**Trustees Annual Report for the period 1[st] January 2020 to 31st December 2020** ## **Reference and Administration Details** Charity Name :- Midlands Asthma and Allergy Research Association Other names by which it is known:- MAARA Registered Charity Number 257131 Registered Office: 7 Stadium Business Court Millennium Way Pride Park Derby DE24 8HP Names of the Trustees who manage the charity:- Dr Roger Chappell Mr Stuart Mills Dr Martin Stern Mr Stephen Watson Mr Peter Teasdale All of whom acted as trustees for the whole year. ## **Structure Governance and Management** The charity is governed by its constitution which was last changed in 2013 to reflect the changes in the objects of the charity, reflecting the cessation of medical trials and the disposal of the former premises in Vernon St. Derby. The association had a membership of 56 during the year and the trustees are appointed or reappointed according to the constitution, which stipulates that the committee will consist of:- - i) The officers of the Association, i.e. the Patron, President, Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Treasurer and Secretary elected at the Annual General Meeting of the Association and a Medical Advisor. All such officers shall be elected for a five year period and shall be eligible for re-election for a further period of five years after the expiry of the original five years - ii) Not more than eight elected members, one third of whom shall retire at each Annual general Meeting of the association. The members of the Committee [other than the aforementioned Patron, President, Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Treasurer and Secretary] to retire every three years and again each of the eight elected members shall be entitled to stand for re-election for a further term of three years . - iii) The Committee may elect members to fill casual vacancies in the officers and members of the Committee until the next Annual General meeting The trustees are appointed from the committee and therefore elected and re- elected in accordance with the Constitution at the AGM held in July. Trustees and officers of the Association continue to give their time voluntarily and receive no remuneration or other benefits ## **Objectives and Activities** Objects of the Association - a. Sponsoring of research into the causes and treatment of Asthma and Allergy - b. Sponsoring the dissemination of this to the public and/or to the medical profession by publication or through seminars or conferences - c. Providing general information on Asthma and Allergy to the public. - d. Fulfilling requests for information from academic bodies, interested groups and the public on matters relating to asthma and allergy, including research findings and information gathered by the Association or its agents, at the discretion of the Executive. - e. Undertake fundraising in support of the objects a – d ## **Summary of Activities undertaken** The activities of the Charity are largely dependent on the success of applications for funding from medical researchers and institutions in the East Midlands. A key responsibility of the Trustees is to ensure that the public will benefit from the research or projects which we fund. We have a separate Medical Advice Committee (MAC) chaired by Dr David Luyt which critically appraises applications, including the amount of public benefit likely to accrue, in accordance with the Charity Commission’s guidance. Acceptance of applications involves a protocol identifying differing levels of authorisation for different values of grant, including the involvement of an external referee for higher value grants. All MAC recommendations for funding over £5k are subject to approval by a vote of the Executive committee. ## **Achievements and Performance** ## Pollen counting and Public Information Pollen counting was under way within 18 months of the formation of MAARA in 1968 and our current counting continues to add data to our archive which is now the longest running in Europe. Originally MAARA directly employed Aerobiologists to collect and count Pollen in our own premises, but the cost of staffing and maintenance of even modest facilities and the