Sarah's Star
Trustee's Report and Financial Statements
For the period ended 31 January 2024
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Foreword
It is with immense pleasure. on behalf of the Trustees of Sarah's Star as Chair that I
present the inaugural annual report of the Charity. A huge amount of time and
commitment by some very special people have enabled us to get to this point. The
Trustees are extremely grateful to each and every one of you.
Sarah's Star provides a wide range of holistic therapies including meditation,
massage, reiki, art. music and beauly therapy, counselling, and yoga. We also host
death cafes and talks to normalise the conversation around palliative and end of life
care. We work with local hospitals, schools, and universities to reframe these topics
and try and alleviate some of the fear that can be associated when facing an
incurable or palliative diagnosis.
The reason we do this is because of the lived experience of one inspirational
individual who I would like to share this foreword with.
A message from Sarah Harrison, founder of Sarah's Star.
"My Name Is Sarah Harrison,. l am hoping to make life a little easier for people who
have been given a palliative diagnosis. I was initially diagnosed with Breast Cancer
at the age of 35 in 2016. 1 went through 7 months of pretty gruelling treatment, and
thankfully, I went into remission. This lasted until the beginning of 2019 when I found
out that the cancer had returned, as secondary breast cancer which is in my bones
and liver and this time it is incurable. Although this was a devastating blow, I tell
myself that palliative doesn't always mean your life is immediately over. No two days
are the same as on a good day, l am upbeat, I feel energised and full of hope for a
life where I can make a difference. Sometimes I feel unstoppable with great passion
for positivity. I feel so grateful for what I have in that moment, and l just want to help
people like me to feel that they're not alone.
At times I have feelings of uncertainty. Through talking to other people in similar
situations I've learnt that we are all unique in dealing with our illnesses, there is no
right or wrong way but having support and being able to support others can make it
more manageable. Because of my own situation. I feel very passionale about
helping other people which sparked the idea of developing a holistic seNice which
has become Sarah's Star.
Sarah's Star is a community for people who are living with or affected by incurable
illnesses to have support and give support to each other. It could be anything from
being somewhere you can drop in to escape everyday life, to lending support {no
matter how small) to other people. If you would like to get involved in any way. get in
touch to come for a cuppa, help us develop our ideas or make a donation.
We offer services. such as.. nice and easy Pilates, meditationlmindfulness, Armchair
warriors, facials, crafts, music floristry. journaling, and we host regular death cafes-
this is a group where you can openly task about death and dying without judgement,
you can talk about your hopes and fears with people who understand how it feels to
be in your shoes.
It is very overwhelming to feel completely useless, like you have nothing left to give
to the world because you have been affected by illnesses, that's why I have sel up
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Sarah's Star, a place where you Can feel comfortable and accepted just the way you
are. An illness or diagnosis can take so much away but at Sarah's Star I want
everyone to feel they are of some use. There are days we may feel we have nothing
to give but even sharing that detail with someone could help them to realise Ihal they
are not alone in that thought and together we can keep shining through the dark
times.
We V￿nt people to feel purposeful and not let their illness dictate their
happiness. We would love to welcome you to our community space at the
Linskill centre and really appreclate your supporL
Liam Milligan
Sarah Harrison
Chair
Founder
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Sarah's Star
Reference and administrative information
For the period ended 31 January 2024
Status
Sarah's Star registered as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) on 13th
January 2023.
Charity Number
1201570
Registered Office
ROOM 11
The Lin5kill Centre
Linskill Terrace
North Shiels
NE30 2AY
Trustees
Liam Milligan
Sharon Turnbull
Brian Morrison
Joanne Dunn
Sarah Trevena
Chair
(appointed 13th January 20231
Treasurer
(appointed 1st September 2023)
Trustee
(appointed 13th January 2023)
Secretary {appointed 131h January 2023)
Trustee
(appointed 131h January 20231
Founder
Sarah Harrison
Founder & CEO
Bankers
Natwest
250 Bishopsgate.
London
EC2M 4AA
Independent Examiner
Jason Mclntosh
Chartered Accountant
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Sarah's Star
CIO - FOUNDATION Registered 13 Jan 2023
Trustees Annual Report 2024
Year Ending 31st January 2024
Structure, governance and management.
