Aberdeen Independent Multiple Sclerosis
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for Voluntary Service
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Trustees Annual Report and Accounts for the year
1 January to 31 December 2025
Aberdeen Independent Multiple Sclerosis Registered office: 43 Gordon Place, Bridge of Don, Aberdeen AB23 8RB Scottish registered charity number SC051225
Reference and administrative details
Charity name:
Aberdeen Independent Multiple Sclerosis
: Registered number SC051225
ce: Registered Off
43 Gordon Place
Bridge of Don Aberdeen AB23 8RB
Trustees:
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Bankers:
Bank of Scotland plc
PO Box 1000
BX2 1LB [postal account]
Independent Examiner:
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Aberdeen Independent Multiple Sclerosis Registered office: 43 Gordon Place, Bridge of Don, Aberdeen AB23 8RB Scottish registered charity number SC051225
Report of the Trustees
The trustees are pleased to present their annual report and accounts for the 2025 calendar year.
Structure, governance, and management
Aberdeen Independent Multiple Sclerosis [known by the acronym AIMS] obtained Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation [SCIO] status on 30th August 2021. The charity is governed by its constitution which states trustees are appointed at the Annual General Meeting and hold office for a period of one year.
The maximum number of trustees is eight and the minimum is three.
Names of the trustees - who all served throughout the period of this report - are shown on the preceding page.
Decisions are taken in face-to-face meetings, virtual meetings and by email correspondence if a quick response to an item is required. Team members find this manner of operation to be the best methods for effective working.
Objectives and activities
The charity’s purpose is to improve the quality of life for people affected by multiple sclerosis [MS] and related neurological conditions in Aberdeen and the surrounding area. We achieve this by operating activities which improve the physical and mental health and wellbeing of our members and service users such as running chair-based exercise, seated yoga, mindfulness, a social group and an art and crafts session. The perceived consequence of running these services is our community members have a reduced number of medical interventions through having a greater level of fitness and are healthier than if they were not available.
People with MS are significantly less active than the general population. Inactivity results in fatigue and muscle weakness which affects mobility. The charity’s exercise provision improves the general wellness of its community members and reduce their reliance on interventions by NHS personnel.
Our programme of exercises is specifically targeted at people with an impaired range of motion due to their MS condition – some of the beneficiaries are wheelchair bound and are unable to take part in exercises aimed at the general population. We provide an adapted programme of exercises.
Aberdeen Independent Multiple Sclerosis
Registered office: 43 Gordon Place, Bridge of Don, Aberdeen AB23 8RB Scottish registered charity number SC051225
There is a lack of exercise programmes in the Aberdeen area for people who are movement restricted. Indeed, there is a lack of availability UK-wide and we have opened our activities to two ladies from the Camden area of London, one from Staffordshire and another from Glasgow.
There is medical evidence suggesting regular exercise decreases the severity of various MS symptoms such as fatigue and depression. Exercise also improves balance, mobility and enhances a person’s quality of life. Participants inform the charity’s management team they feel better after attending a session of exercise. They also feel more motivated to exercise as part of a regular session with others rather than attempt to work on their own.
Achievements and performance
The highlight of our year was receiving the King’s Award for Voluntary Service which is the highest honour given to local volunteer groups in the UK, equivalent to an MBE for an individual. Our management team is grateful to Audrey Walker for recognising the work of our volunteers and nominating the work of our volunteers to the King’s Award team.
Most of our sessions are carried out digitally. Each week, we operate three chair-based exercise sessions on the Zoom platform and a face-to-face meeting of two sessions in Trinity Church, Westhill; one seated yoga session; a mindfulness class; an art and crafts class and a social group. Chiefly, sessions are led by qualified personnel but the Thursday morning digital session which runs in parallel with the face-to-face session is led by members of the charity’s management team to keep costs low.
Aberdeen Independent Multiple Sclerosis
Registered office: 43 Gordon Place, Bridge of Don, Aberdeen AB23 8RB Scottish registered charity number SC051225
The age range of participants is mid-40s to early-80s and the range of motion from fully mobile to those who are confined to wheelchairs. Our physiotherapists and personal trainers are required to take that range of abilities into account when preparing their programmes.