upcoming retirement of key staff members led us to investigate outsourcing the service. Accordingly, in 2006 as part of a major grant, counting was transferred to Glenfield Hospital and more recently to The University of Leicester. The service is currently being provided as part of a two year project with the University after review of an existing 3 year contract which expired in early 2020. The Executive committee believe that the Archive is an important resource for researchers nationwide as well as for MAARA’s own projects, but we check this on an ongoing basis, before agreeing to further funding. Three MAC meetings were held this year, each one to review a different project proposal. Two of these projects were approved for funding with all three projects having been passed to our independent external referee due to their value. The projects approved were:- - Investigation of mast cells from asthmatic bronchial biopsy tissue by single cell RNA sequencing for the assessment of novel therapeutics £35606 Severe (uncontrolled) asthma affects a subset of people with asthma and does not respond to current treatments. Mast cells (MC) are a type of white blood cell in the airway that play an important role in uncontrolled asthma, causing both day-to-day symptoms and attacks. Drugs that block MC function in asthma do not currently exist, because until now researchers have not been able to investigate the mechanisms driving abnormal MC function. We will use a new technique called single-cell RNA sequencing that will allow us to identify the abnormal molecular signalling pathways that drive abnormal MC function. We will use MCs obtained from the bronchi of people with severe asthma and expect to uncover new ways which MCs in asthma can be targeted effectively with new drugs, hence improving the care for people with this disease. Investigating the immunological response to coronaviruses following exposure to pollens, fungal spores and particulate matter. £7200 Experimental evidence has shown an association between pollen exposure and a reduced immune response to rhinoviruses, one of the viruses causing common colds. No studies have investigated the effect of fungal spores on immunity to respiratory viruses, nor the response to coronaviruses following pollen exposure. We hypothesise that exposure to pollen and fungal spores will increase the risk of coronavirus infection by affecting immunity to respiratory viruses. We propose to use tissue culture exposed to combinations of coronaviruses known to cause common cold, pollens, fungal spores and air pollution particles. We aim to determine whether the two main allergenic pollens (grass and birch) and three renowned fungal aeroallergens (Alternaria, Aspergillus and Cladosporium) can affect susceptibility to coronavirus infection. Coronaviruses are important triggers of asthma attacks, and findings may have relevance to the SARSCoV-2 coronavirus (responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic), the second wave of which coincided with the fungal spore season. Other projects continue from previous years:- ## - a) Characterisation of type 2 innate lymphoid cells in the sputum of wheezing children ## b) Investigating mechanisms of ILC2 tissue recruitment A no cost time extension to the completion of this project was agreed in July 2020 due to disruption caused by the pandemic ## c) Identification and Characterisation from A. Fumigatus associated with lung damage A no cost time extension to the completion of this project was agreed in July 2020 due to disruption caused by the pandemic - d) CRTh2 activation of Slav positive non-classical monocytes & effect on anti-viral CD8+T cells ## Harry Morrow Brown Award The Harry Morrow Brown Award is an annual award commemorating the death of the founder of MAARA, it provides an annual sum of £5000 to support a range of health professionals wishing to present at suitable conferences and seminars, by paying bursaries covering conference fees and travel costs. Due to the pandemic, no grants were made under the award, however the rules allow expenditure to be carried forward into successive years if warranted by application numbers. ## **Financial