MAKING A DIFFERENCE


From small voluntary groups to large organisations with big budgets, Kent has a wide variety of good causes who constantly need help and support to continue their vital work. Here we look at some of the local charities who are going the extra mile to make a difference in their community.


Farm friends A dog named Rex was responsible for the birth of Foal Farm.


A large German Shepherd dog chained to an old van in a yard, Rex was a pitiful sight with a broken and bleeding ear, fur coated in grease and his pads raw. His owner occasionally threw him scraps of food but nobody ever went near or touched him, until Carl Baker spotted him one day in the 1950s.


Carl, a business director, persuaded


Rex’s owner to part with him and took the dog home. Rex snarled once as he walked towards him but seemed to realise that Carl was there to help, and allowed himself to be taken off the chain and put in the car without a murmur.


Soon after, Carl and his wife Penny


took in another neglected dog, Bess, and began to spend more and more time combating animal cruelty and distress. They set up a rescue centre called Friends of Animals League (FOAL), with the aim of saving as many animals as possible and re-homing them.


More space was needed as animals


continued to arrive, and in 1962, the Bakers sold their home and moved to Foal Farm in Jail Lane, Biggin Hill. Now a registered charity, Foal Farm Animal Rescue Centre accommodates 400 animals who are neutered, microchipped, vaccinated and given medical treatment.


Horses, donkeys, cows, pigs, sheep,


goats, chickens, ducks and geese spend their natural lives there if no permanent home can be found, and no healthy animal is ever destroyed.


Volunteers and visitors are


welcome. The centre is open daily except Tuesday and forthcoming events include Bunny Sunday, complete with Easter Egg hunt on March 27, and a sponsored dog day out on Sunday, April 17.


40 Mid Kent Living


Since starting Share a Star from her bed in 2010, Jessica, who lives at Cliffe Woods, Medway, has helped more than 500 sick youngsters and siblings by organising day trips, sending personalised gift packs with positive messages of hope and providing bereavement support. She aims to make each youngster feel special by sending them unique handmade stars featuring their favourite things


The charity’s new venture, Oakley’s Outings, also enables seriously ill youngsters with complex needs to go on a wish day with their family. Jessica was a happy active teenager before she became ill, but spent four years in hospital with severe ME as well as other painful illnesses. For two years she had to be fed through a tube and for 18 months was unable to speak.


She works closely with a number of


hospitals and local charities and has been honoured with a Points of Light award from Prime Minister David Cameron, which recognises outstanding individual volunteers.


Sharing the sparkle Jessica Taylor, who has spent years bedridden with severe Chronic Fatigue System, also known as Myalgic Encephalitis (ME) has set up a charity to bring back the sparkle into the lives of severely unwell children and teenagers.


Healing conversations Perhaps you know of someone – a family member or friend – who has encountered an often sudden change in their circumstances caused by the onset and diagnosis of a disability or other long-term condition.


It could be a parent whose child is diagnosed with autism or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or someone in middle age diagnosed with diabetes. Too often, psychological support for the individual and their family is not offered or is beyond their financial means.


Based in


Maidstone, the Hearsay Charitable Trust is a registered charity which provides rehabilitation counselling, therapy and support for children and families, whose lives have been affected in physical, psychological or emotional ways, maybe through illness, accident or trauma.


Founded by Dr Kitty Morgan-Jones, the trust now has its own office and counselling room at 12 Mill Street, thanks to Gullands Solicitors who have provided the space free of charge. The counselling is supported financially by the trust, although some clients make donations towards the cost.


The charity also provides training


through workshops and courses for those who encounter people with disabilities, specifically people at work, teachers, health professionals and social workers.


Dr Morgan-Jones is a British


Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy senior practitioner whose specialist work is with people with hearing loss and more general disability.


For more information, visit www.hearsay-trust.org.uk.


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