Charity CASE STUDY: FAMILY TRAGEDY
A DENTIST in her early 30s, with three children under the age of six, was working part time when her husband, aged 34, had a stroke. This devastated his wife, who wanted to spend time
with him if possible, and had a major affect upon the development and behaviour of the children. His mobility and speech are still severely affected,
but he is about to return home after nine months in hospital and rehabilitation. He is scarcely able to care for himself for more than
an hour or two, and certainly cannot be left to care for the children at all. The fund has helped them with their living costs,
while he has been in hospital, and is now helping them with a care package to enable her to return to work and start to rebuild some normality of life for them all.
“We’re here to help dentists and if the profession’s going to look after itself, we need
people to make donations” Philip Sutcliffe
Continued »
after her, providing routine 24-hour care without relief. She heard about the fund and got in touch, and we were able to give her some money to have a break.” Another was “a dentist, termi-
nally ill, unable to look after three children, and the fund was able to back up care provided by relatives and friends so that, at least, things could keep going and that the breadwinner in the house was able to keep working.” A third example was of a dentist
seriously injured in a car accident. “As a young man he’d had leukaemia and made a full recovery but has never been able to take out income protection,” said Philip. “Sick pay from the NHS came
to an end, his savings ran out. He got in touch with the fund. We assessed his needs and gave him a regular grant until he recov- ered and was able to get back to work.” With the spirit of seeing
the need, not the cause in mind, he added: “That’s the sort of thing that happens to people who don’t deserve to be in a mess and, even if they do deserve it
22 Scottish Dental magazine
they’re still in a mess.” Did Philip and his fellow trustees
ever get the sense that, perhaps, some colleagues in need were too proud to ask for help? “I was told by a Scotsman many
years ago when I was a student that there’s a phrase ‘as cold as charity’, and it stuck with me,” he said, adding that the increased number of applications suggest that pride is not a factor. Once people apply, the Ben Fund
deals “as sympathetically, rapidly, humanly and decently as possible” with their need. There is, said Philip, “no shame
in being ill, having an accident and although you may not feel proud of yourself, getting into financial difficulty.” He explained: “The general
manager visits all of our appli- cants. That discussion fleshes out the beneficiary’s need. Some- times, that’s enough. It helps them see their own problems in a particular way and, sometimes, they’ll be able to say they’ll sort out their situation and just get on with it. “Otherwise, their applications
then go to the executive committee and they’ll decide how best we can respond. That means either
a grant, an interest-free loan, whatever’s practical.” “Someone from the trustees will
visit the beneficiaries annually, just making sure what we’re doing is appropriate.”
Looking to the future Is there a need to increase the Ben Fund’s profile and speak to a technology-savvy genera- tion through the internet and the social networking website phenomenon? “We’re stepping up, we’re
re-developing our website and we’ve very recently gained a new administrator – Mary Barton – and this is where her skills lie. However, online or offline, Philip
says the spirit of the message to colleagues remains the same. “We’re here to help dentists and
if people need help, we ask them to get in touch with us, and if the profession’s going to look after itself, we need people to make donations of money.
® BDA Benevolent Fund 64 Wimpole Street, London W1G 8YS 020 7486 4994 (24 hour answerphone) Email:
dentistshelp@btconnect.com www.bdabenevolentfund.org.uk
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