamflight to the children. More information can be found on the web at www.justgiving.com. Member Jackie is also involved in Dreamflight, and goes with the children on the holiday trip.
Ruth then proceeded to give information on the work of Cruse which offers help and support to bereaved people which includes support to families. Services are free and 53% of bereaved people are referred by GPs and other social carers. Volunteers are given training and are assessed before and after training to ensure they are doing the work for the right reason. In the past year 33.000 hours were expended by volunteers in this work and some funding is received from the DHSS. There is a local Group which meets in the Robinson Hospital Ballymoney.