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2023-06-30-accounts

Report of the Trustees For the year ended 2022-2023

The Trustees present their annual report and financial statements for the year 2022-23 and confirm that they comply with the Charities Act 2011 & 2022.

Charity Name The Platelet Society Charity Registration Number 1172202 Registered Address Office 7 35-37 Ludgate Hill, London, EC4M 7JN, UK

Board of Trustees (https://plateletsociety.co.uk/trustees/) Jeremy Pearson (Chair) Gillian Lowe Stephen Watson Maryam Samina Crispian Strachan Alison Goodall

Executive Committee

Steve Thomas (Chair) Amanda Unsworth (Vice Chair) Alan Harper (Treasurer) Ilaria Canobbio Susie Shapiro Kirk Taylor Mark Thomas Sam Montague

Secretary/Governance Officer

Gayle Halford

Bankers

HSBC UK

Structure, Governance and Management

The Platelet Society is constituted as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation registered with the Charity Commission in August 2017 under the charity number 1172202.

Organisational Structure

The charity has a Board of Trustees which is responsible for the governance of the charity. The Trustees set up an Executive Committee that is responsible for enacting strategies that allow the charity to fulfil its key objectives.

Trustees

The charity has six Trustees (Gillian Lowe, Jeremy Pearson, Maryam Samina, Crispian Strachan, Alison Goodall and Stephen Watson). All Trustees give their time voluntarily and receive no benefits from the charity. Any expenses reclaimed from the charity are set out in the accounts.

Maryam Samina, Alison Goodall and Crispian Strachan were welcomed onto the board of trustees in 2022-23.

Ambassador

In April 2021, the Society was pleased to announce the appointment of Lieutenant Colonel Crispin Black MBE MPhil as our Platelet Society Ambassador. Crispin is a world-renowned journalist, author, intelligence consultant and former Welsh Guard officer. In 2007, Crispin was diagnosed with idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP); since his diagnosis, he has undertaken numerous public engagement events about his ITP journey, and has shared his experiences and challenges of living with ITP at various conferences and through the media.

Crispin is no stranger to public speaking, as a journalist, he has vast radio and TV experience, and is a frequent contributor to major British newspapers. These skills will be of great benefit for supporting the Society, by attending specific media briefing events and providing interviews to the press. To this end, Crispin will help the Society promote the charity to the public and to potential donors, thus building on the awareness of the charity’s purpose and fundraising activities. Crispin gave an engaging and powerful talk at the meeting in Hull around his experiences as a person living with ITP.

Executive Committee (https://plateletsociety.co.uk/committee/)

The Executive Committee currently has nine members, including two co-opted Clinical members, who were made full Committee members in September 2020 (Drs Mark Thomas and Susie Shapiro).

Steve Thomas is the current Chair of the Executive Committee, with Amanda Unsworth being voted as the Vice chair. Amanda will replace Steve at the AGM in 2023. Alan Harper is the treasurer who is due to finish at the AGM in 2024. A new treasurer will be selected in 2023-24 to allow for handover.

Susie Shaprio has stepped down from the committee due to other commitments. Ingeborg Hers and Carly Kempster came to the end of their terms and stepped back from the committee. We thank them all for their hard work and support of the Society. At the 2021-22 AGM Kalwant Authi, Prachi Stafford and Sam Montague joined the committee.

All Committee members have research backgrounds relevant to the work of the Charity and were elected to represent different stages of the academic career track. The Committee remains inclusive and diverse, and represents our membership by inclusion of male and female researchers, and Early Career Researchers. The Committee meets quarterly, and is responsible for the strategic direction and policy of the Society. The Committee is focused on facilitating participation of the research community through the Society webpage, newsletters, social media and networking, supporting conference organisation and outreach activities.

Risk Management

The Trustees and Executive Committee have reviewed the major risks to which the Charity may be exposed, and appropriate systems have been implemented to mitigate risk. In particular, risks to external funding have led to the development of a plan which allows ring fencing for funding for core activities. All medical-related information provided on our website is general and is covered by a specific medical disclaimer policy. Structures have been put in place to account for recent changes in General Data Protection Regulations. The Trustees are satisfied that arrangements are in place to manage risks that have been identified. The Board of Trustees will be reviewing the risk register in the coming year.

