Pilotlight London celebrated its successes at its annual event in March. It was an inspiring evening, bringing together Pilotlighters, partner charities, staff and supporters.
Dr Helen Bulbeck, director of Brainstrust, one of the 88 charities Pilotlight London has worked with over 2010, gave an account of her experience of starting a charity.
Dr Bulbeck’s daughter, Megan, was diagnosed with a brain tumour a week before going to University. “She was so focused on going that she went anyway but I shut the door and cried for four days. We struggled for a year, trying to find out more information. She wasn’t even given a follow-up appointment. I threw myself into research and eventually found a surgeon in the United States, who would operate on her. We had to raise £35,000 for her operation but decided to set up a trust fund. We ended up raising £70,000 and Megan had a successful operation. We have been able to use the extra money to fund the charity.”
Brainstrust is now a charity dedicated to improving clinical care for brain tumour sufferers and providing co-ordinated support in their search for treatment. It provides support and advice at the point of diagnosis and beyond, by updating treatment, improving care and, ultimately, saving lives.
Dr Bulbeck also outlined how she had been helped by Pilotlight. “It has been fabulous for our organisation to have business people who could look at our organisation from a critical distance. Every small charity should have this experience.”
She added: “It is important to realise that the process is about coaching and facilitation, you don’t need to give a polished presentation and have all the answers when you meet the Pilotlighters.”
“We now have a very clear vision for the next five years. When we are following our intuition, we always check ourselves and think, is it in the business plan? We have a definite structure to our work now. And by the way, the Pilotlight process is also fun.”
Since working with Pilotlight, Brainstrust has seen 100% increase in those helped over the phone and by email.
Pilotlighter, Anne Turrell said her experience of working with Brainstrust had provided her with opportunities to meet inspirational people from the charity sector, to learn from other professionals and to feel that she was having an impact on worth while causes. She said: “Working with Brainstrust, Pilotlight and my fellow Pilotlighters has been a fantastic adventure; inspiring, challenging and immensely humbling.”
To add entertainment to the evening, representatives from Epic Arts, a former Pilotlight Partner Charity performed ‘Duologue’, a short dance duet between two female dancers, one of whom has Downs Syndrome. See below for more about Epic Arts and its work with Pilotlight.
The event was kindly hosted by Reed Smith, with spectacular views across London, which added to the evening.