Who We Are

In 1990 a local senior paediatrician, Dr Helen Foley, wrote to the `Surrey Advertiser' and asked for help in improving the life of some of her patients. She was all too aware of how specially targeted help, beyond what was available from public sources, could make such a dramatic difference to the quality of disabled children's lives.

Mrs. Margaret Pilkington, after reading Dr. Foley's appeal, was inspired to start the Equipment for Disabled Children charity in that same year. Dr.Foley subsequently became the first President of the charity and remained the patron of the charity until 2010 when we were grateful that she, on leaving the area, persuaded Dr Caroline Salmon of the RSCH to take on the role.

EDC is a small local charity. It helps local children in the most need to make their life better. All its money comes from local fund-raising. It is run entirely by unpaid volunteers. Apart from very small amounts used for local publicity, all the money collected is used to provide help to the children.

If you have time to help with flag-days or other fund-raising events, we would be delighted to have your help. A little personal effort can often make a huge difference to the funds we have available. You may have friends who would like to help or contribute in some way. We will be happy to contact them if they would like us to do so.

We already have a number of businesses, schools and churches who are generous in donating to the charity, providing publicity and administration support and giving prizes for one or more of our regular fund-raising events. If you are part of, or in contact with, a local organization, which could help in any way, please get in touch with us.

Click on the controls to the left below to hear Margaret Pilkington talking about how the charity was started. (The player needs Flash v7 or higher to be installed.) Alternatively click on the button to the right below. Thanks to BBC Radio Surrey and Joe Talbot for permission to use this audio extract from the broadcast of 20th. December 2012.


If you would like to see our Charity Commission registration, please click on the link to the left.