Appeal to help save vital work

A PROJECT set up to help families in need looks set to close due to a lack of financial support.

Little Ducks, based in Shelton, was formed in January last year to give much-needed baby equipment to mums-to-be and parents with children under three who can't afford the essentials.

It was kick-started with a £13,000 grant from Robbie Williams's Give It Sum fund, but money is now running out and volunteers are facing a gap in their funding.

An urgent appeal has been launched to help keep it running and provide support to the people who need it.

Co-ordinator Angela Cartwright said around £2,500 was needed, as well as donations of equipment, to keep it going until it can secure further grants – in about three months' time.

The 34-year-old mother-of-three, who lives in Shelton, said: "We have tried to reduce costs as much as we can but we are desperate for help.

"The success of the project so far has been down to the fact that people have been incredibly generous in donating things.

"Now we just need a bit more help to support the people who are referred to us. People say they don't know where they would go if we closed."

Little Ducks receives referrals from a variety of organisations, including children's centres, the YMCA, Gingerbread, the Asian women's refuge Karma Nirvana, social services, health visitors, midwives, Staffordshire Buddies and Arch.

As well as helping families with equipment, it also buys toiletries and nappies.

The project was initially expected to help 50 families a year, but since January last year it has supported more than 260 different families.

They have included children living in a hostel due to domestic violence, a family whose flat was destroyed in a fire, a pregnant teenager living in care and a refugee expecting her second baby.

The project has already been offered a lifeline by storage company Jumbo, in Shelton, which has offered three months' free storage.

But donations are still key for the future of the cause, which is run by the North Staffordshire branch of the National Childbirth Trust (NCT).

Nicola Keeling, chair of the North Staffs NCT, said: "We have applied for various funding grants to keep the project going but so far we have not been eligible for any of them.

"We had hoped our application to the local mayor's fund would tide us over until more funding was arranged but this is all administered by the Community Foundation Network, which will not support the day-to-day running of a project like this.

"We have also tried Sainsbury's, Awards for All and various others."

The project also needs items such as pushchairs, cots, Moses baskets, bedding, sterilisers, clothes for newborns and babies aged nought to three months, safety gates, high chairs and baby bouncy chairs.

Volunteers will be on hand to take donations of goods at an opening evening on August 13 at the Jumbo storage company on Leek Road, in Shelton, between 5.30pm and 7.30pm.

To donate money send a cheque payable to North Staffs NCT Little Ducks to 230 Cauldon Road, Shelton, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, ST4 2BS.

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