I’m constantly in awe of how much people in Chichester and beyond do to help others. This week I spent some time with The Sussex Snowdrop Trust, who provide nurses to help care for sick children at home with life threatening illnesses. Most of us could imagine nothing worse than your child being diagnosed with a life-threatening illness and the impact on the whole family is devastating as all usual routines fly out of the window. The amazing Sussex Snowdrop Trust nurses have provided at home care and an education in caring for parents, since their founding in 1993. During my meeting, I was told some stories of the 89 families who the charity is currently helping, and that of their own Co-Chairman Kevin Shepherd, who says that Snowdrop has now become part of his family.
As Co-Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for UN Sustainable goals we promote and monitor 17 international development goals. Our progress in achieving these goals relies on large organisations and smaller charity groups. Last week I met some constituents from The One Campaign and Restless Development, which are youth led development programmes delivering volunteer opportunities in 8 different countries. They work in a range of areas running sessions in schools and health facilities, tackling issues such as water-borne diseases, sexual health and access to education. They also continue voluntary work at home, Tanya, who I met, volunteered at St Wilfrid’s Hospice after returning from Uganda.
As an MP, I am lucky to have opportunities to actively support charities and I was literally active this week, when I played wheelchair basketball in Trafalgar Square. The match brought together MP’s from all parties, polio survivors and some of the Team GB Paralympic team, who all came to support The One Last Push campaign to eradicate polio, on World Polio Day. The game was fantastic even if there were a few fouls here and there, unfortunately my team lost by just one basket, but as I said there were a few fouls…
Fortunately the momentum in this campaign is better than mine in a wheelchair, UK Aid recently committed to vaccinate 45million children each year till 2020, saving more than 65,000 children from paralysis. This brilliant campaign is backed by many big organisations including the WHO, UNICEF and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and I was privileged to meet with Melinda earlier this year to discuss poverty, progress and empowering women in developing countries.