Registered No. 1169127
Please Take Me There Financial Statements For the Period Ended 31 December 2021
| Contents | Page |
|---|---|
| Message from the Founder | 2 |
| Trustees’ Annual Report | 3-7 |
| Statement of Trustees’ Responsibilities | 8 |
| Legal and Administrative Details | 9 |
| Receipts and Payments Account | 10 |
| Statement of Assets and Liabilities | 11 |
| Notes to the Financial Statements | 12 |
Please Take Me There Message from the Founder
The founder and trustee, Fernando Pinho, presents his statement for the period.
Since our inception in 2015, we’ve offered more than 6,000 trips to hospitals to children with cancer and their families. Now, through research and the trialling of new solutions, we hope to transform how children get to vital care while supporting their families through some of the most challenging times they’ll live through.
Despite the challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021 and the current cost of living crisis, our small volunteer team kept working to ensure that, one day, no child with cancer faces difficulties travelling to and from life saving cancer treatment.
Today, 12 mums and dads will receive the news no parent ever wants to hear - your child has cancer.
But because there are only 19 hospitals in the UK best equipped to diagnose and treat young people with cancer, on average, they travel 60-mile round trips to get treatment. That's twice as far as adults with the same illness.
But it gets worse. In the East of England, children with cancer and their families travel on average 90 miles. Families like Esmé's made 105-mile round trips each time she needed to come to Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge.
It costs many families hundreds of pounds each month to get their children to and from their hospital appointments - costs like fuel, car parking, car maintenance, train and bus tickets and taxi fares. Many children travel up to 200 times to hospital over a period of two to three years.
Families with no access to a car have to rely on the kindness of a friend or relative. Others have no choice but to take public transport, which can be life-threatening for vulnerable children with compromised immune systems.
And despite 70% of families saying they need help travelling to hospital, only 6% receive financial support from the NHS.
This is why in 2021, we focused our attention and efforts on developing a dedicated transport service for children with cancer in the UK.
Starting in the East of England, we want to provide young people and children with cancer, free, net-zero, non-emergency transport to and from their hospital appointments by no later than 2023.
We need to come together and do this for them. And with your help, I know we will.
Fernando Pinho
Founder, Trustee
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Please Take Me There Trustees’ Report for the Period Ended 31 December 2021
The Trustees present their Report and the financial statements for the period ended 31 December 2021. This report has been prepared in accordance with the provision under section 133 of the Charities Act 2011 which allows for the preparation of Receipts and Payments accounts by charities with income less than £250,000.
The Amélia Project Foundation is a UK registered charity (No. 1169127) in England and Wales and has adopted the working name Please Take Me There.
Our principal operating office is:
9 Hills Road Cambridge CB2 1GE
OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES
Access to transport changes everything
One billion people in the world live without access to adequate transport infrastructure.
Something as simple as transport can have a huge impact on the lives of sick or struggling children all over the world. Medical and family support is available, but children face the hidden challenge of getting to the location where such medical and family support is provided? They need to overcome seemingly impossible journeys.
In developing countries, children with cancer need to find a way to reach the one hospital in the country that can offer treatment – sometimes, the hospital is up to three days away. Some families sell all they have to pay for transport. They often give up treatment because the journey is too complex and expensive.
In the UK, travel expenses for children with cancer are often unmanageable, amounting to hundreds of pounds a month, and journeys to appointments, consultations, treatment and important family gatherings, become unattainable.
Young cancer patients often travel twice as far – a 60-mile round trip on average – and at double the cost of an adult diagnosed with the same illness. And, in certain parts of the country, this average is considerably higher – roughly 90 miles in the East of England and almost 130 in Cornwall. Not to mention all those children who have to travel abroad or stay away from home for long periods.
Please Take Me There was founded to help change this situation. We believe transport is a human right priority, and we want to help those in need to get access to it, giving them access to healthcare, new opportunities and empowering their lives.
We are a volunteer-led charity. Our main objective is to enable access to transport facilities for persons worldwide who have special needs such facilities because they are elderly, poor or disabled, people with young children or those living in isolated areas where there is no adequate public transport.
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Please Take Me There Trustees’ Report for the Period Ended 31 December 2021
Supporting families
At Please Take Me There, we are helping people get to places they need to be and have a life of hope, dignity and opportunity. Whether a child needs to have access to treatment, or palliative care, be reunited with their family, or have a well-deserved break from treatment, we are there for them. In partnership with other charities, we assess the transport challenges faced by communities and develop, test and implement sustainable solutions with an immediate impact on hundreds of children.
Put simply, Please Take Me There does the following:
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We identify communities or groups of patients at risk due to inadequate transport provision or affected by poverty.
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We assess and implement transport solutions to increase access to healthcare.
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We run pilot projects to determine the effectiveness of new transport ideas.
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We pay for the transport of children and adults with cancer, and other conditions, who can’t afford to travel for treatment or are experiencing financial hardship.