Review** Reserves policy Unrestricted funds are currently £200390 and are used to meet our liability in payment of agreed grants as well as the day to day operating expenditure. A decision was taken in 2006 to invest some of our funds in investment accounts in order to improve returns. These funds have performed well and we plan to leave these in place until the money they contain are needed for our work We have no funds materially in deficit. Our main source of funds this year has again been legacies which, by their nature, are difficult to predict or budget ## **Declaration** The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees |**Signed**|| |---|---| |**Full name**|Stephen David Watson| |**Position**|Chairman| |**Date**|31stAugust 2021| h11DL￿￿o5 ASrnIIA ALLERGY LIL4AGEbiLYf ACCOUNrs YLIR LYDED 31 DECEMBER Zm MIDLWDS ASTILIIA AND ALLERGY RESLIRCH A&WCIATION $rATEM￿ OF FIWI CLIL ACTrymES FOA THE YLIR ENDEDJI DECEfvIBER 201• 20 2014 I CO￿1￿￿G I￿oURCEs Fund Ralstng •ad Oiher loco* Fund Rllisin& O¢JDJti0O&¢ Legxits *Joo 130510 110 133091 2é925 10599 12923 TOTAL INCOhllNG RESOURCFS 341 RESOURCES EXPENDED COST OF GENERAMC FLINDS Artrnlnlsir•dve Othtr ExpeAses Sthlllritslnd Pen5iOR5 Reni Raw WHI Watrr 16169 1440 1551J 1440 13?1 610 51 Tckpho 731 3486 31 Websi J114 Sundry Ex￿ndI￿rE 129 71 2639J 99 Ch4rltsble mnd ResurEh Expeudltue AerDbtolou CoDuxi OtherReytath Grnqts ?4716 101194 112416 IZU94 TOTAL BESOURCES EXPENDED 131307 141717 Nrr INGOINCIIOUTGOING) RESOURCE5 FOR ThE YEAR l1221 OTEIER RECOGNISED GAINS AND LOSSES Unr¢Ali5edfyilll{Lo55) un InveMm¢O 61117 t4ET f¢lOVEMENT IN Fiif4DS Tothl Fttnds bwhi hr•md 1•14591 93n17 TOTAL FUNDS CARRIED FORIVARD 1111204 1114S9Z PAY2 lIDLknYOS ASTHblA AILERGY RLSEARCH ASSOCIATIOI BALknYCESIIEEfAS AT31 DECUIBER I•IO N￿eN 202• 2119 FIXED ASSETS I#V¢s￿En 618876 711705 711707 CURREKfASSftS Debiors ind PTtpaymenL% C•sh ￿ Bw* #hd IN Hmd 21111Z 301681 CREDrroRS: wn•Mnts fJvAI& NET CURREfiT A55Ers 1993Z6 TOTAL hssrrs LESS CURRLYT LL4BILrriES ID14591 Utslcs￿1Eh¥J Fun IOM AppDvcd by the BoardofTrosttes Atyj *ycdoa im bdb•lf by hce3 IIDLANDS AsfHMA AfvD ALLERGY RESLIRCH ASSOCIATION NOTES TO THE Accouyfs FOR THE YL4R Ef4D£D31 DECENIBER 2020 ACCOUhTll*G POUCIES rpr￿lI￿on DepSE¢iAlion is pKovrded•)n ￿ FLWI As*#s•n•Jtsa¢hi Ime write01fknra￿ D¥cr thcirestsmoied Compu* MdxAIEwipnwA. 33J*BPA DDI•￿onS •ad Lepc Th¢se•re 1¢£4JuAkd fwin fiAII IA the)￿￿0r￿tEl1rt. TkllGIBLE FLXED ASSETS Medlc•l T•tsl Book vtth￿ F(Thwd Prnvuion forD¢ptt¢ii Net Book VilK5 C•rrkd Fvrnanl INYLmiEKrs 102• 1019 M•rk* bwhi 711705 643578 711705 (1￿ UKUnliTn&s fo¢Clww) MIDLANDS ASTHMA AY4D ALLERGY RESEARCH ASSOCIATION RECEiYfs AND PAYMENIS Accouwr YEAR TO 31 DECEMBER 2020 Page I THE MIDLANDS AsfHMA AND ALLERGY RESEARCH ASSOCIATION CUARITY NUMBER 2S7131 RECEIFfs AND PAYMEKfs ACCOUNTS FOR THE PEIUOD I JANUARY 2020 TO 31 DECEMBER 2020 Unregtrlcted FuDds 31.1220 Unrestrlcted Fund5 3l.12.19 RECEiYrs Donalion4 Legacies and Grdnts Memba5 Sub5oiptions Investment Income 12723 2(M) 21938 132980 27194 TOTAL RECEIPTS 160284 PAYMENTS SaJaric5 and P￿lon Ren( RAtes and Water Insurance Printin& P05tagc and Stslionery Telep1￿ne Courses and TravElling Website Costs Accountancy and Book.keeping Sundri¢s Grants Bank Charges 16168 15528 443 2(Kll 610 70 703 733 3467 31 3172 128 197214 71 3043 2549 112416 99 TOTAL PAymE￿rS 138935 222928 NET (PAYMENTS)IRECEIPTS (11)4074) {62644) CASH FUNDS AT 31 DECEMBER 2019 367108 CASH FUNDS AT 31 DECEMBER 202• 200390 PaBe 2 THE MIDLANDS ASTHMAAND ALLERGY RLSEARCH ASSOCIATION CHARITY NUMBER 257131 srATEMENT OF ASSETS AND LIABILrriLs AT 31 DECEMBER 2020 (Unrestricted Fund5) 2020 (Unrestricted Funds) 2019 CASH FUNDS HSBC Barclays COIF Charities Deposit Fund Lloyds Cash in Hand 20667 758 146261 32586 23985 720 226261 53343 155 TOTAL CASH FUNDS 200390 31M464 OTHER MONETARY AssErs INVESTMENT ASSETS COIF Charity Fund (market value £191155) M&GGn)up (markel value £140669} Newton Fu￿1 (market value r291489) Cordea Sivills (market value £65563) 150000 125000 150000 75000 125000 150M) 75000 TOTAL INVE%fMENf Assrrs 500000 500000 LIABILITIES Other 1856 1803 TOTAL LIABILITILS 1856 1803 Signature....... 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