Art therapy cash appeal

Fundraising: Teapot Trust helps children with physical and mental issues Fatal blast firm is fined

The Teapot Trust has launched a funding appeal to support the art-based therapy it undertakes with youngsters at the Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital.

Its new campaign, “doART Heroes”, calls on individuals to give regular donations that will let the trust provide a dependable income for its therapists.

They provide vital art therapy treatment for children battling physical and mental health conditions.

The name of the campaign was chosen to encourage supporters of the trust to see themselves as heroes for raising awareness and funds for the trust.

The campaign’s illustrations of capeadorned figures were drawn by one of their young patients and they even have a mascot in the form of Doug the therapy pug, who now boasts a knitted super-hero cape.

Trust chief executive Sarah Randell hopes the campaign will highlight the impact creative activities can have on a child’s wellbeing.

Ms Randell says that the unique therapy is modelled to meet a child’s

WELLBEING: Teapot Trust art therapist Emily Farrugia, helping provide ‘something of real value’ – but the organisation relies on donations

individual needs and 92% of patients said it helped them come to terms with their diagnosis and the long-term, sometimes life-limiting, effects of their condition.

“Teapot’s art therapy has child-led goals and child-friendly progress tracking such as by using emojis, seeking to manage children’s anxiety, build their resilience, and improve their selfexpression and self-worth.

“We know we’ve got something of real value,” added Ms Randell.

“As the chief executive, I want it to be more readily available to all young people who need it and I hope this campaign can facilitate that.

“We’d also love people to have fun with it, by dressing up in superhero gear and sharing pictures on social media, for instance.”

To encourage people to sign up to doART Heroes and contribute what they can, the Teapot Trust is giving donors the chance to win an iPad if they sign up by the end of December.

The Teapot Trust launched the art therapy service at the Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital in 2014.

Over the past five years it has helped transform the lives of many local children and young people.

As the trust does not receive any funds from the NHS or Scottish Government, it is reliant on the generosity of individuals.

To support the trust’s work, visit teapot-trust.org A steel company has been fined £1.8 million after two engineers were killed in a factory explosion following riskassessment failings.

Celsa Manufacturing Ltd admitted breaching health and safety regulations which led to the deaths of Peter O’Brien, 51, and Mark Sim, 41, at the firm’s steelworks in Cardiff.

Cardiff Crown Court heard a lack of safety procedures led to a pressurised oil tank exploding at 10.30am on November 18 2015, while it was being drained in the factory’s basement.

An oil heater which would have switched off automatically were it not for an electrical fault caused the liquid to turn to vapour, creating a flammable atmosphere inside the tank which ignited and caused a “catastrophic” explosion.

Judge Neil Bidder criticised Celsa for not imposing a recognised set of instructions on how to safely drain the oil tank, describing its approach as “simply a recipe for disaster”.

Celsa must pay the fine within six months.