TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT
This is the second annual report for Spread Your Wings. It’s been a year of steady growth, during which the charity has refined its sense of purpose, supporting the Angelman community across the UK. At the same time, it has forged new connections, beyond the Angelman community and across the globe.
OUR INSPIRATION
Leo, whose diagnosis with Angelman syndrome in December 2021, is the inspiration for Spread Your Wings.
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OUR CHARITABLE OBJECTIVES...
1 Support families
For the public benefit, to relieve the need of individuals and their families affected by Angelman syndrome and similar conditions, by the provision of financial support for mobility aids, therapy sessions and other essential services designed to assist those living with this condition.
How we helped families...
We spent £10,363.64 on our first Angelman community grant scheme in partnership with the charity Angelman UK. This ultimately supported 53 Angelman families to purchase 24 iPads with cases and communication software, travel safety beds, travel seats, bean bags, part funding of wheelchairs, mattresses, sensory equipment, swing-seats, walkers, trikes, and therapy sessions in physio and speech & language.
This showed us how important it was that we allocate funds to families to provide a positive and practical impact, and gave us the resolve to plan our own independent Spread your Wings Family Grant Scheme in 2025, reserving £50,000 for this purpose.
Examples of what we helped to purchase for families:
Trampoline | Sensory Swing | Bubble Lamp | iPad | iPad Cases | Safety Bed | Walker | Hippotherapy DVD Player | Physio Sessions | Communication Systems | Positioning Harness | Sensory Toys | Trike
2 Fund research
Following our support of the Oxford Natural History Study, we connected with the leader of the study; Professor Laurent Servais and committed £50,000 to his federated data research project. We are grateful to them for this update.
Researchers at the University of Oxford, and worldwide, are working to develop treatments for Angelman Syndrome, but before any therapy can be approved, it must pass rigorous clinical trials to prove effectiveness. While two promising earlystage trials have already taken place, the biggest challenge now is the lack of a large, up-to-date dataset of patients. This data is essential for designing later-stage trials that can thoroughly test new therapies and meet approval standards; without it, researchers cannot confidently demonstrate that treatments work well enough to be approved.
To create a dataset that’s large and diverse enough, we need to combine information from many organisations and studies around the world. This process can be slow and costly, and it’s often complicated by legal, privacy, and intellectual property rules. To address this, Professor Laurent Servais at the University of Oxford, is pioneering in this field a new approach called “data federation”. Instead of sharing raw data between countries-which is slow and legally complex- a data federation will act as a centralised, virtual platform that allows researchers to be able to securely share, access and analyse information from multiple studies around the world without moving data between different sites. This means we can combine data from the UK, Europe, South America, and Australia in one place to create a much larger dataset. With this, we can design better trials that will meet approval standards, speed up treatment development, and ultimately help bring real improvements in walking, speech, seizures, and sleep for families living with Angelman Syndrome.
Thanks to the generous support of Spread Your Wings, work on creating the data federation platform began in early 2025. Professor Servais and his team partnered with two researchers from the University’s Computer Science department, who provided crucial technical expertise. Together, they identified Solid, an innovative technology that can be adapted to meet the platform’s specific requirements, laying the foundation for a secure and efficient solution. The team also successfully recruited a skilled developer to build the infrastructure. Significant progress has been made in the past three months, and the first working prototype is expected to be deployed in November 2025. In parallel with technical development, considerable time and effort has been dedicated to establishing the necessary data governance and legal frameworks. The team are actively collaborating with the Department of Paediatrics Data Governance team and the University of Oxford’s Legal Services to ensure that robust regulatory and ethical structures are in place to support the successful deployment of the platform.
This project represents a significant step forward in both medical and technical innovation and has the potential to make a substantial impact on the study of Angelman Syndrome, and other rare diseases, by enabling secure, efficient, and ethically sound federated data analysis across institutions. We are grateful for the support of Spread Your Wings, and look forward to sharing how our work develops.
3 Promote social and physical activity
To promote for the benefit of individuals living with Angelman syndrome or similar conditions, the provision of facilities for recreation or other leisure time occupation of individuals who have need of such facilities by reason of their youth, age, infirmity or disablement, financial hardship or social and economic circumstances and with the objective of improving the condition of the said inhabitants. Examples might include: tailored family sports days, operated at a local level, that cater for all the children and families living with Angelman syndrome or similar conditions and; grant funding specialist coaching days to allow schools to include children with Angelman or similar conditions in their sporting activities.
