Dame Vera’s plea as charity faces its darkest hour

WILL Dame Vera Lynn’s Children’s Charity ever meet again? I can reveal that it may have to close because the coronavirus crisis has left it in desperate financial straits.

The news comes just days after the 103-year-old singer’s wartime classic We’ll Meet Again took pride of place in last week’s VE Day 75th anniversary celebrations.

Dame Vera, pictured in her Forces Sweetheart heyday, tells me: ‘I would be so upset if the charity were to close due to lack of funds after all the good work it has done over the years.’

The Dame Vera Lynn Children’s Charity (DVLCC), which relies entirely on personal and corporate donations, has helped more than 600 families with children born with cerebral palsy and other motor learning impairments since its foundation in 2001.

In normal times the Sussex-based charity, which has ten employees, provides hands-on educational group sessions, swimming and music therapy among other services. But during the lockdown it has been offering one-to-one and small group video sessions for families using Zoom, as well as providing them with exercises and activities that they can do with their children. Dame Vera’s daughter Virginia LewisJones says: ‘The charity, which is very close to my mother’s heart, has achieved so much over the last two decades but is now in desperate trouble due to the coronavirus-linked hit to its finances. There is a real danger that it might have to shut up shop for good, which would be a terrible blow to Ma, and more importantly, to all those children and families who are currently benefiting from the charity’s range of support services.’

The charity’s executive director, Pilar Cloud, adds: ‘With all of our upcoming fundraising events cancelled or postponed and not yet rescheduled, we will lose out on £80,000 to £120,000 in income this year, which will have a devastating impact on us.

‘We need a six-figure cash injection just to secure the immediate future of the charity.’