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Social activities – We run regular face to face coffee and chat afternoons for people to meet up on an informal basis. These have been held at various locations throughout the city and Aberdeenshire. During the year we ran eleven coffee and chat afternoons and our annual Christmas lunch. Thank you to Chrissie for organising these occasions.
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Aberdeen Independent Multiple Sclerosis Registered office: 43 Gordon Place, Bridge of Don, Aberdeen AB23 8RB Scottish registered charity number SC051225
Our Christmas lunch was held at The Craighaar Hotel on Saturday 6 December and was attended by 30 members and their families.
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The charity’s biggest challenge remains attracting younger people both to attend its services and volunteer with its work. The management team is aware of this matter and is actively looking to resolve it and create a succession plan for the future.
Partnerships
[a] We work closely with personnel in the Aberdeen Council of Voluntary Organisations [ACVO]. It was the ACVO Guidance Officer who assisted in creating the charity’s constitution. Our chair appeared twice on SHMU radio programme to talk about the work of AIMS during the year. is the Volunteer Manager at ACVO.
[b] Grampian Multiple Sclerosis Therapy Centre. The charity has a tie-in as many people with MS attend both groups. The work of the two charities does not overlap as it mainly offers oxygen therapy, reflexology and physiotherapy; things not offered by AIMS. [c] We are members of the Scottish Council of Voluntary Organisations which provides a list of grant funders, Aberdeenshire Voluntary Action, Voluntary Health Scotland and Neurological Alliance of Scotland.
Aberdeen Independent Multiple Sclerosis
Registered office: 43 Gordon Place, Bridge of Don, Aberdeen AB23 8RB Scottish registered charity number SC051225
[d] Our chair gave two presentations to teams within Aberdeen City Health and Social Care Partnership [AHSCP] about the charity’s work and the options for people served by staff to join in with our activities.
Communication and social media
joined us as a social media volunteer in the early part of the year and in conjunction with , they boosted our social media presence.
We publicise activities on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com; an Instagram page at https://www.instagram.com/aberdeenindependentms and our website at: https://www.youraims.org. Thanks to for keeping the social media updated.
We produce a quarterly newsletter to keep members, service users and contacts updated with our activities. This is sent out by email and can also be read onscreen at Heyzine Flipbooks. For those with no digital presence, the newsletter is sent by post.
Winter 2025-26 Newsletter
Aberdeen Independent Multiple Sclerosis Registered office: 43 Gordon Place, Bridge of Don, Aberdeen AB23 8RB Scottish registered charity number SC051225
We send out regular email updates to those on our list of contacts. Some of our members and service users do not have access to computers and the ladies on the management team phone them on a regular basis.
Statistics
The group operates 52 weeks each year. In most cases, volunteers cover sessions when the contracted leader has time off on holiday. During the year, the charity operated 398 [2024: 421] digital and face-to-face sessions which have been attended by 3,203 [2024: 3,207] participants. We are grateful to our session leaders for their commitment to the work of our charity.
During the year we said goodbye to , our art and crafts tutor who has assumed greater responsibilities in her main employment and to who has
moved into fulltime employment. We are grateful to both ladies for their service to the charity over a number of years.
The breakdown of participants for activities is as follows:
DIGITAL
| DIGITAL | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Activity | Participants | Sessions held |
Average per session |
| Mondaymindful movement | 613 | 51 | 12.0 |
| Mondayart/crafts | 178 | 41 | 4.3 |
| Tuesdaychair-based exercise | 413 | 51 | 8.1 |
| WednesdaySeated Yoga | 256 | 50 | 5.1 |
| WednesdaySocial Group | 299 | 47 | 6.3 |
| Thursdaychair-based exercise | 265 | 49 | 5.4 |
| FridayMindfulness | 249 | 50 | 5.0 |
FACE TO FACE
| FACE TO FACE | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Activity | Participants | Sessions held |
Average per session |
| Thursday chair-based exercise [face to face] |
703 | 46 | 15.2 |
| Social events | 227 | 13 | 17.4 |
| TOTAL[2024]3,207/421/7.6 | 3,203 | 398 | 8.0 |
Aberdeen Independent Multiple Sclerosis
Registered office: 43 Gordon Place, Bridge of Don, Aberdeen AB23 8RB Scottish registered charity number SC051225
The annual time commitment of the five members of the charity’s management team is in the region of 1800 hours. We are of the view the high number of voluntary hours given by the members of the management team makes the charity’s offering exceptional. These volunteers work very well as a team allowing the number of services on offer to be carried on throughout the year.
