BRACE and COVID-19 pandemic
It is vitally important that we put the health of our supporters first and follow government and public health advice about how best we can keep ourselves and our loved ones as safe as possible.
Office and communication
Although we may be obliged to work with a skeleton team or no staff in the office, BRACE is fully equipped for working remotely. Our staff are working from home and will see all emails. Urgent phone calls may be made to 07366 331 431. We shall check post regularly and respond as quickly as we can, probably by email when that is an option.
Additionally, we kindly ask supporters and visitors to not visit the office to drop off donations for the next few weeks due to the office being on a hospital site. Cheques and letters can still be sent safely by post. This will be the case until further notice.
We shall be organising various discussions and fundraising activities online and hope that you will follow these and join in where you can.
Fundraising and other public events
Following on from yesterday’s (16th March 2020) government advice to avoid all unnecessary travel and social contact, we have taken the decision to postpone the following events until later in the year.
- Thornbury Spring Fair – this Saturday 21st March
- Cuppa for a Cure – Bradley Stoke -27th March
- Dementia Matters – Honiton – 21st April
- BRACE Supporters Forum – 22nd April
- Afternoon Tea and Flower Arranging was due to take place on 4th May, now postponed until 12th October.
- Dementia: Fight Back – Exeter University – 12th May
- BRACE Abseil – 17th May
- Let’s Talk Dementia – 13th June
- The Frenchay 10K which was due to take place on 5th April has been postponed.
- The London Marathon has also been postponed until Sunday 4th October.
Whilst this is very disappointing, the health of all must be at the forefront of all our decision making. Many of BRACE supporters are in the ‘at risk’ categories, are carers or have regular contact with these same ‘at risk’ family members and friends.
The nation’s response to COVID-19 is changing all the time and as such, we will do our very best to keep all our supporters as updated as possible with news and information on all our events. Please visit our website regularly, follow us on Twitter or Facebook, or sign up here for our regular email updates.
Postponing these events is the most responsible action BRACE can take right now but it means that our ability to fundraise is curtailed. As a small charity, we depend on our regular contact with thousands of supporters. If you can, please consider donating to BRACE to help us continue to fund world class dementia research.
Grants for research
The impact of coronavirus and following last year’s economic worries, have greatly reduced our capacity to award dementia research grants.
The Trustees have therefore taken the decision to cancel the third and fourth grant rounds this year, which were due for decision by the Trustees in August and November. No new applications will be accepted until, at the earliest, the February 2021 round. The deadline for this is 15 November 2020, but applicants are advised to contact us for an update before submitting their application.
Previous research awards by BRACE have been ring-fenced and will not be affected by the current disruption to fundraising.
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