Sarah's Star was founded by Sarah Harrison, a beautiful mum of two gorgeous
children who was diagnosed with incurable breast cancer in 2019.
It was registered as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation ICIOI on the 13th
January 2023.
The charity has a Board of Trustees currently comprising five members with a range
of skills including HR. Finance. ICT, Project & People Management and Charity
Governance.
The charity is governed by a Foundation Constitution.
The Trustees Annual Report sets out the charities primary purpose, activity and
financial position following its first year.
The Trustees are satisfied that we have complied with our duty to have due regard to
the commission's public benefit guidance when exercising any powers or duties to
which the guidance is relevant.
Primary purpose
The relief of need of those with an incurable illness. palliative or terminal diagnosis
through the delivery of holistic servI￿s, educational resources and support for
people affected by such a diagnosis.
Our Vision
A place for everyone to express the emotions and eXperIen￿S that come with
palliative and incurable illness diagnosis.
Our Mission
To create a community for people, their families and health professionals in palliative
care and living with incurable illnesses, a safe space to voice and act upon the
feelings experienced at such an uncertain time.
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Our Values
Community: coming together through shared eXperIen￿S
Positivity: recognising the joy in living no matter how long you have left
Courage.. to express exactly how you are feeling
Honesty.. not being afraid to ask for what you want
We will provide specialist support, assistan￿, and information directly or indirectly to
people affected by palliative or incurable illness diagnosis, to further and build
awareness, education, and research about this type of diagnosis- to promote and
influence effective care, involvement and support for people affected by such a
diagnosis.
This will be achieved by..
Providing support and services to individuals with a diagnosis such as
altemative therapies e.g., yoga, art, meditation and mindfulness, death cafés.
Providing a building andlor suitable Spa￿S. a collaborative hub within which
to deliver the services and support.
Providing advocacy, advice, information, and training. This would include to
professionals, family members and the wider public on the lived experience of
people wth a diagnosis to remove the stigmas and help normalise speaking
about the subject and promote best practice.
Provide support to individuals through a loan scheme for suitable equipment
to enhance their quality of life e.g. VR headsels.
Provide support to relevant organisation by providing equipment which would
enhan￿ the services andlor treatment of the client group.
Sponsor or support research in this area.
Employ approprtate human resourGes to support the purposes and objects of
the Gharity.
Key activities
Secured the Charities registered office and community hub at..
ROOM 11
THE LINSKILL CENTRE
LINSKILL TERRACE
NORTH SHIELS
NE30 2AY
Refurbished and equipped the new hub to facilitate the delivery of altemative
therapies and provide a safe and relaxed space to meet.
Ran a successful social media campaign to fundraise and secure donations of
equipment to achieve the above refurbishment.
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Delivered a programme of alternative therapies and activities in our new
community hub and at locations across the community incluijing..
Armchair Warriors- seated low impact exercise class.
Knit & Natter- offers well-being Spa￿ and afternoon of knitting and of
course nattering!
Mindfulness Beginners Course-6 weeks, an introduction to Mindful
living.
Mindfulness Mastery Course- 6-week adventure and deep dive into
advanced mindfulness.
o Silk Painting Workshop-A casual group where you can relax and be
creative.
o Hula Hooping Classes- Encourage you to try on and off body hooping,
and even if it goes wrong. you can just dance along to the music.
Gentle Pilates- Steph, the tutor, believes that Pilates can benefit all, its
just finding the best way to harness the benefits for your body and
personal situation.
Bereavement Café- provides a safe and welcoming space to talk
freely or just listen to others who have experienced loss in their lives.
Tabletop Gaming Club- offers a place to come and play a variety of
board games.
MusicAppreciation Drop-ln Group- This group is for people who
appreciate music and want to come along and listen to or join in by
singing or bring your own instrument.