Financial review
We request a donation from activity participants but are aware some people are finding the cost-of-living crisis to be a financial burden and people who cannot afford to donate are not turned away. We want people to participate in regular exercise to enable them to live as independently as possible in their own homes for as long as possible.
Sandra set up a Just Giving page within our website in the latter part of the year and there have been a few donations received from this source.
The larger donations received during the period under review were £2,500 from Societe Generale Foundation through , £920 from the family of the late
and £425 from a Music at the Stocket concert. In addition, we received £1,797.49 from the Co-op Local Community Fund. Thanks to for managing the accounts.
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Aberdeen Independent Multiple Sclerosis
Registered office: 43 Gordon Place, Bridge of Don, Aberdeen AB23 8RB Scottish registered charity number SC051225
APPENDIX 3
Scottish Charity Regulator
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Independent examiner’s report onthe accounts «
Report to the Charity name
trustees/members of ABERDEEN INDEPENDENT MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS
Registered charity SC 051225
number
On the accounts of the Period start date Period end date
charity for the period Day Month Year Day Month Year
01 01 2025" 31. 12 2025
Set ber to include th
out on pages rurbenof edcionel sheen)
Respective The charity's trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance
responsibilities Of With the terms of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) 2005 Act and the
trustees and examiner Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended). The charity trustees
consider that the audit requirement of Regulation 10(1) (d) of the Accounts Regulations
does not apply. It is my responsibility to examine the accounts as required under section
44(1) (c) of the Act and to state whether particular matters have come to my attention.
Basis of independent My examination is carried out in accordance with Regulation 11 of the 2006 Accounts
examiner's statement Regulations. 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 seeks
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, | do
not express an audit opinion on the view given by the accounts.
Independent examiner's In the course of my examination, no matter has come to my attention [other than that
statement disclosed on the attached page")
1. which gives me reasonable cause to believe that in any material respect the
requirements:
to keep accounting records in accordance with section 44(1) (a) of the 2005 Act and
Regulation 4 of the 2006 Accounts Regulations, and
to prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records and comply with
Regulation 9 of the 2006 Accounts Regulations
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have not been met, or
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2. __to which, in my opinion, attention should :be drawn in order to enable a proper
Signed:
Name:
Relevant professional
qualification(s) or body
(if any):
Address:
“Please delete the words in the brackets if they do not apply. If the words do apply, set out those matters which have come to your attention on the
following page.
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- *"OSCR will accept digital or typed signatures.
Aberdeen Independent Multiple Sclerosis Registered office: 43 Gordon Place, Bridge of Don, Aberdeen AB23 8RB Scottish registered charity number SC051225
Receipts and Payments for period 1 January – 31 December 2025
Receipts
| Receipts | ||
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2024 | |
| Annual subscriptions | 820.00 | 840.00 |
| Class attendance fees | 9,692.00 | 8,615.00 |
| Donations,fundraising,includingGift Aid | 10,187.00 | 4,499.36 |
| Craft/art sales | 0 | 73.35 |
| Fundraising: collectingcans | 840.62 | 680.25 |
| Social events | 640.00 | 1,749.00 |
| Miscellaneous | 0.01 | 90.00 |
| Total | 22,179.63 | 16,546.96 |
Payments
| Payments | ||
|---|---|---|
| Session fees: | ||
| Chair based exercise [including hall hire & equipmentpurchased] |
14,487.09 | 13,114.76 |
| Seatedyoga | 2750.00 | 2,378.75 |
| Mindfulness | 2512.50 | 2,340.00 |
| Art/crafts[includespurchase of materials] | 2500.00 | 3,675.00 |
| Other costs: | ||
| Insurance | 181.90 | 169.55 |
| Social media: website etc | 921.60 | 786.02 |
| Social events | 866.45 | 1,296.65 |
| Total | 24,219.54 | 23,760.73 |
| Defcit | -2,039.91 | -7,213.77 |
| Bank balance atyear end | 42,063.79 | 44,103.70 |
Signed on behalf of the Trustees
Aberdeen Independent Multiple Sclerosis
Registered office: 43 Gordon Place, Bridge of Don, Aberdeen AB23 8RB Scottish registered charity number SC051225