A helping hand for struggling parents

How Vicky channelled her grief into something positive

to leukaemia just after her first birthday was devastating for Vicky Turner.

But it wasn’t only the grief that Vicky, 33, had to cope with. Before her daughter’s death in 2015, she had experienced the awful financial pressures faced by many parents with a seriously ill child.

“If a child has been sick for a long time, families often find themselves in debt because they can’t work,” says Vicky. “If your child dies, you want to give them the best possible funeral because it’s the last thing you can ever do for them, but without savings that can be very difficult.”

Wanting to do something for other bereaved parents in need of financial help, Vicky, an accountant, set up The Isabel Baker Foundation.

She backed a successful campaign in Parliament for the Children’s Funeral Fund, which provides support for funeral costs, but she knew there was more that could be done.

Then a request from a family whose child was being treated for cancer gave the charity a new focus.

“The child had a Hickman line: a catheter going into their chest, which couldn’t get wet. That meant they couldn’t go swimming, paddling or even have a bath without a drysuit,” explains Vicky. “I thought it would be a great idea for us to start providing these.”

Now, as well as giving around 150 food vouchers to struggling families each year, the Foundation supplies drysuits – which cost around £300 each – to local families who need them.

“It’s just the best feeling when people tell us how the suits helped their child have a happy holiday; swimming or enjoying a paddling pool in the garden – things most kids take for granted,” says Vicky. In October last year, Vicky successfully applied for £10,000 of funding from The National Lottery. “It’s making a huge difference, allowing us to focus on fundraising so we can buy more drysuits,” she says. By playing The National

every week* for good causes like The Isabel Baker Foundation.

Now Vicky has been nominated in this year’s National Lottery Awards, which celebrate the ordinary people using National Lottery funding to do extraordinary things.

This year’s awards have six different categories, with the winner of each receiving £5,000 for their organisation.

Do you know someone who has gone above and beyond to inspire change, brought their community together or taken on a major challenge? Nominating them is easy using the website below.

“I couldn’t believe I’d been nominated,” Vicky says. “It’s just lovely to be able to do something as Isabel’s mother, in her name, for other children.”