Creative Writing with Write on the Tyne-A casual group where you can
relax and be creative.
Death Café - A gathering to talk freely and explore feelings related to
death and dying. Creative Writing with Write on the Tyne-A casual
group where you can relax and be creative.
Crafts- Candle Making, Card Making, Wory Monsters, Needle Felt
Hearts, Mindful Advent Calendars, Fabric Flowers. Resin Pendant and
Marbling workshop and Crafts for kids.
Reiki, Reflexology. and relaxing Facials- relax, unwind, and pamper
yourself with these lovely treatments.
Journal making workshop - make your own gratrtude joumals and look
for the glimmers at the end of each day, reminding you of all you have
to be grateful for.
o Floristry - Christmas Centre Pieces and Wreaths.
Art therapy- Silk painting, Mandala Stone Art
Hosted the Official launch of the charity and open day al our new hub on
Saturday 9th September 2023. This was a fun filled day of activity with loads to
do for everyone and a host of market stalls showing the talent and products of
local entrepreneurs. We are grateful to everyone who came along to ￿lebrate
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with us. We are especially grateful to all the stall holders for being there.
Thanks also to the local business community for sponsoring prizes andlor
donating towards the success of the day.
Networking and collaboration
Sarah's Star places immense value in ne￿orkIng and collaborating with like-
minded organisations, groups, and the corporate sector to build awareness
about incurable illness, palliative or terminal diagnosis and create synergies
that will benefit service users. Over the last year we collaborated with the
following organisations..
Jane Dennison CEO from Dragonfly Trust and member of Tyneside Rotary
Club invited Sarah and Chris to a charity ball where their ne￿OrkIng and
enabled them to make contact with North Tyneside Rotary club, who now
raise money regularly for Sarah's Star.
Maureen Elliott founder and CEO from live well with cancer. Sarah'5 Star
meets with Maureen regularly and has discussed how they will work in
collaboration with Maureen going forward on Drum Therapy and other
initiatives.
Maggie from Coping with can￿r and Wendy from Cancern hosted a
training day and Sarah's Stsr was invited to hold a stall and it was a great
way to showcase Sarah's Star and network.
Dying Matters week - Sarah's Star hosted a Death café in St Cuthberts
Chapel and Northumbria University.
Sarah and Nicky from My Zen days collaborated and shared a podcast
they did on Dying Matters Awareness week to help break the taboo of
talking about death and open the conversation so people facing incurable
illnesses and their families don't have to go through it alone.
Shape your life group Strabane held a coffee morning and jumble sale with
all proceeds going to Sarah's Star and it was covered by the local
newspaper The Strabane Chronicle.
Sarah has done an interview with Health UK radio show to discuss
incurable illnesses and promote the Charity and the ServI￿S offered to
help manage illness.
Sarah has been interviewed by Newcastle Chronicle and told her story and
promoted Sarah's Star.
Sarah's old work colleagues from Siemens have fundraised the last two
years by completing yearly 15-mile walks.
Stephen Mason has completed the Great North Run 3 years in a row.
Tracey Thompson completed the Great North Run, Liway Ritson
completed the Brighton Marathon and Stu Trevena completed The
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Manchester Marathon. They all raise substantial amounts for Sarah's
star.
Dr Kathryn Mannix guest speaker at Sarah's Star Death Café, author of
With the End in Mind and Listen. Dr Mannix has spent her whole career
working alongside dying people and learning from them and wants to
share her wisdom with the world.
Living Meaningfully and Dying Joyfully guest speaker at the Death Cafe
with Buddhist Monk Gen Kelsang Sherab from the Compassionate Centre
Newcaslle.
Sarah met with Pam Ransom Head of the Palliative Unit who is
responsible for the nurses, Macmillan, Rapid Response. Pam has
encouraged her nurses to attend Death cafes and use Sarah's Star
services, NHS nurses took the opportunity to listen to 5-minute meditations
that will change your life with Nicky from my Zen Days in collaboration with
Sarah's Star.