Our Aims

Our Society’s purpose is to promote excellence in research, education and public awareness of platelet biology in human health and disease.

To ensure that we remain focussed on our key aims they are appraised on a yearly basis in order to review both what we have achieved and evaluate the outcome of our work. The review examines the success of each key activity to ensure that they benefit the groups that hope to serve.

The Focus of our Work

Our main objectives for the year were focussed on further establishing the Society within the research community and creating activities and structures that would help promote our key aims in the future. The strategies we used to meet these objectives were:

Activities and Achievements

How our activities deliver public benefit

The Society carries out a number of activities in pursuance of its aims. These activities, summarised below, provide benefit to members of the Society and wider society.

To facilitate greater communication within the research community

i. Communication channels. A key element of the creation of the Platelet Society was to create a stronger network of biomedical researchers and clinicians with interests in platelet biology. Provision of communications channels has been an important part of bringing the research community together

the successes of platelet researchers including grants/prizes awarded, publications, collaborations, graduation of PhD students and promotions of our members.

iv. In November 2022, Executive Committee chair Steve Thomas was invited to join the SISNET meeting in Perugia, Italy to highlight the Societies work in supporting early Career Researcher, and initiatives to support research and education of platelets.

ii. Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. The Society believes that everybody’s contribution matters, regardless of their identity, background, experiences or beliefs. The Society aims to develop a culture in which everyone feels welcome, heard and free to fully express themselves. Over the last 2 years we have produced a series of statements setting out our intent and in the last 12 months have carried out a survey of the membership and several individual conversations with members to develop this further. This has led to the updating of our EDI webpage to include a code of conduct for members and activities of the Society, a series of EDI statements to help us continue on our journey, and a mechanism for reporting concerns. In addition we have addressed the diversity of our executive committee and have elected new members from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds. Further information can be found on our EDI webpage. https://plateletsociety.co.uk/edi/

iii. Early Career Researchers' Initiatives . Building a strong sense of collaboration and community amongst the ECRs is important for the future growth and activity of The Society. The ECR Working Group has continued to develop career development, public engagement and social media content to support and promote our members and activities led by the Society. The Working Group has lost 2 members over the past year due to changes in workload and job changes. Harriet Allan (QMUL) delivered the mentoring programme with 12 active mentoring pairings, which has capacity to grow further. The Working Group and ECR representatives thank Harriet for her hard work in driving this project forward. The Society podcast has now launched and is available on all major streaming platforms (e.g. Apple Music and Spotify). To date 6 episodes have been released with several more planned for the coming year. This project has been driven by the creativity and skill of Beth Webb (Leeds), Daniel Hodge (Reading) and Sam Montague (Birmingham). Carly Kempster (Reading) has led on the conception, development and maintenance of the Society Instagram account, which currently has 802 followers and promotes science communication and education of platelet-related disorders.

The annual Platelet Society Meeting in Bristol (joint with the EUPLAN meeting) will provide an opportunity for ECRs to gather on a dedicated day with career development and flash talk presentations. An evening networking activity will also facilitate networking and to serve as an informal icebreaker ahead of the meeting.

Kirk Taylor will step down as one of the ECR committee reps at the AGM. We thank Kirk for all his contributions to the committee and look forward to continuing our work with him on the working group. Congratulations to Jo Mitchell who was elected to serve as new ECR representative on the Executive Committee. Together with Sam, Jo, will use the ECR survey to determine priority areas for growth in the Society and recruit a fresh working group to deliver these projects.

iv. Awards . The Society has established two awards for members to recognise excellence in platelet research and in achieving the aims of The Society. Named in honour of two internationally well-respected UK platelet researchers, (Gustav Born and Alison Goodall) they will provide an annual way for the Society to rewarded excellence. Further details of the awards can be found at https://plateletsociety.co.uk/platelet-society-awards/ with the 2023 recipients to be announced in Autumn 2023.

