News

UPDATE

COVID 2020-21

The Children’s Clinic for Cornwall is continuing to operate.  Please contact the Clinic on 01208 872867 for latest information.  The current Government Guidance is here: https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus

March 2016

The Children’s Clinic recently raffled off a beautiful handmade quilt made by Kathy Woodley from Degembris Farmhouse and we raised over £130. Many thanks to Kathy for her lovely quilt.

February 2016

Degembris Farmhouse raised £1000 for the charity by holding their Big Breakfast and served a whopping 154 breakfasts in one day. We are very grateful as this is not the first time they have raised money for us.

August 2015

Lost in Song held 4 events throughout August along the river and at the first one our charity was chosen to “rattle” buckets. We managed to raise over £200 from the generous people of Lostwithiel! Our sincere appreciation goes to the people of Lostwithiel and to Lost in Song.

September 2014

Demand for our complementary therapies of cranial osteopathy and paediatric acupuncture continues to rise as more and more babies and children come for treatment.  Last winter’s wet weather made two of our practice rooms in the old part of the building extremely damp and unusable for quite a while.  Building surveyors told us that we needed to slate the outside wall and dry line the inside walls.  The estimated cost was £25,000 – a lot of money for a small charity but luckily, our friends and volunteers have come up trumps.  We are exceedingly grateful to the Clare Milne Trust who have given us £10,000, also a private donor, who wishes to remain anonymous, who gave us £9,000, the Duchy Health Charity who gave us £3,000, the Fowey River Lions who have given us a £500 donation, the Tintagel Orpheus Male Voice Choir who donated £500.   The Fisherman’s Arms at Golant donated £110 from their Quiz Nights, the Corby family held an open garden day and raised over £700, our Sponsor a Slate has raised well over £600 – our Trustee, Vicki Hibbs has held a sponsored run and sponsorship money continues to come in.

The building repairs have now been completed.  Without everyone’s help, we would not have been able to carry out these renovations – A very BIG THANK YOU to one and all.  Come and see what we’ve done – we are now fully prepared for the busy winter ahead.

DONATIONS  2013  

We had our AGM at the Clinic on March 10th 2014, and one thing we discussed was our fundraising efforts over the past 12 months and all the donations the Children’s Clinic received. We would like to say a massive THANK YOU to everyone who has chosen to support Children’s Clinic for Cornwall, enabling us to subsidise treatment for children.

We have been given nearly £1000 from Degembris Big Breakfast, £1,000 from the Marris Trust, £400 from the Howarth Family, £200 from the Lerryn Yoga Group, and over £100 from Maria Hamley Allan.  L Hudson has also given the Clinic over £100 and we have received £100 from the Lostwithiel Ladies Group and £50 from Menheniot Women’s Institute.  Dr. Hannah Bowen’s coffee morning raised over £200 and a further £50 has come from local donation boxes.   We are a charity which relies on local support to keep us up and running, so THANK YOU, it is all very much appreciated.

If you would like to hold a coffee morning to raise money for the Children’s Clinic, we will be able to subsidise even more children’s treatments.   Get in touch with the Clinic by phone  01208 872867  or email us through our contact page.

CAR BOOT SALE of Books and DVDs – We raised £106.60 on Sunday, 21st April, 2013 at Par.  Many thanks to everyone who inundated us with books and DVDs!  Cold work but worth it.

FUNDRAISING UPDATE – 24th April, 2013 – A very kind donor who wishes to remain anonymous has given the Clinic a cheque for £500.   This will help towards the cost replacing the window broken by the thieves in March and also goes towards subsidising treatments for children.  People have been so generous – the Fish and Chip Shop in Lostwithiel has given us £50, and we have received another £100 from another donor, and some smaller donations of £10s and £20s.  People were horrified at the break-in and have been overwhelmingly generous in coming forward to help us.  All of us at the Clinic is so appreciative of their help – a big thank you to everyone.