Sarah has shared experience to medical staff as a patient with lived
experience and has spoken at Northumbria University to new nurses and
talk to the trainee psychology department and share how she manages to
live her life positively.
Sarah was a guest speaker at an NHS North Tyneside Oncology away
day where she shared her experience of receiving care from the unit and
NHS staff. Sarah provided a perspective from lived experience with
cancer. This was followed up with a death café for the attendees and
re￿iVed fantastic feedback.
Cllr Cath Davis nominated Sarah's Star and we achieved a Spirit of
North Tyneside award from North Tyneside Council for supporting families
in the community. This was presented by Dame Norma Redfearn Mayor
of North Tyneside.
Sarah is collaborating with Author from Write on the Tyne -Helen
Atkinson and did a creative writing class for Sarah's Star.
Volunteer Amy a qualified florist has dedicated lots of her time to
running crafts and floristry workshops for Sarah's Stsr.
Bonnie Lass Creation- Christmas Wreaths.
Tesco's have provided flowers for the floristry sessions and the knit &
natter group made a Christmas topper for the post box in Tesco's.
The Co-op have provided refreshments for Sarah's Stsr and the bigger
events and donated bereavement books for the library and a cheque for
£500.
Morrisons donated refreshments for the Sarah's Star launch day.
Asda donated £400 to Sarah's Star to cover the cost of the Christmas
Floristry Session.
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Benevity donated £1000 to Sarah's Stsr as part of their Advent
Calendar of donations.
Nestle have donated £1500.
Triex - an award-winning infrastructure ¢ompany specialising in power.
fibre and civil engineering projects have Sarah's Star as their Corporate
Charity and have been busy fundraising for the charity by completing half
marathons.
Maggie from the craft room has run workshops on Resin pendant,
Marbling workshop, silk painting for Sarah's Star.
steph Shiling from Pause Pilates runs weekly Pilates for Sarah's Star.
Emma Devereaux runs Armchair warriors weekly.
Nicky Thackray from My Zen Days runs Mindfulness and Meditation
courses for Sarah's Stsr.
Tabletop Sale in Linskill hosted by Sarah's Star that raised money to
keep courses and workshops running, local businesses and
entrepreneur's used the opportunity to sell items on stalls on the day.
Donated Tombola prizes was a huge Suc￿ss.
St Marys R.C North Shields Primary school and St Thomas More High
school have done several bake sales and created cards for people in
palliative care and in the oncology wards at Christmas and Easter to cheer
them up. They took part in colouring in competitions and their artwork is
proudly displayed In Sarah's Star premises. Both schools have raise
money by doing bake sales and some sponsored activities.
The Selkie Way- To learn how to move gracefully, breathe and use
props undernater and have beautiful pictures taken undejwater as a
keep's sake from the special day.
Aesthetics by Jolene Clark- Facials and beauty treatments for Sarah's
star,
Sammy Anne's holistic therapy- Reflexology, massages and
specialises in massages for people with Cancer, Sarah's Star has
collaborated with Sammy Anne.
Alison Scanlan has run Sound Baths for Sarah's Star,. this is a holistic
healing therapy.
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Autism Matters Newcastle came to Sarah's Star do a craft session and
festive arts.
What People Say
°My main takeaway fmm the session was Ihat palliative care and a temiinal illness is
not synonymous with unhappiness and suffering,. as Sarah has shown, wellbeing is
more than how healthy you aTr, it also consists of the person's perspective of Iheir
illness, the support they have and how they approach life."
Assistant Professor, Northumbria University.
'It was so emotive, I felt privileged lo listen to Sarah share her story with us. I krpow
now that P211iative caTr doesn't necessarily mean that someone is going io die within
a year or so. l also ￿aliSe it's okay to make mistakes, perh8ps say the wrong thing
at the wrong time, that's how we learn.,
Northumbria University Nurse.