Our first Angelman family event...
Our first family event at Winter Wonderland last year, made us realise the importance of events where families can meet, share stories and be in an environment well suited to their whole family including their Angelman family member and siblings. In partnership with others, we have established three such family events in our second year.
Alton Towers This is a well-established event in the Angelman community calendar, thanks to the hard work of Linda Holmes. Spread Your Wings supported 24 families in need of support with their accommodation costs and also distributed special
“Angelman Is My Superpower” t-shirts! 45 families attended in 2024 to celebrate International Angelman Day.
Spread a Smile Summer Party 2024 at Coram’s Fields was a
joyful and unforgettable event held on Thursday 25 July,
welcoming over 780 children, their families and carers, including 21 Angelman families.. Designed to offer a magical escape for these children and their loved ones, the day was packed with activities, entertainment, and treats. Guests enjoyed arts and crafts, face painting, glitter tattoos, slime making, animal petting, and interactive games. There were also flower crown
workshops, biscuit decorating, and a giant inflatable football goal. Therapy dogs Thomas, Chocco, and Zara were on hand to spread extra smiles. Entertainment included music, dancing, bubbles, poetry, and magic, all delivered by the Spread a Smile entertainers. Food was plentiful and delicious, with ice cream rolls, wood-fired pizzas, and sweet treats. This was all made possible by Spread a Smile and their 160 volunteers. The event created a safe and joyful space for families to relax and connect, and most of all to be entertained.
We returned to Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park in London on November 27th, 2024. On this day, numbers are limited, and sounds are turned down making it the perfect environment for children with sensory challenges. Siblings have a great time, meeting and playing with each other. The adults really enjoy it too! They have a wonderful opportunity to come together with other parents who understand them without any need to explain.
Our biggest fundraiser of the year was a 40 for 40 Tough Mudder40 for 40 Tough Mudder held on 19th May 2024 in celebration of founding Trustee, Alex’s 40th birthday. It was attended by 50 brave runners and guests and was a wonderful celebration. Raising an amazing £36,500 just made it even better.Raising an amazing £36,500 just made it even better.
Thanks to an incredible group of volunteers, we held our First Golf DayFirst Golf Day at Old Fold Manor, Barnet on Friday 18th October, 2024.
130 players and guests enjoyed a round of golf followed by a delicious meal. Thanks to the players, guests, sponsors, volunteers and a top class organising committee: Jerry Marks, Catti Ferro & Tony Ferro. This raised £24,012.This raised £24,012.
AN EXCITING YEAR OF FUNDRAISING...
Leo’s birthday - 26th March is an important event each year. We ask all of our community to wish him Happy Birthday and donate his age in pounds plus 15 pence. The 15 represents the chromosome 15 where absence or mutation of the UBE3A gene causes Angelman syndrome. In 2024 we raised £1,147.
Leo’s Superheroes take on challenges to raise funds, from halfmarathons to cake sales and everything in between. If you would like to be one of Leo’s superheroes visit our website and get in touch.
Our fundraisers contine to amaze us...with our 1st Golf Day, our 1st Tough Mudder, working with schools, companies and individuals raising funds beyond our expectations!
Sam & Gemma Prior showed us what a special couple they were, when they asked if they could make a donation to Spread Your Wings and then gift Spread Your Wings pins to all their guests at their wedding on 10th August, 2024. We wish them a long and happy life together.
Dan Serfontein
reached dizzying heights in his trek to Mt. Manuslu as he raised a total of £15,800, the largest amount from any individual.
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£3,035
Alcentra
Christmas Jumper
Day
Event date
20th Dec 2024
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TOTAL RAISED:
£131,882
SUMMARY OF ACHIEVEMENTS...
Spread Your Wings set itself 5 key targets in its second year, building on the previous year’s targets:
Raise £100,000
After a first year that exceeded all our expectations, we set a target of £100K for the year or at least £275K since the start of the charity. Due to the generosity of our donors, we have raised £131,882 giving a grand total of...
£310,218
Enable 3 Angelman Family events
We now support 3 regular events each year.
- February 14th-18th Alton Towers Trip July 25th Spread a Smile Summer Party November 27th Winter Wonderland
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Support 100
Angelman
Families
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Over 100 families received support through our grants schemes and our Spread A Smile Festive Hampers
51 families were supported through the grants scheme in partnership with Angelman UK.
