Charity guide: donate to change lives
CAMP SIMCHA
WHEN YOUR CHILD is diagnosed with a serious illness, keeping family life going as normal can feel impossible.
Camp Simcha’s Rosh Hashanah campaign this year focuses on the impact of the charity’s practical, therapeutic and emotional support services in helping families keep their lives together after a devastating diagnosis.
The charity supports UK families coping with more than 50 serious, chronic and life-limiting childhood illnesses including cancer, genetic illnesses, muscular conditions and gastrointestinal diseases, as well as premature babies. It also announced this month that serious mental health conditions would be among those illnesses where Camp Simcha would offer family support — responding to an increasing need in the community.
As part of the campaign, Camp Simcha parent Kimberley Gabriel has spoken about the huge impact on her family when, at just four months, her son Rocco, was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy type 1 — a rare, genetic condition which affects all the nerve cells and muscles.
A trial drug has enabled Rocco, now aged four, to defy expectations; however he is unable to walk, crawl, eat or swallow, needs daily physio and a machine at night to help him breathe. He is also much more vulnerable to infections.
“In the first two years after Rocco was diagnosed, we were in hospital endlessly, in and out of intensive care with one hospital stay lasting six months,” says Kimberley. “I had three older children, aged eight, six and five at the time and was pregnant with my youngest.
“Our life was in complete turmoil so when Camp Simcha came to see us and told us all the ways they could help, it felt like the lifeline we desperately needed.
“The hospital transports were vital because Rocco has to lie flat for the suction and on the breathing machine. Then there was the household support — a hot meal when I got back from hospital, shopping when I couldn’t find time for it, and volunteers who would take the other kids out and then bring them to the hospital to see Rocco.
“When we were in crisis, Camp Simcha helped us keep it together.”
When we were in crisis, Camp Simcha helped us keep it together’