Sutton support group for parents of children with additional needs set to launch fundraising day

The Staff of Life pub of West End, Sutton – will host a fundraising event for the support group Send United on Saturday, October 22.

Send United is a support group for parents of children with additional needs.

The group started over Facebook messenger but has since become an active charity and constituted group and now has a permanent base in Sutton.

Natalie Lewis, one of the group’s founders and a parent of a child with additional needs, said: “We are local mums and carers with children with additional needs who started off as a group chat.

“We then became a Facebook support group where we can support each other, give advice, and seek advice.

“We can talk to other parents and carers in a safe space who understand. As our group gradually got bigger, we decided to set up coffee mornings for parents and carers.”

She said: “We then decided to form a small charity constitution group called Send United after we secured a venue based in Sutton.

“We continued providing coffee mornings, family fun sessions and day trips too – it just grew from there and has been a great outlet for families.

“We know how isolating it can be and we wanted to support other local parents and carers. We have carried out one fundraising event already, but we are excited to be running another fundraising day in October.

“Fundraising efforts will help with continuing to hold our coffee mornings and family fun sessions. It will also help provide more toys, games and sensory resources and monies can go towards day trips and transport costs for myself and my team.

“With some of my team being Lindsey Evans, Chris Radcliffe and Laura Lee – we are all in this together. We want to continue supporting and helping families of children with additional needs of all ages as much as we can. We would love for the public to come down and enjoy a fun day out as well as supporting us raising money for a good cause.”