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2024-03-31-accounts

ANNUAL REPORT OF ACTION MENOPAUSE WARWICKSHIRE TO THE CHARITY COMMISSION- 15/08/2023 - 31/03/2024

We are a Charitable Incorporated Organisation. Registered Charity Number 1204358

OBJECTIVES

Our objectives are “To preserve and protect the physical and mental health of women in (but not solely) Warwickshire who are experiencing a difficult peri menopause and menopause, through the provision of practical support, advice and education to raise awareness about the effects and impacts of the, often debilitating, symptoms that affect many women at this time.”

INTRODUCTION

Many women are suffering often debilitating symptoms during perimenopause and menopause and currently there are not enough skilled clinicians in primary care with the knowledge about the menopause and confidence in providing medication to provide the help that they need. Our founder experienced a surgical menopause and, despite working in primary care herself, was unable to obtain the support she needed from either primary or secondary care clinicians. She therefore undertook training to equip herself to support her own needs and to become the ‘go to person’ to provide a menopause service to the women in the general practice where she works. She also established Action Menopause Warwickshire to support women in the community. We started as a community organisation and received our Charity Registration in August 2023. Prior to that we held a Focus Group to identify the needs of local perimenopausal and menopausal women and to identify the support they would like and how this could best be provided in the community. As a result of this, our main initiative has been to establish regular Peer Support Group meetings where women get the opportunity to meet up, share their experiences with each other and to ask questions.

We have 6 Trustees with a diversity of knowledge and experience. Our Trustees are our main volunteers, but we are also supported by clinical colleagues who attend our meetings as volunteers to answer the women’s questions and our guest presenters also give their time for free. As we move forward with other projects, we shall look to recruit local volunteers to support us.

CURRENT INITIATIVES

Since obtaining our charitable status we have continued to run regular Peer Support Group meetings. We provide a supportive environment where women can ask questions of a very personal nature by writing them down, meaning they don’t have to voice them in the room. Our clinical team, a combination of doctors and nurses who specialise in the menopause, provide answers to the questions by reading out each question and answer, so everyone gets the benefit of the information. Each meeting also features a Guest Presenter providing facts and information regarding the menopause. They cover a wide range of health and wellbeing opportunities of benefit to women such as good pelvic health, medication, nutrition, reflexology, physical activity and relaxation. Our attendees greatly enjoy the opportunity to participate in interactive sessions and to understand the benefits that activities can have on their health. This was particularly true of the dance workshop that we ran.

The initiative is aimed at perimenopausal and menopausal women in our community, particularly those who are experiencing a difficult menopause. By helping women to undertake and implement self-care we believe that we are helping them to live healthier and more fulfilling lives. These benefits are also of benefit to the wider community.

Our meetings also provide the opportunity for women to understand that they are not alone in what they are going through and to make new friends. It gives them time to focus on themselves and their health, something many say, they don’t usually have the opportunity to do.

The above enables us to provide practical support, advice and education to help women understand the impact of the perimenopause and menopause on their bodies and to introduce them to methods of self-care that can help them live well throughout this time.

Our ethos is not to make a charge for women to attend these events. We do have a donation box available should anyone wish to make a donation.

We have also been involved in:

MAIN ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE CHARITY

Prior to becoming a charity, we had run six of our Peer Support Group meetings. During the period of this report we have held three meetings. The presenters for two of these meetings were a clinical physiotherapist covering good pelvic health and a nutritionist discussing good nutrition (in particular belly fat and the menopause).

Both of these topics were very well received. For the other meeting, we were fortunate to have Dr Louise Newson, a GP and renowned international menopause expert, as our guest presenter. This meeting was attended by over 70 local women and was reported in a local newspaper. We did levy an attendance fee of £5.00 per head for this event and the money raised was shared between our charity and Louise Newson’s charity, The Menopause Charity.

Louise Newson and Action Menopause Warwickshire Committee

Many women often feel isolated as a result of their symptoms and at these groups they tell us what a relief it is to know that they are not alone in what they are going through. They have also told us how our work has helped them and made a difference to their lives (see comment below)

“Thank you so very much for last night, I am still “full” of it and my mind is going into overdrive talking about it to my partner, he said for the first time in ages he can see a difference in me, I said it was great being amongst people who ‘get it’, who understand, who know. I don’t know where to begin to thank you, those 2 hours have made an enormous difference to me and for the FIRST time in an extremely long time, I have woken up feeling the most positive I have for a very, very, long time.

My head is in a whirl wind of what I want to do, what I want to achieve, and I want to start it all NOW.”

The support that we provide to women helps them to better deal with many of the significant symptoms that can arise as a result of a difficult menopause, and this can have a positive impact on their friends, families and work colleagues. Our work also promotes healthy living (good nutrition, exercise, relaxation techniques etc) which can also have a broader benefit to society as a whole. The feedback that we receive confirms to us that we are meeting our objectives.

FUTURE DEVELOPMENT

For the immediate future our main objective is to continue to support our existing and new attendees with Peer Support Group Meetings. We shall also be seeking advice from our attendees as to additional initiatives that would be of benefit to them to inform our planning of future developments.

FUNDRAISING

Over the period we ran a successful fundraising event in collaboration with a local fashion business and another charity, The Myton Hospice. This was our main source of fundraising during the period. However, as mentioned above, we also ran an event where Dr Louise Newson came to speak, and we split the revenue from the ticket sales between Action Menopause Warwickshire and The Menopause Charity. We are most grateful to the individuals and local businesses who have assisted us with fundraising.

Currently we are operating with low overheads, and our costs are mainly for venue hire, publicity materials and general running costs. We are most grateful to the individuals and local businesses who have assisted us with fundraising. In particular, thanks are due to a local fashion business that organised a very successful charity event. Priority to obtaining our charitable status our expenses were covered by the Trustees and other supporters.

RISK MANAGEMENT

We have given consideration to the possible risks to our charity. At the present time we would see the main risk could be to our reputation. For this reason, we vet all of the guest presenters who speak at our meetings to ensure that they have the appropriate background, qualifications and knowledge necessary to provide accurate, current and, where appropriate, evidence-based information. We are also aware of the requirements of GDPR and ensure that we adhere to these. Another risk could be an inability to raise funds for our future objectives. Our decision is to grow our charity slowly to ensure that we do not raise expectations of actions that we cannot deliver.

Report ends 22.01.2025

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Section B Statement of assets and liabilities al the end of the period Unrpstrictod fvnd$ Rostfirtod fund5 Endowmerkt funils to￿ar￿% £ caLe￿DrIèS e￿£ B1 Cash fvnds A¢￿￿1 1.197 P¢y Totalc8sh fvnds 1.203 Un￿Str￿ted Re5trfcted funds Endowment funds fund$ tèrarrtt£ B2 Other monetary assets B4 Assets retalnedfor thè charty'5 ¢Jwm use B5 Liabl￿1￿5 iknre5t￿led 51gned byone oriMy tWStge¥on behaKtstallthÈ trustees PriltNary Date￿aPp￿al 2910112025 CCXX R2 accounts ISSI 291D112025