To facilitate and promote research into platelets and platelet related disorders

v. Fundraising. Following on from the ISTH meeting in London in 2022, the Society applied for and was successful in receiving a grant of $37,500 to support its work. An innovate proposal was prepared and commended by the ISTH. Funds will be used to drive 6 main areas over the coming 3 years.

i. Summer studentships ii. Outreach and education grants iii. ECR wider skills training iv. Skills transfer grants v. Clinical audits vi. Travel awards ECR speakers

Together, we believe that using the funds in this way helps the Platelet Society achieve its remit in terms of research and education, and provides a healthy portfolio of activities for the next 3 years. The Society is grateful to the ISTH and in particular Beverley Hunt and Robert Ariens for their support. During the autumn the Society will provide details of how these funds will be distributed.

vi. Summer studentships . Following the success of the summer studentships in 2022, the Society once again offered three students the opportunity to work in a platelet lab during the summer of 2023. Following a competitive call 3 students and projects in Manchester, Dublin and Bristol were selected and funded during July and August 2023. Further details on the student can be found at

https://plateletsociety.co.uk/studentships/

Scientific meetings. Scientific conferences are a cornerstone of academic endeavour that facilitate a valuable exchange of new ideas and methods. However, we retained the flexibility of online tools for committee meetings and our AGM, and we aim to run future short focused scientific meetings in this format. We have continued cross-representation on both the British Society for Haemostasis and Thrombosis (BSHT) / Platelet Society Executive Committees, which has helped to avoid conflicts of meetings, and raised the potential of interaction and collaboration, and have partnered with the EuPLAN network to run a joint meeting in 2023.

vii. 2023 Platelet Society Meeting - Bristol. This year our annual meeting is being held jointly with the EUPLAN conference in Bristol (4[th] – 6[th] September 2023). This is a great opportunity for us to network widely with colleagues from across Europe and provide increased opportunity for collaboration and exposure for the work of the Society. Thanks to Alastair Poole, Elizabeth Aitkin, Ingeborg Hers and all the team in Bristol for organising the meeting.

Reports on all Platelet Society meetings, and meetings where Platelet Society researchers have presented, can be found on the Platelet Society webpage, under “News”.

viii. Research Strategy. The Society wishes to move towards being able to provide regular small grant awards to support platelet research and education. To help drive this forward, the Executive Committee has written a research strategy document and plans to become a member of the Association of Medical Research Charities, which can provide advice and support to grant awarding societies. The research strategy document was reviewed in early 2023 and the latest version is available on our website - https://plateletsociety.co.uk/research-strategy/

ix. Clinical perspectives and direction. The Society aims to increase its activities in patient focused and clinical activities. To ensure that future activities are relevant and do not replicate what is provided by other charities (especially those with more patient focused remits), we have initiated a clinical focus working group. Chaired by Dr Gill Lowe, this group aims to ensure that activities of the Society have a clinical perspective and to identify appropriate patient-focused activities. The allocation of ISTH funds to clinical audits to highlight clinical areas of focus will be important in driving this forward.

To provide the public with accessible information on platelet related diseases

The Society does not provide medical advice and when contacted by individuals seeking such advice directs them to the clinician(s) involved in their care pathway. However, the Society does

provide a number of fact sheets on the role of platelets in health and disease and platelet related diseases; these are reviewed by the Executive Committee’s clinical members.

We also provide a number of personal perspectives of patients who live with platelet related diseases to raise awareness of how individual sufferers cope with their particular disorders. Our two clinical Committee members have been in discussions with other relevant societies to help support these organisations, so the Society can undertake more patient-focused interactions. The Society is establishing a relationship with the Haemophilia Society, to increase the patient and families’ understanding of rare bleeding disorders. The welcome addition of 2 non-scientists to our trustee board will help in moving these aspects forward. Maryam Samina and Crispian Strachan both have experiences of living with platelet disorders and so can provide a patient focus to our activities.

To improve public understanding of platelet biology

As part of our mission to improve the public understanding of blood platelets and their roles in health and disease our members engage in a number of outreach activities. These activities are undertaken by our members at a local level often in collaboration with their host university and other outside bodies.

Continuing on the Clotchat videos and large social media presence, the ECRs have developed a podcast series interviewing society members. The aim is to expand the breadth of interviewees to cover a range of topics.

During 2021/22 we also established an outreach working group which has developed a range of suggestions for increasing our public profile and activities. Moving forward the Executive Committee will identify a subset of these suggestions to develop further.

Plans for Future Period

The Society plans to continue the activities outlined above in the coming years subject to a satisfactory funding position, but also expand the activities into other areas.

Financial Review

At the end of the financial year on the 30[th] June 2023, the Platelet Society held £81,429, which is an increase from the £67,946.