23 families were supported with accommodation costs enabling them to attend the Alton Towers event.
100 young people received Festive Hampers from Spread a Smile.
Gain 5,000 on Social Media
Award 1 further research grant £50,000 was awarded to Professor Laurent Servais at Oxford University.
This year we gained 860 followers, taking us to 4,134 followers across Instagram, Facebook & LinkedIn, but still missing our target.
OUR TRUSTEES...
Founding trustees, Jenny, Alex and Clare were appointed on 22 May 2022. Natasha joined the board as a trustee on December 18th 2023 on a 5-year term.
Jennifer Vainella
Alex Vainella
Natasha Sotiri
Clare Hegarty
New trustees are selected by the current trustees on their eligibility according to the trust deeds, their commitment to the charitable objectives, their skills to fulfil a needed role and their ability to commit time to the role for their 5 year term. None of our trustees receive any financial renumeration.
OUR COMMITTEE...
Without a gala, we were able to operate a much smaller committee in this year, but we are indebted to a number of people who support the charity throughout the year:
Roberto Barzanti – Treasurer Aimee Crowther – Administrator Nicole Fernandez - Merchandise Mick Hegarty – Technology Amanda Orsi-Harper – Social Media Loretta Orsi-Barzanti – Legal Adrian Sandu – Family Grants
OUR VOLUNTEERS...
Each event requires a band of willing volunteers who make it all happen behind the scenes. We were supported by volunteers at numerous events this year, especially at the Golf Day, shown above. All of these people are the foundation of our success. Thank you to each and every one of you.
OUR SPORTS SPONSORS...
AC Finchley Football Club have continued to support Spread Your Wings by wearing our logo on the back of every shirt in every team! They have been there from the beginning and we love them for it!
OUR BUSINESS PARTNERS...
At almost every event, the generosity of businesses has made a huge impact on the amount of funds raised. This year we would like to highlight Hellman and Friedman who match funded £28,000 raised by their employees in the previous financial year bringing their contribution to a staggering £56,000.
We are also grateful to the businesses who make regular donations to us throughout the year:
Kyvano My Little Butterfly Jordan Woods Group GD Financial Language Angels
And to London Trophy Company who are behind all the running shirts and clothing merchandise.
And to Non Stop And to both REIM Action , who provide and Carnevale support in every way who have possible, every single supported day. us since Day 1.
OUR CHARITY PARTNERS...
Spread Your Wings is proud to work alongside other Angelman charities in both the UK and worldwide.
Outside the Angelman charity world, a number of charities have provided us with consistent support or worked alongside us:
Italian Medical Charity
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Willow Foundation
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Mazzini Garibaldi Charitable Foundation
Spread a Smile has been a highly valued partner charity. They were established to bring joy and comfort to seriously ill children and their families through their entertainers in hospitals and organising events. Through their support, we have been able to host families at the Summer Party in London and provide much appreciated Festive Hampers to young Angelman people and their young siblings across the country.
SPREAD YOUR WINGS Report of the Trustees
For the year ended 18 January 2025
The Trustees have pleasure in presenting their report and the financial statements for the charity for the year ended 18 January 2025. The Trustees have adopted the provisions of Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and the Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2019).
OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES
Objectives and aims
The trustees have considered the Charity Commision's guidance on public benefit, including the guidance 'public benefit: running a charity (PB2)'.
REFERENCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION
Name of Charity SPREAD YOUR WINGS Charity registration number 1201650 Principal address Millbrook School School House Lane London NW7 1JF
Trustees
The trustees and officers serving during the year and since the year end were as follows: Mr Alessandro Vainella Mrs Clare Hegarty Mrs Jennifer Vainella Mrs Natasha Sotiri
Independent examiners
G Teoli & Co.
Certified Public Accountants Balfour House 741 High Road London N12 0BP
Approved by the Board of Trustees and signed on its behalf by
............................................................................. 04 November 2025
Mr Alessandro Vainella
SPREAD YOUR WINGS
Independent Examiners Report to the Trustees
For the year ended 18 January 2025
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the charity for the year ended 18 January 2025.
Responsibilities and basis of report
As the charity trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 ('the 2011 Act').
I report in respect of my examination of the charity's accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.
Independent examiners statement
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:
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accounting records were not kept in respect of the Charity as required by section 130 of the 2011 Act; or
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the accounts do not accord with those records; or
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the accounts do 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 other matters 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.
