With autumn well and truly here, there are many elderly residents of Derbyshire who are already struggling to afford expensive fuel bills and will be unable to stay warm during the cold and isolating winter months ahead.
Our Surviving Winter Appeal is an easy way for pensioners, who feel able to donate their Winter Fuel Payment, to support vulnerable people in their local community.
Donations are also welcomed from general members of the public who wish to support elderly residents at risk in winter.
Our Patron, the Duke of Devonshire, continues to support the Appeal:
Staying warm and healthy in our cold winters is something most of us take for granted. It is distressing to think many older people in our society are having to choose between eating and heating and will therefore be severely affected and even die due to not being able to keep warm. Passing on my own winter fuel allowance again this year is a simple but incredibly effective way to help those who are at risk.
Working with Age UK Derby & Derbyshire, who use workers on the ground to identify those most in need, and Rural Action Derbyshire, the Foundation has already been able to make over 100 vital grants to older residents, thanks to the generosity of Derbyshire people.
Rachael Grime, our Chief Executive, hopes that even more people will get behind the campaign this winter:
Over the past three years, we have already made over 130 grants totalling £22,000 to older people across our county and would love to make fuel poverty in Derbyshire a thing of the past. Thanks to the support of Rolls-Royce plc, who have funded the start-up scheme costs from their own Foundation Derbyshire fund, every penny donated goes to those that need it most.
