by Giles Sheldrick

SPECIAL people in need of help spoke yesterday of how The Health Lottery has changed their lives.
Only three months after its launch more than £8million has been raised for local good causes, helping millions of the young, elderly, vulnerable and disadvantaged.
The incredible cash injection is a lifeline for scores of charities and smaller organisations.
Lesley Meacham, family support worker at ADAPT Prembabies, has helped thousands of parents of premature babies at Leicester Royal Infirmary since the charity was founded in 1995.

A Health Lottery grant means she can now take on an extra worker. “We don’t fit into the normal criteria for a lot of funding streams, so The Health Lottery provided us with a lifeline,” she said.
“We were at the point of thinking that by Easter we would be winding down, but this money means we can continue to provide invaluable advice and emotional support to parents at an extremely traumatic time. We are over the moon.”
In these tough economic times money from The Health Lottery has been invaluable.
Linda Jennings, WRVS’s head of quality and service development
Health Lottery cash is enabling Admiral Nursing Direct to help the rising tide of dementia sufferers. Its lead nurse, Ian Weatherhead, said: “There are 750,000 people with dementia in the UK and that is going to double in the next few years. Everybody is susceptible, it affects the entire family and whole structure of communities.
“We’re delighted to receive Health Lottery funding as these vital grants have helped us establish new Admiral posts to provide emotional and psychological support, going through the whole journey of someone with dementia as the illness changes over the years.”
The Health Lottery has a simple aim – to make local life better.
But it has also created vast wealth for its many winners. Tickets cost £1, with 20p in every pound going to good causes.

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/296359/Thank-you-How-Health-Lottery-gave-over-8m-to-good-causes