STORY: Brook donates £10k to charity

As Brook Food reaches the half way point of its Silver anniversary celebrations, the chosen charity for June was UK Infantile Spasms Trust (UKIST).

The UKIST provides a network of support to families with children affected by the rare seizure disorder infantile spasms, also known as West syndrome.

Samia and Steve Sanders, who have worked at Brook for a number of years, were left devastated when their daughter was diagnosed with this condition in 2012 and they fought as a family for a very long time to get Jorgie’s seizures under control. In 2017, Samia along with a group of other parents whose children had the condition, set up UKIST to increase awareness and support to parents in a similar situation.

Last weekend Ann Wells was delighted to present a cheque to Samia and Jenny Rawling from The UK Infantile Spasms Trust for £1,700 and said: “it was lovely to donate to UKIST this month. Our colleagues Steve and Samia have been dedicated to raising awareness of Infantile Spasms since their daughter was diagnosed and to support a cause that otherwise receives little understanding or recognition but can be potentially life-threatening illness is an honour ” .

The charity offers a lifeline to anxious parents via its online community, and works alongside medical professionals to raise awareness of this little known condition, which can be very difficult to recognise – but potentially very damaging if left untreated.

Samia, who was accompanied by Jorgie at the presentation of the cheque, said “this means so much to me, from the day of Jorgie’s diagnosis to now I have had so much support from work, from time off for hospital visits and appointments and holding purple fundraising days, to time off to set up the charity and attend epilepsy workshops – the support has been huge, to get a cheque for the charity which will help families that are in the same position we were in is amazing.”

The donation to UKIST takes the amount donated to various charities to £10,000. By the end of 2019, Brook hopes to have raised £20,000 for good causes.