The FNC are a local small charity based in Fareham, Hampshire.

Their mission is to improve the wellbeing of adults with learning disabilities and/or mental health issues through activities that help them feel valued within their community.

They run activities throughout the week run solely by volunteers and support staff.

With Public Sector NHS and Adult services facing so many cut backs, the services being offered are greatly reducing whereas the Friday Night Charity now have over 100 people attending one of more of the activities offered which is simply fantastic they are filling this gap and providing such vital support to those who need it in our community.

The Eight Foundation team met with the charity and were blown away by the incredible work they are doing, they just knew they had to help out somehow!

We are delighted to now be fully funding their Wednesday Club, we can see first-hand the huge impact this is having on so many people and is truly humbling to be able to part of it all.

A fantastic example of exactly where your donations go…

The Eight Foundation are thrilled to be able to support a local charity called Ickle Pickles! They work so hard to raise funds to provide life saving equipment for our local Neonatal Intensive care units.

The Eight Foundation recognise the amazing work they do and were delighted to be able to grant them with £5000 to go towards the cost of a brand new, bespoke emergency transfer Pod for the SONNET Team ( neonatal transfer service) based at Princess Anne Hospital Southampton.

This Pod is vital for the safe and efficient transfer of critically sick babies from unit to unit, it is such a vital piece of equipment and we honestly couldn’t be prouder to be able to support this.

The team at The Eight Foundation were privileged enough to be able to visit the NICU to find out more and present them with our donation.

Overwhelmed and grateful I think was a understatement! All of us here at The Eight Foundation thank them so much for all they’ve done and continue to do.

To find out more about the incredible work Ickle Pickles do please visit www.icklepickles.org

Another AMAZING example of where all your donations go… Thank you

R;pple is a local small charity in Stubbington, set up by Alice Hendy. 
Alice set up the charity as a legacy to her brother, Josh, who sadly took his own life in 2020. 
 
Following her brothers passing it came to Alice’s attention that Josh had been searching harmful materials on the internet , and with having a background in cyber security and IT she knew she had to make a change. 
Alice has now setup the charity R;pple.

R;pple is a software tool designed by Alice to provide an interception to anyone who may find themselves attempting to search of harmful materials. 

Once R;pple is installed any attempt to search relevant harmful content becomes unachievable, as instead of directing them to the site, a message of hope pops up! Providing support and relevant help lines.
 
The team at The Eight Foundation found Alice’s story extremely inspiring , the fact that she has channelled her grief into helping others and preventing them from the experiencing pain that she and her family have is admirable. 

When we first met Alice , The Eight Foundation thought… “how can we help?”
With Alice working full time at her day job and volunteering her spare time with R;pple , we noticed she was podcasting from her bedroom and had very limited space. 
 
The Eight Foundation provided R;pple with a grant to build an office space purely for the charity in Alice’s back garden.  This gives her and her staff a separate space to work and really focus on making R;pple a success. 

 We are extremely proud to support this local charity , thanks to all your donations. 
 
To find out more about R;pple please visit www.ripplesuicideprevention.com

Simon was referred to us here at the Eight Foundation by one of our Eight Wealth Management Consultants, Rob Heath

Simon is ex Army, in May 2020 Simon suffered a catastrophic accident leaving him paralysed from the shoulders down.​ He is currently at a centre for rehabilitation, where he is learning how to adapt to his new circumstances and enable him to hopefully return to work one day.​

When we first spoke to the family, we were blown away with Simon’s positivity and perseverance to continue working and providing for his family despite being paralysed.​
 
​To help Simon achieve his goals, The Eight Foundation purchased Simon an up to date laptop built with software to enable him to use speech recognition… honestly incredible!​

Ethan from Eight Wealth Management really took on this project and said it was a pleasure to go and meet Simon’s wife and chat to Simon via video chat… “it was extremely humbling!​”

Simon isn’t quite home yet but he continues to gain strength… I’m sure his positivity really does see him through.​
Once Simon is home and settled we will also be providing them with a week stay in a specially adapted luxury lodge.

Meet Nickki and Lana….

Lana is an 8 year old local girl who has battled with medical conditions, including cerebral palsy, epilepsy and developmental delay, since she was born needing withdrawal from drug and alcohol addiction.  With an outlook that was thought to be pretty bleak and doctors doubted Lana would be able to walk, talk or eat independently. Social services had the difficult task of finding her an suitable adoptive home.

Nickki tragically lost her own daughter, Sara, in 2011. After finding her way through her grief, she knew that she wanted to continue caring. As her house was already fully adapted for children with additional needs and disabilities, Nickki decided to look into foster and respite care.

After their first meeting, Nickki instantly fell in love with Lana. Initial fostering turned to adoption and, when Lana was 3 years old, Nickki officially became her Mummy and created her forever home.

Thanks to the wonderful combination of Nickki’s love, care and support along with Lana’s incredible strength and determination, she not only eats and communicates, but also attends school!

Wanting to continue her phenomenal  progress, Nickki is started to investigate SDR surgery which could see Lana potentially walking on her own. This is when they got in contact with The Eight Foundation.