A significant proportion of our income and expenditure arises from meetings. The accounts provide a snapshot at a given time in the financial cycle around our meetings where income usually predominates at the start followed by a period of payment of our costs for holding the meeting. This financial year saw the payment of costs for the Platelet Summer School, whose income was principally registered in last years accounts as well as the income (but not the costs) for the EuPLAN meeting.

Income

Donations have decreased this year as last year’s accounts marked the income from both the Hull Platelet Society meeting as well as the majority of the income from the Platelet School. In contrast, this year’s registration income reflects late Summer School payments and the EuPLAN meeting registrations. Membership income remains steady (£3672; £3688 in 2021-22).

Events and Courses income appears to have risen dramatically. This is due to the award of £28,874 of legacy funds from the 2022 London ISTH congress, which has significantly inflated this figure this year. Our sponsorship is down this year as there was no charitable fundraising activity in this cycle, with the only income from residual payments from the RideLondon event.

Interest Rate rises and the holding of greater financial reserves has increased our bank interest payments this year.

Expenditure

The basic running costs for the society remain largely the same with only marginal increases in the cost of website maintenance, accountancy reports, Governance Officer salary, and registration payments for the Fundraising Regular and Company House (‘ Legal fees’ ).

Our Banking charges have risen this year as we now have facilities to make international payments which comes with a smaller annual cost. International transactions also incur small additional fees, which have increased as the society increases our international activities.

The significant increase in Events and prize costs and Meetings costs arose from the settling of commitments for the Hull and Platelet summer school in the start of this financial year (rather than at the end of last year). The Other charges category reflects society expenditure on our Summer Studentship scheme.

Current Financial Position

Following consultation with the Bristol EuPLAN organisation committee, we predict that after settling our costs for this meeting, the society should end with around £59,889 in the bank account, of which £28,874 would be funding committed to activities proposed in our ISTH legacy award application with the remaining £31,015 representing uncommitted funds. This is similar to our forecast from this time last year, with the income from the EuPLAN meeting (likely around £3K), the Platelet Summer school (£4.8K), and membership fees (£3.7K) slightly exceed our expenditure on our basic running costs (£5.8K) and expenditure on the Summer Studentship scheme (£4K a year). Thus suggesting the society remains sustainable in the short-medium term, although in the face of rising costs, further diversification of income will likely be required to maintain this in the longer term.

Flnance Overvlew- 1" July 2022- 30" June 2023 CHARITY COMMISSION Fok ENGLAND AND WAIE5 THE PLATELET sc¢Ert Receipts and payments accounts CC16a 01JQ7f2022 Section A Receipts and payments Restrithd Endo*nie fimds A1 Rèceyts 24$1$ 3QX2 J16 15.973 rtefESI JIG ARI 1J>4 ST.51? Isee tablel. 61.894 57.519 I Pa￿￿ts ÉD5r.È 041 240 566 LÉg31 Fee6 54g 30.744 •240 30.744 5241 prrtrs ?t4t>¥ a B￿k CT4ar9È6 76 131 131 s￿¢0 All 5￿t0 18.625 Not ofrÈ¢wp￿{Payrnents) 13. 13A83 67.946 67.916 29.051 C•sh lunds this WMI

Sectlon B Statemert of assets and liablities al the end of the pefiod Un￿51￿Cle￿ d5 Re5tnctsd ETrdowmert funds Totsl c•sh funlts 81.429 Js Detsi Dets Detai B5 Lial>ililies CCXX FU at<arts ISSI

Declaration

The Trustees declare that they have approved the Trustees’ report above.

Signed on behalf of the Charity’s Trustees.