DISGUST AS THIEVES TARGET CHARITY  (Front Page Story – Cornish Guardian 13th March 2013)

Patients and staff at the Children Clinic for Cornwall were horrified after a callous break-in and theft at their Lostwithiel premises.

Some time between 7 pm on the night of Thursday, 7th March, and 8.30 a.m. the following morning a double-glazed window and frame were destroyed and petty cash stolen from the Clinic in the Market Square.

Kate Hands, Cranial Osteopath and Principal of the Clinic said “glass was everywhere in the reception area.  It was such a pointless break in as we never leave large sums of money on the premises and our practitioners don’t prescribe drugs but the mess was indescribable.  It really has pulled us all together – our patients were horrified and felt their clinic had been violated  and we all worked together to get the Clinic tidied up so it was business as usual.”

Because we are a charity and have to pay for the replacement window and glass, our local carpenter, Graham Rule, has kept the cost to a minimum.  The building is also the home of the Lostwithiel Complementary Health Clinic, which treats all age groups and funds the clinic – which means the charity’s overheads are covered and all excess income goes directly to treating children who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford it.  Having to pay to replace the window from our charitable funds is a blow – but we are grateful for everyone’s support.”

Jess Birmingham, one of the clinic’s practitioners and Cornwall’s only paediatric acupuncturist, said “staff managed to meet all their existing appointments by bringing the old reception area back into action and switching round treatment rooms, but felt the break-in was a real shame. The thief won’t have got much money”, she said, “just a bit of petty cash and the donations this month for second books, but it would have been used to subsidise treatments for children from low-income families.”

That’s how the clinic originally came into being:  to offer non-conventional treatments by experienced practitioners with specific paediatric training to all children, regardless of their family’s income.  We also treat adults as well, for a really wide range of conditions and it’s a lovely clinic, supported by local volunteers and really valued by those who use it. It is believed between £15 and £20 was taken.

2010  There have been some great fundraising events over the spring and winter – here are just some of them:  Sarah Jane King, artist and jeweller in Tremar Coombe, Liskeard, opened her studio for a week in June, and as a great supporter of Kate Hands and the Clinic, donated £70 to us. Many many thanks from us all. Our heartfelt thanks to Jazmine Wileman raised over £170 for the Children’s Clinic by creating and producing an evening of dance at Truro School. The Degembris Farm Big Breakfast – Kathy Woodley and Hannah Elford together made over 100 breakfasts on the 12th March which made £400 for the Children’s Clinic – a very big thank you from everyone at the Clinic. The fashion show in Lanlivery organised by Rosemary Truscott made £200 – well done Rosemary. And thank you to Emily Kidd of Emily’s Cakes who donated £100 at Christmas – over and above the 15% from the sales of her cakes.  Our thanks too to Beth Charles who made £50 with a table top sale in the Lostwithiel Scout Hut, Looe Lions – once again, the Lions have come up trumps and have given us £250 to go towards extending the central heating into the rooms in the old part of the building.  After this cold winter, a much-needed improvement which has now been completed. So a big thank you to Looe Lions. All of us involved with the Clinic are very very grateful for your help and support. Our thanks to you all.

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l to r : Paul Chivers, Sandra Lloyd, Kate Hands, Lizzie Morgan and Mike Scantlebury

March 2009 We were presented with a very large cheque for £3,757 in front of the members of the Lanhydrock Golf Club on Thursday, 26th March. The Club Captains, Paul Chivers the Club Captain, Sandra Lloyd the Ladies Captain, and Mike Scantlebury the Seniors Captain, joined forces this year to make us their Charity of the Year and have run many events to raise money for the Children’s Clinic. Kate Hands, the Clinic’s Principal, and Lizzie Morgan, trustee and fundraiser, were on hand to collect the cheque and all of us connected to the Children’s Clinic thank the members of the golf club for their tremendous support. Sandra Lloyd, the Ladies Captain, said “It’s great to support a small local charity which does such good work helping local children and have fun at the same time”. A heartfelt thank you from all of us at the Clinic.

