Andrew’s Story: 

I would like to express my heartfelt thanks for [the Foundation’s] incredible generosity and kindness in awarding me the grant to purchase a mobility scooter.

Words cannot fully express how grateful I am. Since having my stroke, everyday life has become much more challenging. Living with pain, discomfort, and reduced mobility has made even simple journeys difficult, and there were many places I could no longer enjoy visiting. At times, it felt as though I was losing my independence.

Thanks to your support, I will now have a renewed sense of freedom and confidence. The mobility scooter will make such a positive difference to my life. I will be able to get out and about with much greater ease, visit family and friends, enjoy catching up over a coffee, attend appointments more comfortably, and once again take part in everyday activities that many people take for granted.

This wonderful gift will give me back more than just my mobility—it will give me a sense of independence, improve my wellbeing, and give me something to look forward to each day.

It will make a real and lasting difference to my quality of life.

Your generosity, kindness, and compassion have touched me more than words can say. I will always be deeply grateful for the support you have given me and for believing that I deserved this opportunity.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for helping me regain my independence and for making such a positive difference in my life. Your kindness will never be forgotten.

J’s Story:

Hi my name is J, I got put into foster care when I was 6 years old. I had been moved from house to house for a few years until I got placed with my current family who introduced me to dance. When I was younger I used to be quite hyperactive, I was always moving and throwing myself about wherever I went. My foster mum had a friend who was a dance teacher so she thought of taking me to some dance classes to see if I would enjoy it. I absolutely loved it.

I think the main thing I loved was being seen on stage. I used to love showing off and making everyone smile with the tricks that I performed. Once I got older and more confident in dance I thought I wanted to go somewhere a bit more challenging, my foster parents were very supportive of this idea. So that is what I did. It was very daunting because most of the people at my new dance school were at a much higher level at dance than the people at my old dance school. Every week I got better and better, I was a lot more experienced in shows and overall my passion for performing grew immensely.

As a child with many elaborate dreams, one in particular stood out. I knew I wanted to be a professional dancer. So I did every extra curricular activity I could to help with my Performing arts: school productions, Choir, gymnastics, everything I was able to do. Looking back at it now, I am so grateful for my foster parents who paid my tuition fees, drove me to every rehearsal and who supported me in every way they could to make me happy. Despite not being academic at all, I tried my best to pass the GCSE’s I needed to pass in order to get into my dream college.

With the support of my foster parents I managed to pass more than I needed to. In the end I achieved 6 GCSE’s which I am very proud of. Fast forward a few years to now, I am in full time education at my dream dance college in Dartford which provides amazing training for the industry ahead, and going into my second year, I will be auditioning for prestigious performing arts Universities which is very exciting, and I couldn’t have done it without my foster parents.

This summer, I managed to go to a summer school at my dream University called Urdang. It is very hard to get into with only a 10% acceptance rate but the training is unbeatable. I absolutely loved the summer school and gained so much valuable knowledge about the school and performing in itself.

I am so grateful to By The Bridge who applied for funding for me. There were about 8 positions given out by the course and I managed to get one which is amazing and I am so grateful that they see potential in me. My dream after University is to perform on West End stages and I am going to work hard to get to that stage of performing. So the moral of the story is, if you had a bad start in life, because trust me I didn’t have a very pleasant one, you can always come out on top if you put your mind to it.