FCPA., FMAAT., AFA/MIPA G Teoli & Co. Certified Public Accountants Balfour House 741 High Road London N12 0BP
04 November 2025
SPREAD YOUR WINGS
Statement of Financial Activities
For the year ended 18 January 2025
SPREAD YOUR WINGS
Statement of Financial Position
As at 18 January 2025
SPREAD YOUR WINGS
Notes to the Financial Statements
For the year ended 18 January 2025
1. Accounting Policies
Basis of accounting
The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention, except for investments which are included at market value and the revaluation of certain fixed assets and in accordance with the Charities SORP (FRS 102) ‘Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2019)', Financial Reporting Standard 102 the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102), and the Charities Act 2011.
SPREAD YOUR WINGS meets the definition of a public benefit entity under FRS 102. Assets and liabilities are initially recognised at historical cost or transaction value unless otherwise stated in the relevant accounting policy note(s).
Irrecoverable VAT
Irrecoverable VAT is included in the Statement of Financial Activities, and is reported as part of the expenditure to which it relates.
2. Income from donations and legacies
3. Income from charitable activities
4. Income earned from other activities
SPREAD YOUR WINGS
Notes to the Financial Statements Continued
For the year ended 18 January 2025
5. Other income
6. Expenditure on generating donations & legacies
7. Costs of charitable activities by fund type
8. Costs of charitable activities by fund type
9. Analysis of support costs
10. Net income (expenditure) for the year
SPREAD YOUR WINGS
Notes to the Financial Statements Continued
For the year ended 18 January 2025
11. Particulars of employees
12. Comparative for the Statement of Financial Activities
13. Comparative for the Statement of Financial Activities
14. Analysis of net assets between funds
SPREAD YOUR WINGS
Detailed Statement of Financial Activities
For the year ended 18 January 2025
This page does not form part of the statutory financial statements
Governance of Fundraising
Spread Your Wings is a member of the
Fundraising Regulator, who holds the Code of
Fundraising Practice for the UK, with which we aim to fully comply. We received no
complaints this year related to fundraising. There have been no breaches of the Code of Practice.
Reserves Policy
The charity maintained unrestricted funds of at least twice the cost of our largest event. This ensures the long-term sustainability of all our fundraising and charitable activities. With a higher number of events and increasing costs, we increased this to a minimum reserve of £120,000.
In addition, we reserved a total of £113,000 based on commitments given:
£50,000 was reserved for the research grant to Oxford University.
£50,000 was reserved for the first Spread Your Wings Independent Family Grant Scheme.
£8,000 was held in reserve at the end of the year for the sleep grant scheme in partnership with Angelman UK.
£5,000 for a donation to our partner charity, Spread a Smile. Total reserve is £233,000.
Investment Policy
Reserves are held in interest bearing accounts.
Public Benefit
The charity has been guided in the allocation of funds by the charity commission’s guidance on the need for all activities to be for the public benefit.
Policy of Grant Making
The charity has a policy on grant-making. This makes clear the eligibility for such grants and the alignment with the charity’s objectives.
Accounts
The trustees are responsible for the preparation of this report and financial statement. In doing so, the approach has been full compliance with the methods and principles in the Charity SORP (Statement of Recommended Practice). The trustees are indebted to our volunteer treasurer, Roberto Barzanti and to our independent auditor, Giulio Teoli.
www.SpreadYourWingsUK.com
Next year... Our targets for 2025:
Total fundraised to date
£500,000
1st release of AS support platform
£50,000 given out in family grants
Angelman families attending family events 100
Social media followers to exceed 5,000 across all platforms
Ways to help...
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BE ONE OF LEO’S
SUPERHEROES
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VOLUNTEER
WITH US
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BECOME A SCAN TODAY TO BUSINESS PARTNER FIND OUT MORE
GIVE A BE AN ANGELMAN DONATION AMBASSADOR
Recognition for Spread your Wings
We were honoured to be nominated for the Community Organisation Award for Disability at the National Diversity Awards in 2024. This recognition belongs not just to our trustees, but to everyone who makes our work possible — our dedicated committee and volunteers, our generous business, charity, school, and individual donors, and above all, the incredible Angelman community who continue to inspire everything we do.
Charity name: Spread Your Wings Charity number: 1201650 Period to: 18 January 2025 Email: Hello@SpreadYourWingsUK.com Registered office: Millbrook Park School, School House Lane Mill Hill, London NW7 1JF
www.SpreadYourWingsUK.com