How your donation is spent - meet the Grants team

With MS, it's often the little things that can make a difference.

But even little things can be costly - so the MS Society provides grants to people living with MS, to help with everything from home adaptations and mobility equipment to shorts breaks.

Tracy Miles works in the MS Society Grants team, and talks about the impact grants can can have on people’s lives.

What do the Grants Team do?

There are three people in the Grants Team – an Officer, Senior Officer and Manager. We deal with grant applications that come in, and provide information about grants for people affected by MS and MS professionals.

We also support people with MS, their families and carers through our Short Breaks and Activities Fund and Carers’ funds.

Making a difference

What I enjoy most is when someone gets in touch to let us know that the item or short break we’ve helped with has really made a difference to their life.

Joan’s story always sticks in my mind. She is 77 and lives alone. She didn’t have a suitable chair, so remained in her powered wheelchair for long periods and wasn’t able to change her position easily when uncomfortable. She was in a great deal of pain. A riser recliner chair was recommended, but there was no funding available from the local health authority.

As a pensioner living alone with no savings, Joan was unable to afford the £2,200 cost of the chair herself - but her occupational therapist helped her to apply to the local branch of the MS Society, who awarded a grant of £1,000. A further £1,200 was awarded from the national MS Society, and Joan was able to buy the riser recliner chair - a small, simple change that improved her life.

The flip side of this, of course, is not having the resources to fund all grant requests. Sometimes requests are made for things we cannot help with or we are unable to meet the full cost of a request. This can be a really challenging part of the role.

My highlight of the year

My highlight this year has been attending MS Life. I went to some great workshops and enjoyed talking to lots of people about grants and the types of things we can help with.

A number of people were interested in hearing about our Short Breaks and Activities Fund and were surprised that we can help with things such as travel, accommodation and disability equipment hire costs linked to having a break.

You make this possible

All of this has only been made possible thanks to the donations of supporters across UK.

The UK government is cutting disability benefits – it’s already affecting people's lives. This is why your support is important now.

Please donate and help us continue this life-changing work.