February 2009  Our fundraising efforts over the winter have brought in several more very generous donations from the Clare Milne Trust, the Tanner Trust, and just this month a very welcome donation from the Garfield Weston Foundation. We are very grateful for this support, especially as now the building work is finished we can concentrate on providing even more subsidised treatments to the disadvantaged children of Cornwall.

PRESS RELEASES 8th September 2008

“Great news again for the Children’s Clinic for Cornwall  the Hilton in the Community Foundation have just awarded us £10,000 to go towards match funding the £20,000 awarded to us by the Duchy Health Charity in April this year. As a result, building work is now well under way converting the garage of the Market Building in the car park in Lostwithiel. providing the Clinic with a much-needed large new reception with a treatment room above.Last winter, every time it rained, water flooded into the garage and the wind blew in through every nook and cranny! This winter will find us snug and warm but we still need to raise another £15/20,000 to finish the job, so fundraising will continue in earnest. We have another ceilidh planned for the autumn and our charity shop will resume as soon as building works allow.The Hilton in the Community Foundation and the Duchy Health Charity are not the only ones who are supporting us – Lanhydrock Golf Club have chosen us as their Charity of the Year, as has Cornwall Army Cadet Corps. Local Lions Clubs have been very supportive, and we have had many generous donations from individual donors, including HRH Prince Charles, the Duke of Cornwall.The Clinic will now have four treatment rooms to meet the growing demand.Our other exciting news is that Jess Birmingham, the West Country’s first and only paediatric acupuncturist, has moved down to Cornwall so that she can work at the Clinic. She assures us that she only uses the finest sterile needles and that it’s practically painless. Acupuncture has been found to be particularly successful in treating squints, sinus and adenoidal problems, dental development and many other childhood conditions. The need for the Charity is growing – one-third of families in Cornwall don’t have an adult in full-time employment – and more and more babies and children are being sent to us by local paediatricians, midwives, teachers and simply by word of mouth. We’re doing our best to get there. The Clinic is staffed by volunteers – if anyone wants to help or get involved or give us a donation to help reach our target, give us a ring on 01208 872867 or call in to see us. The Children’s Clinic for Cornwall is now open four days a week on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and every other Wednesday.”

May 2008  “The Children’s Clinic for Cornwall, based in the Market Building in the Market square in Lostwithiel, goes from strength to strength. We’ve just been told by the Duchy Health Charity that they are granting us £20,000 to go towards our building project (to convert our garage to make two more practice rooms and a larger reception room, together with heating, lighting, and full disabled access and facilities). We are thrilled to have received the Duchy Health Charity’s support – although we have to match these funds before they will give it to us, so our fundraising efforts are going ahead at full steam. We had a very successful ceilidh and raffle in January which raised over £1000 and our disco at Lostwithiel Golf Club last month was a great success. .The Duchy Health Charity are not the only ones who are giving us their help – Lanhydrock Golf Club have chosen us as their Charity of the year and are planning to hold a fashion show later in the year with the proceeds going to the Clinic, and HRH Prince Charles the Duke of Cornwall has also kindly sent us a large donation, so we’re going to get there! Fowey, Looe and Bodmin Lions Clubs have helped us towards our disabled toilet and local Rotarians and local businesses are giving us their support and help.The Clinic has been set up to help children of low-income families receive subsidised complementary health therapies, such as cranial osteopathy, homeopathy and acupuncture. We have an eight week waiting list for new referrals for cranial osteopathy (although we will always fit in an emergency if we can) – and we can’t get another cranial osteopath on board until the building work is completed. A catch 22 situation. The need is there and more and more children are being sent to us by local paediatricians, midwives, teachers and simply by word of mouth. We’re doing our best to get there. The Clinic is staffed by volunteers and every Friday, Amanda opens our emporium in the garage where all sorts of things like toys, games, bric a brac and books are available in return for donations.If anyone wants to help or get involved or give us a donation to help reach our target, give us a ring on 01208 872867 or call in to see us – we’re now open three days a week on Thursday, Friday and Saturdays”