Death Café
Having been a bit apprehensive about going to this before, l actually found it really
uplifting, such a lovely supportive almosphere and great cakel Xx
Catherine Clarke, setwi￿ User
Sarah's Star gives me somewhere to go where I feel safe and don't have to wory
about "perfom7ing'; where everyone will understand (without any explanation being
required) if i stop talking/ run out of energy/ need a rest.
I don't feel so alone. I know l am part of a community of people who are making the
most of the good moments/momings/days, appreciating and celebrating Ihem when
they con7e and who understand the courage and challenge which that can need.
People who find good things in amongst the scariness, pain and sadn8ss which Gan
feel overwhelming at times.
Your charity has helped me feel more connected to the world and gives me the
chance to meet some ren7arkable people. l am so grateful Sarah, thank you.
Lucy Schierig, Service User
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Volunteers
We are indebted to our volunteers without whose contribution we would not have
been able to achieve what we have a¢¢omplished in our first year as a charity.
Whether you have walked, ran, hiked, or swam to raise funds thank you from the
bottom of our hearts. To those who have provided their time and expertise to deliver
programmes in our hub we truly appreciate your commitment to Sarah's Star we
can't thank you all enough.
Financial Review
The statement of Financial Activities for the period ending 31 sl January 2024 is set
out on page 12 and 13 of the Independent Examiners report. The Income for the
year was £49.989 with Expenditure for the year totalling £26.254 resulting in a net
surplus of £23,735.
The Trustees of the charity recognise the importance of developing reserves and a
resetves policy. However, given the charity is in its infancy operating on solely
voluntary donations the initial focus will be to maintain and sustain the community
hub enabling it to deliver programmes supporting its primary purpose. Given time the
Trustees aim to build reserves equivalent to 6 months running costs.
The Trustees are encouraged by the current financial performance over the last year
and have no concerns for the immediate future or viability of the charity as a going
oncern.
Declarations
The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees, report above.
Signed on behalf of the charity's trustees
Signaturels)
J t) LA/LA-
Full name{s)
Position (eg Secretary,
Chair, et¢)
Liam Milligan
Chair
Joanne Dunn
Secrelary
Date
22nd April 2024
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Independent Examiners Report
To the Trustees of Sarah's Star
Report to the trustees on accounts for the pèriod ended 31st January 2024
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of Sarah Star ("the Trust")
for the period ended 31 January 2024.
Responsibilities and basis of report
As the charity's trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in
accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 {"the Act°}.
I report in respect of my examination of the Trust's accounts Carried out under
section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed all
the applicable Direction5 given by the Charity Commission under section 145151{b) of
the Act.
Independent examiner's statement
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to
my attention in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that
in, any material respect:
the accounting records were not kept in accordan￿ with section 130 of the
Charities Act., or
the accounts did not accord with the accounting records., or
the accounts did not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the
form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports)
Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a 'true
and fair, view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent
examination.
I have no concerns and have come across no olher matter5 in connection with the
examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a
proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
Jason Mclntosh ACA
Chartered Accountant
2 Stonewell Lane, L'Derry, BT47 6HU
ZI APCO 2014
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Sarah's Star
Receipts and Payments
For the period ended 31 January 2024
For the period
ended 31 January
2024
Receipts
Donations
49,989
Total Receipts
49,989
Payments
Cost of fundraising
Rent I hire
Insurance
Telephone & Internet
Administrative expense
Repairs. renovation and maintenance
Purchase of low value assets
6,178
11,937
853
78
1,034
5,692
482
Total Payments
26.254
Net Receipts for the period
23,735
Bank and Cash balances at the start of the period
Bank and Cash balances at the end of the period
23,735
All the charity's funds are unrestricted.
Any donations received before the incorporation of the charity has been treated as a
receipt on 13th January 2023. the date in which the charity was registered.
13
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Sarah's Star
Statement of Assets and Liabilities
As at 31 January 2024
31 January 2024
Current Assets
Bank and Cash Balances
23,735
Flxed Assets
Fixtures, fittings & equipment
552
Approved by the trustees on 22nd April 2024 and signed on their behalf by..
Liam Milligan
Chair
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