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We raise awareness among charities, local government and the general public for the positive impact that adequate transport can have on people’s treatment and lives.
ACHIEVEMENTS AND PERFORMANCE
The impact of COVID-19 and the cost of living crisis on our charity
The unexpected event of the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant effect on our ability to fundraise and gave us the opportunity to revise our priorities and the way we operate.
In 2020, the British government suspended and then cancelled the funding for our programme in Myanmar. Furthermore, the charity saw a reduction of 42% in donations.
Despite the expected loss in donation revenue, we supported the Myanmar programme – even throughout the military coup in early 2021.
While the pandemic created a very challenging environment to work in, it also allowed us to refocus on our programme in the UK.
Over a period of 12 months, we studied the impact of inadequate transport support on young people with cancer in the UK. The report and proposals were presented in November 2021.
The third lockdown in early 2021 and the cost of living crisis have further affected our fundraising activities.
However, we are optimistic; the presentation of the report ‘When We Get There ’marked the restarting of our fundraising campaign and the first steps towards creating a dedicated transport service for children with cancer. We are seeing a good response from our local community to this campaign.
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Please Take Me There Trustees’ Report for the Period Ended 31 December 2021
Programme Highlights of 2020
Myanmar
In the summer, the British government announced a substantial reduction in funds made available to foreign aid. In early 2021, we received confirmation that the government had cancelled the funding for the project developed in partnership with World Child Cancer.
In February 2021, the Myanmar army took power in a coup criticised by the International community.
Both the cancellation of funding and the coup caused extreme difficulties in ~~running~~ the programme in Myanmar, including the impossibility of visiting the country and the programme.
Nevertheless, despite the unforeseen challenges, we continued to support our partner World Child Cancer with the technology and systems used by the social care team at the Paediatric Oncology Unit at Yangon Children’s Hospital.
United Kingdom (East of England)
In 2021 we published the report “When We Get There”.
Following its publication, we started a campaign calling on the government to create a Young Patient Travel Fund. This fund should be available to all children and young people with cancer in the UK, be based on need (not income) and cover all costs associated with safe travel to and from cancer treatment.
At the time of writing this report, we’ve started a fundraising campaign to create a dedicated transport service for children with cancer and their families in the East of England, as proposed in the report “When We Get There”.
Access to the service will mean families no longer have to worry about paying for transport or asking friends and family for a lift. They'll also be able to pre-book or request the service as needed, seven days a week.
Our electric cars will be driven by specially trained staff and provide the comfort of a spacious family vehicle.
We are looking for an initial funding of £135,000, so we can hire and train a dedicated team, get access to two vehicles and create the service by no later than the end of 2023.
In response to the current cost of living crisis and the potential negative impact on fundraising, we’ve created a reduced version of the service with one vehicle only budgeted at £69,868/year.
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Please Take Me There
Trustees’ Report for the Period Ended 31 December 2021
Future Developments
Successive lockdowns and the cost of living crisis are affecting the capability of us as a small volunteer-led charity to raise awareness for our campaigns.
Nevertheless, we are fully committed to raising the necessary funds to implement the first of the three stages of a dedicated transport service for young people with cancer in the UK, starting in the East of England.
The fundraising campaign “Walk to Hospital” will invite the public to walk to their near Principal Treatment Centre in support of children being treated there.
With the support of our community and grant funding, we believe that 2023 will be the year when families in our region of the East of England will finally have access to a transport service dedicated to children fighting cancer.
Implementing a dedicated transport service for young people with cancer is our priority for the next decade, with three milestones expected in 2023, 2026 and 2032. The programme details can be found in the "When We Get There” report.
The Board of Trustees is currently working to increase the number of trustees to include representation of our beneficiaries and aviation and ground transportation experts, increasing the number of trustees from three to a maximum of eleven members.
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Please Take Me There
Trustees’ Report for the Period Ended 31 December 2021
FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE
The main source of income for the charity is donations made by private donors and supporters. For the year ended in 31 December 2021 the amount of donations and other revenue received was £20,577.
Reserves and Reserves Policy
In deciding on the level of reserves required, Please Take Me There has considered the environment in which it operates, the risks it faces, its strategic and operational objectives and the type of income it receives. Furthermore, Please Take Me There wishes to ensure that essential services to beneficiaries can be maintained, particularly given the vulnerability of the children and the families who are helped by the organisation.
As a result, Please Take Me There has adopted a policy of having reserves sufficient to ensure 12 months' worth of direct annual programme costs are covered: as each programme's budget is agreed annually and the majority of the programmes do not have alternative sources of funding.
As of 31 December 2021, Please Take Me There meets its reserves policy. Reserve committed to direct programme costs in Myanmar in 2022 were £5,000, and the Charity’s free reserves, equivalent to its unrestricted monetary assets, were £13,295. This excess will ensure activities can continue as the Charity transitions to a post-pandemic environment and for the creation of a dedicated transport service in 2023.