Signature

Professor Jeremy Pearson Chair of Trustees, The Platelet Society

Date: 2 October 2023

Charity Name
THE PLATELET SOCIETY		 Charity Name
THE PLATELET SOCIETY		 Charity Name
THE PLATELET SOCIETY		 Charity Name
THE PLATELET SOCIETY		 No (if any)
1172202		 No (if any)
1172202		 No (if any)
1172202		 CC16a
For the period
from		 Period start date
01/07/2022		 Period end date
30/06/2023
Section A Receipts and payments
A1 Receipts Unrestricted
funds
to the nearest £
24,616
36,962
316
-
-
-
-
-
61,894
-
-
-
61,894
841
240
4,566
30,744
8,248
-
90
131
3,550
-
-
48,411
-
-
-
-
-
48,411
13,483
-
67,946
81,429		 Restricted
funds
to the nearest £
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-		 Endowment
funds
to the nearest £
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-		 Total funds
to the nearest £
24,616
36,962
316
-
-
-
-
-
61,894
-
-
-
61,894		 Last year
to the nearest £
Donations 24,616 41,541
Events and courses 36,962 15,973
Bank interest 316 5
- -
- -
- -
- -
- -
Sub total(Gross income for
AR)		 61,894 57,519
A2 Asset and investment sales,
(see table).
- -
- -
Sub total - -
Total receipts
A3 Payments
57,519
Website development 841 - - 841 840
Accountancyfees 240 - - 240 240
Legal Fees 4,566 - - 4,566 4,566
Events and Prize costs 30,744 - - 30,744 1,601
Meetingcost 8,248 - - 8,248 5,241
PrintingPostage & Stationery - - - - 11
Bank Charges 90 - - 90 76
Donation 131 - - 131 -
Other expense 3,550 - - 3,550 6,050
- - - - -
- - - - -
**Sub total ** 48,411 - - 48,411 18,625
A4 Asset and investment
purchases, (see table)
- -
- -
- -
- -
**Sub total ** - -
Total payments
Net of receipts/(payments)
A5 Transfers between funds
A6 Cash funds last year end
Cash funds this year end
18,625
13,483 - 13,483 38,895
- - - -
67,946 - 67,946 29,051
81,429 - 81,429 67,946

CCXX R1 accounts (SS)

24/08/2023

1

Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period

Categories
Signed by the trustees
B5 Liabilities
B3 Investment assets
B2 Other monetary assets
B4 Assets retained for the
charity’s own use
B1 Cash funds
 Details
Total cash funds
(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))
Bank current account
Bank deposit account
Details		 Details
Total cash funds
(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))
Bank current account
Bank deposit account
Details		 Unrestricted
funds
to nearest £
7,067
74,362
-
81,429
OK
Unrestricted
funds
to nearest £		 Unrestricted
funds
to nearest £
7,067
74,362
-
81,429
OK
Unrestricted
funds
to nearest £		 Restricted
funds
to nearest £
-
-
-
-
OK
Restricted
funds
to nearest £		 Restricted
funds
to nearest £
-
-
-
-
OK
Restricted
funds
to nearest £		 Endowment
funds
to nearest £
-
-
-
-
OK
Endowment
funds
to nearest £
- - -
- - -
- - -
- - -
- - -
- - -
Details Fund to which
asset belongs		 Cost (optional) Current value
(optional)
- -
- -
- -
- -
- -
Details
Details
Signature
 Fund to which
asset belongs
Cost (optional)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Fund to which
liability relates
Amount due
(optional)
-
-
-
-
-
Print Name		 Current value
(optional)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
When due
(optional)
Date of
approval

CCXX R2 accounts (SS)

~~24/08/2023~~

~~2~~

Independent examiner's report on the accounts

Section A Independent Examiner’s Report

Report to the trustees/ Charity Name THE PLATELET SOCIETY members of On accounts for the year 30 JUNE 2023 Charity no 1172202 ended (if any)

Set out on pages

(remember to include the page numbers of additional sheets)

Respective The charity's trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts. responsibilities of The charity’s trustees consider that an audit is not required for this year trustees and examiner under section 144 of the Charities Act 2011 (the Charities Act) and that an independent examination is needed.

It is my responsibility to:

Basis of independent My examination was carried out in accordance with general Directions given examiner’s statement by the Charity Commission. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts, and seeking explanations from the trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit, and consequently no opinion is given as to whether the accounts present a ‘true and fair’ view and the report is limited to those matters set out in the statement below.

In connection with my examination, no matter has come to my attention

Signed:
Name:
Relevant professional
qualification(s) or body
(if any):		 Kulvarn Mahal 19/10/2023
PEACOCK ACCOUNTANTS LIMITED
FELLOW OF THE ASSOCIATION OF CHARTERED CERTIFIED
ACCOUNTANTS

1

June 2023

IER

Address: 71-75 SHELTON STREET, COVENT GARDEN LONDON, ENGLAND WC2H 9JQ

Section B Disclosure

Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight material problems.

2

June 2023

IER

Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose .

3

June 2023

IER