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Daisy Chains IW was founded in 2012 and is an Isle of Wight based children's charity. The charity was founded by a group of Island parents who have children that have been affected by long term/life limiting  illness or disability.

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After years of travelling to the mainland for hospital appointments with   their own children they strongly felt there was a need for something to be available on the Isle of Wight  to help those parents who are having to travel sometimes daily to access the care ,equipment and therapies  needed to help their children progress and get better.

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Over the years the main focus of the charity has become the travel needs of these families especially  those needing to get to mainland hospitals for urgent and sometimes life changing treatment, it is little known that there is no funding for these families to make these journeys to the mainland for care and treatment, unless on some very specific benefits. 

 

Over the past 2 years our support for families that have had a premature baby has grown hugely as the NICU unit on the Island has been downgraded meaning that all babies born before 35 weeks usually need to have some sort of stay in a mainland unit, for some this can be a week and others in can be months, we pay for the parents to travel over to spend precious time with their newborn before coming back to the Island unit or home. We also supply these families with a NICU box which is ready and waiting for them at the Southampton unit and contains all the things that baby may need for the first week or so and some emergency bits for mum too. 

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Over the years we have built a great working relationship with Red Funnel who support us with discounted travel and also Wightlink , Hovertravel and South Western Rail enabling us to book and pay for all of the families travel needs so they don't have to worry about organising anything. 

 



The Charity's main aims are;



To help children with long term health problems, a life limiting condition or a Disability that are resident on the Isle of Wight by;

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1. Providing an Emergency Travel Scheme for children/ parents who meet the criteria.

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2. Helping with the cost of General Travel For children/parents to enable them to access treatment, therapy or care.



3. Purchase aids and equipment that will help children progress or be more comfortable that is not available on the NHS.

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4. To Provide travel funding to parents of premature babies that have been transferred to the mainland for urgent care- this is now all IOW babies under 32 weeks gestation. 

 

5. Provide parents of Premature babies transferred off the Island with a NICU box containing all the things the baby needs for the first few days and also a few important bits for mum.

 

6. Provide an annual Christmas party for the family's we care for and also with the help of other companies provide treats and outings throughout the year.

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7. Fund Therapies at various centre's in the UK, that would otherwise not be available.

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8. To Provide 24 hour support to the families we work with and drop in sessions for them to chat over anything they need and also to meet other families in similar situations to themselves .



We are at present open to medically referred  Emergency Travel Grants and self referred general travel grants, we will also consider applications for equipment dependant on funds available .-- 



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