MADELEINE STEEL CHARITABLE TRUST.

Charity registration number:- SCO 33732

Tax reference CR 54106

To make a donation to the Maddy Steel Charitable Trust: please send a cheque made payable to:

THE MADELEINE STEEL CHARITABLE TRUST

c/o Judith Steel, Breakers, 3a The Scores, St Andrews, KY16 9AR

All systems of donating online incur a charge to the provider, and we feel passionately that every penny raised should go to the work of the Trust.

About The Trust

Although the British National Health Service is a wonderful institution, it is well known that there are many facilities it is unable to provide. Individuals and charities wishing to donate relatively small amounts of money often aim to buy some type of equipment. Such donations are very much appreciated but it can be difficult to get money to train someone to use new equipment or to learn the latest techniques.

One baby in every hundred is born with an abnormality. Heart abnormalities are among the commonest problems, there are 6 to 8 cases per 1,000 births. In the field of paediatric cardiology (children’s heart disease) there have been enormous advances in diagnosis and treatment and many children who would have died a few years ago now survive. These advances are very dependent on highly specialised technology. Despite all the advances, some babies and older children still die. Such young deaths are devastating for all those involved.

The first Madeleine Steel fellowship was awarded in 2005 to a doctor to enable her to participate in an international study of the problems and risks of pregnancy in women who have themselves survived congenital heart disease. The second, awarded in 2006, enabled a trainee specialist from Newcastle to travel to Toronto to learn a special diagnostic technique which is being used in the follow-up of patients who have had surgery for a complex heart abnormality, “Fallot’s tetralogy.

In 2007, a doctor travelled to Boston Children’s Hospital to learn new imaging and diagnostic techniques which she has brought back to the UK for the first time. She has just taken up a consultant position at The Royal Brompton Hosptial.

We shall be able to advertise further fellowships for at least the next three years. There has been strong competition for the awards and we hope it will be possible to extend the scheme for many more years and to encourage more applications from nurses, radiographers and other members of the professions allied to medicine.

The scheme is administered by the British Paediatric Cardiac Association whose current call for applications is reproduced below.

Madeleine Steel Memorial Fellowship

The family of Madeleine Steel set up this travel fellowship in 2005 in tribute to the memory of a very brave and much loved little girl. The fellowship will be offered on an annual competitive basis to doctors and allied health professionals working in congenital heart disease in the United Kingdom. It will be used to enable the holder to travel to a centre of excellence in North America (or, in exceptional circumstances, elsewhere) in order to gain further experience, learn a new technique or conduct research that will be of benefit to children with congenital heart disease in the United Kingdom. The award is open to trainees, consultants and allied health professionals. The winner of the award will be decided at the spring meeting of the BPCA Council by council members or a subcommittee co-opted by the President. In 2008, the award was £5000.

Aims of the Trust

The first objective of the Trust is to raise £100,000 which will endow an annual Fellowship in perpetuity.  At the moment the value of the fellowship is £5000 a year but we should like to increase the value at least to keep pace with inflaction.  It will not take long for the value of these Fellowships to be noticed.  There are 15 centres in the UK which specialise in Paediatric Cardiology.  This means that the Madeleine Steel Fellowships could soon influence the diagnosis and treatment of the majority of babies in this country suffering from life threatening abnormalities.  Not only will we have a spread of returning trainees in many centres, but they will be passing on their new expertise to other specialists in the UK.

A report is sent to the BCCA and the Trust to evaluate the work of each Fellow.  Neither the Trust nor the BCCA makes any charge or deduction for their overheads, so every penny raised goes towards a Fellowship.