Breaking the stigma with ERIC
This World Continence Week (16-22 June) ERIC, The Children’s Bowel & Bladder Charity have launched a campaign with TV star Mollie Pearce and 8-year-old Katie Thirling, who both have stomas, to raise awareness and break the stigma around bowel and bladder issues.
The pair have teamed up in a new video released on social media this week as part of ERIC’s Summer Appeal. The charity aims to raise £10,000 to support its helpline and support services for families.
Last year, the charity directly supported 6196 families through the Helpline and 2031 families through online webinars, while around 1.6 million visitors came to its website in search of advice – but it is struggling to keep pace with demand.
Siân Wicks, CEO at ERIC, said: “With children’s continence services across the country being cut back in recent years, many areas now have no specialised service for children, which means even more families have nowhere but ERIC to turn. There’s so much demand for our services that we’re only able to answer about 1 in 3 calls that come to us.
“We previously relied on funding from a National Lottery Grant to operate. That grant has now come to an end and we’re facing a shortfall in funding, which could impact our services. We desperately need to raise funds to keep that vital support for families going.
The video can be seen on https://www.facebook.com/ERIC.UK1/
www.instagram.com/eric_charity/ or https://x.com/ERIC_UK , and you can donate to ERIC’s Summer Appeal at
https://eric.org.uk/eric-summer-appeal/
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