Nickki told us about a piece of equipment called an ‘IKAN brace’, which would help Lana gain strength before and after her surgery and, in the longer term, allow Lana to stand. We purchased the brace without hesitation and made a visit to see how Lana was doing…

We could not believe our eyes as we saw Lana standing unaided at the kitchen sink in her brace washing up! The more time Lana spends in this brace the stronger she will become and Nickki hopes she will able to start taking steps in the brace soon.

“I honestly can’t thank The Eight Foundation enough for supporting Lana” says Nickki. “The IKAN brace is a complete game changer for Lana, making such a difference to our lives already. To see Lana standing and doing the washing up (she loves to wash up!) is incredible.  I’m sure this brace is going to do amazing things for her… thank you just doesn’t seem enough!“

We are so proud to help Lana on her journey to walking.

If you would like to as well, please visit and share Nickki’s fundraising page, where she is trying to raise £45,000 to privately fund Lana’s Surgery (she does not qualify for it on the NHS) at https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/Lanasdesiretoaimhigher?fbclid=IwAR0IXgaESsp4J01P2WWDR9pW-BI-fhhTg_WcN8OYzu8gln1zHakpeomOtBI 

It is with sadness, but immense gratitude that we are announcing that after over two years with the Eight Foundation, Matt Riggs is to stand down as one of our Trustees.

Having been with us since our launched in September 2017, we couldn’t let him leave without marking the occasion with a little retrospective and so took him to one side for a little farewell chat.

We are so sorry to see you leave the Board of the Eight Foundation, Matt, but we understand that you are moving on to pastures new and wanted to ask you a few questions before you go.

Firstly, what has been your proudest achievement as Trustee of the Eight Foundation?

I think it has been the setting up of the charity as an independent organisation, establishing the structure in which it now operates and welcoming and supporting Victoria as Foundation Manager

Can you give us an example of an activity you personally helped manage?

Taking a team of eight on a cycling challenge from Vienna to Prague. We covered 340 kilometres and saw some beautiful sights – it was an amazing adventure.

Have you undertaken any personal fundraising challenges?

Loads. I took part in a boxing match, cycled 1000 miles in a month, and most recently completed the ‘Baffin and Back’ challenge. I was gutted that I am not standing down after conquering Baffin Island due to Coronavirus, but we adapted the challenge so we still raised over £5,000 which, in the current climate, I think is pretty impressive.

What is his favourite memory connected with the Eight Foundation?

I have two. One was telling a lad called Ben and his Mum that the Foundation was funding a specialised wheelchair he desperately wanted, and the other was handing out over 100 homeless essentials packs to those living on the streets of London. It’s things like that, were you can see the difference you are making right in front of you, that are truly humbling and will stay with me forever.

 What do you feel the Eight Foundation stands for?

For me, the Eight Foundation is based on the fundamental idea of giving something back to the community, and to smaller, independent and individual causes that might get overlooked because they don’t have the resources of big charities.  Putting a smile on a faces of a family or colleagues who work to help others is really fulfilling.  We are heading towards difficult times, lives are going to change and I think we all need to find ways to support each other.

We know that you are standing down as Trustee, but this isn’t goodbye, is it?

Of course not, I’ll still get involved in fundraising, but as life and its commitments change, I wanted to stand down and maybe leave the space for someone with new ideas to have a turn.  I have really enjoyed my time as Trustee, feel as if I gave it 100% and will still be supporting whenever I can.

Kye is a brave young lad who is 12 years old and was referred to us here at The Eight Foundation in October 2019.

Sadly he contracted meningitis in March 2016 which resulted in him losing all four limbs, however despite this Kye is a very upbeat and positive boy who takes everything in his stride.
 
Kye’s family recently fundraised for a bionic arm to be made for Kye and when we hard about him at the foundation we were all very excited to help!
 
After a discussion with his Mother it was decided we would purchase all the physiotherapy equipment that Kye requires to have at home so he can continue treatment outside of his doctored sessions.

He continues to thrive, and all of us here at The Eight Foundation are in awe of his determination.

Harry lives locally in Portchester and was referred to us at The Eight Foundation in July of 2018.

Harry is currently undergoing treatment for a brain tumour, after learning how incredibly brave Harry has been and his absolute love for Spiderman, Victoria & Ian went and met with Harry and his family and presented them with tickets to meet his idol in Disneyland Paris!
 
This means the family could all spend time together away from hospital life and build those all important memories.

The Playhouse Foundation are an organisation covering the Hampshire area, who support children with Autism through their specialised ABA programmes.

The programme provides specialised provision and social inclusion for young children with autism in order to improve functional daily living, communication and interactive play skills.
 
Like with anything the program comes at a cost with some families unable to afford the course privately so when the Playhouse Foundation was referred to us in February of 2019 we were overwhelmed at the work they do and granted them with £9000 to sponsor three little boys called Liam, Leighton & Raem to access the programme.

Act of kindness is a small local charity based in Fareham, Hampshire.

They look to support locals with the help from the community, Kerry who runs the charity is an ex police officer and started up the charity a few years ago with a vision of increasing the community support within Fareham and surrounding areas.
 
Act of Kindness work to support those living in poverty. Helping to resource and find new furniture, clothes, food, household items and anything people may in need require.
 
The local community really do pull together and it was truly inspiring to see! So it was an absolute pleasure for the Eight Foundation to cover the rent payments of £500 per month on their much needed new community storage centre and hub for the foreseeable future! Keep up the good work!