The reserves policy is reviewed annually to ensure it is appropriate and offers satisfactory safeguards to the charity's beneficiaries, its staff and other relevant parties.
STRUCTURE GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT
Constitution and Organisational Structure
Please Take Me There is constituted and governed by a constitution dated 9 September 2016. The Trustees are responsible for the overall governance of the Charity.
The number of Trustees shall be not less than three persons. Trustees shall, in the ordinary course, be appointed by resolution of the Trustees.
Trustees
Ana Pessoa Fernando Pinho Robert Dyer
Officers
There were no senior officers in place for the period.
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Please Take Me There Trustees’ Report for the Period Ended 31 December 2021
Statement of Trustees’ Responsibilities
The Trustees are responsible for preparing the Trustees’ report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).
The law applicable to charities in England & Wales requires the Trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charity and of the incoming resources and application of resources of the charity for that period. In preparing these financial statements, the Trustee is required to:
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select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;
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observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP;
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make judgments and accounting estimates that are reasonable and prudent;
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prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charity will continue in operation.
The Trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records that are sufficient to show and explain the charity's transactions and disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Charities Act 2011, the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.
Approved by the trustees and signed on their behalf by:
F Pinho Trustee
Date: 12th October 2022
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Please Take Me There Trustees’ Report for the Period Ended 31 December 2021
Trustees
Ana Pessoa Fernando Pinho Robert Dyer
Charity’s Address
9 Hills Road Cambridge CB2 1GE
Legal Status
The charity is a foundation CIO registered on the 9 September 2016. Charity Commission registration No: 1169127 Please Take Me There is the charity’s working name.
Bankers
Natwest 56 St Andrews Street Cambridge CB2 3DA
Accountants
Peters, Elworthy & Moore Chartered Accountants Salisbury House Station Road Cambridge CB1 2LA
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Please Take Me There Trustees’ Report for the Period Ended 31 December 2021
| Unrestricted Funds Year ended 31 Dec 2021 £ |
Unrestricted Funds Year ended 31 Dec 2020 £ |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £ | £ | |||
| Receipts | ||||
| Donations Other Revenue |
17,655 2,922 |
27,757 5,474 |
||
| Total receipts for period | 20,577 | 33,231 | ||
| Payments | ||||
| Cost of fundraising Charitable expenditure Direct and support costs Governance Costs |
732 | 876 | ||
| 25,700 78 |
22,741 2,243 |
|||
| 25,778 | 24,984 | |||
| Purchase of Equipment | 1,299 | 1,535 | ||
| Total payments for period | 27,809 | 27,395 | ||
| Net receipts/(payments) being net movement in funds |
(7,232) | 5,836 | ||
| Cash funds at beginning of the period | 20,527 | 14,691 | ||
| Cash funds at the end of the period | 13,295 | 20,527 |
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Please Take Me There Trustees’ Report for the Period Ended 31 December 2021
| Year ended 31 Dec 2021 Year ended 31 Dec 2021 £ £ |
|
|---|---|
| Monetary Assets Natwest Donations Account Business Account Petty Cash USD iZettle Cash Paypal |
|
| 10,848 16,901 1,797 2,976 589 589 24 24 37 37 |
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| Cash funds at end of period being Total Monetary Assets | 13,295 20,527 |
| Non-monetary Assets Investment in Amelia Project C.I.C. (registered company 09361155) Computer Equipment (at cost) Office Equipment (at cost) Deposit Loan to Amelia Project C.I.C. (registered company 09361155) |
|
| 1 1 1,611 1,611 5,845 4,546 960 960 299 299 |
|
| 8,716 7,417 |
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| Liabilities Accounts Payable - various sums due to be paid |
|
| 1,585 2,925 |
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| Total Liabilites | 1,585 2,925 |
Approved by the Trustees and Signed on their behalf by:
F Pinho Trustee
Date: 12th October 2022
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Please Take Me There Notes to the Financial Statements Period Ended 31 December 2021
1. Accounting Policies
The financial statements have been prepared under Section 42(3) of the Charities Act 2011 and in accordance with guidance issued by the Charity Commission.
Particular accounting policies adopted by the trustees are described below.
a) Income and Expenditure
Income and expenditure are accounted for on a receipts and payments basis.
2. Assets
Camera drone Cost £699 in 2016/17 MacBook Pro Cost £1,059 in 2016/17 iPad Cost £279 in 2016/17 Hard drive Cost £323 in 2016/17 Nespresso Machine Cost £170 in 2017/18 GoPro Camera Cost £279 in 2017/18 DJI Osmo Pocket Cost £289 in 2018/19 iPad Mini Kneeboard Cost £66 in 2018/19 iPad Mini Cost £399 in 2018/19 iPad keyboard Cost £174 in 2020 iPad & accessories Cost £1,362 in 2020 Desktop Computer Cost £1,049 in 2021
3. Trustees’ Expenses
No trustees received reimbursement for expenses during the period.
4. Related Party Transactions
No related party transactions were identified during the period.
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