Please support ERIC to help more children and families

Over 750,000 children and young people in the UK struggle with bedwetting, daytime wetting and soiling each year. Every month almost 25,000 people log on to our websites to find help and to read about other people’s experiences.

Last year, ERIC gave information and support by telephone to more than 8,000 families.

ERIC’s school campaigns, designed to improve drinking water and toilet facilities for pupils, are now receiving keen government interest. ERIC needs your continued support to run these and all our other vital services.

ERIC works tirelessly to help families find solutions so that the young people can lead a full a life as possible. Can you help ERIC to help these young people? Please read this section for some ideas of what you could do.

If you would like to make a donation right away, you can, either via our online shop, by post, or by phoning 0117 301 2104.

Cheques should be payable to ERIC and sent to:

ERIC
36 Old School House
Britannia Road
Kingswood
Bristol BS15 8DB.

If you are a taxpayer we can increase the value of your contribution by 28% through Gift
Aid (25p in every pound from you and 3p in every pound from the Government from 6/4/08 to 5/4/11). Click for the Gift Aid form.

Thank you.

ERIC's Appeal

Imagine never being able to invite your friends to a sleepover or go on school trips...

Dear Friend,

I am writing on behalf of Helen, one of ERIC’s Helpline and Information Workers, because you are a valued supporter of ERIC. We want to ask if you can help us raise the £67,000 we need to continue to run our Helpline.

Helen works on the ERIC Helpline with three other Information and Helpline staff. They answer calls, texts and emails from children, young people and parents who are struggling with a childhood continence problem. As you might know, the effects that continence problems have on children’s development can be very wide-ranging.

Tom, aged 9, wets the bed most nights. He says: “I feel annoyed about it – it’s like, why me? I am scared when I go away, of people finding out. I worry that my friends will laugh at me. It’s not very nice.” This is the way that some children grow up feeling – embarrassed, upset and sometimes even isolated.

Last year, the Helpline helped over 120,000 families suffering with a childhood continence problem. If we don’t raise the money we need, then our Helpline will close and these families will be left to suffer alone.

When parents or children ring or email us, they are often very distraught by the problem they are facing and sometimes they even think they are the only family struggling with childhood continence problems. Here at ERIC, we know that’s just not true. We talk about bladder and bowel problems every day, to hundreds of families per month and thousands per year. We are here to support families who have no idea what to do or where to go for help.

A donation of £20 will enable us to provide information and continued support to people like Tom and his family.

Mary’s daughter, aged 14, has a bladder condition. She never makes it to the toilet at school on time because they are so far away. Mary recently asked for our help after she had a call from the school: “They said she is often wet by second lesson and she won't admit that she is wet - just like she won't admit that the other kids bully her because she smells. She is in total denial. I have two other children and the eldest is having to cope at school with people asking him why his sister smells all the time. It is affecting the whole family now and I don't know where to turn for help.”

You might think that we are funded by the government or the NHS, or that we make all the money that we need from selling products through our shop. This isn’t the case. The truth is that we need your help and support to be able to keep our Information and Helpline service open. This year, the service will cost over £110,000 to run and so far we have raised just £43,000.

£20 will enable ERIC to help and support four families

- through providing information and resources.

£50 will pay for 100 leaflets to be printed

- which can then be distributed to families and health centres.

£100 will fund the Helpline for almost 2 hours

- enabling the team to provide information, support and resources for continence problems to children, young people, families and health professionals.

Please help us by making a donation today.

If you would like to make a donation right away, you can, either via our online shop, by post, or by phoning 0117 301 2104.

Cheques should be payable to ERIC and sent to:

ERIC
36 Old School House
Britannia Road
Kingswood
Bristol BS15 8DB.

Thank you.

"Thank you ERIC. You helped me and my Mum a lot.”
(Email from a child)

“ERIC's work is excellent, understanding the child's and parents’ needs and always
willing to help."
(From a customer questionnaire)

“ERIC is a brilliant organisation and your support is greatly appreciated.”
(Response to Five Year Strategy questionnaire)

“Please keep doing what you do so well. As a parent of one who wet the bed until he was 18, you were invaluable. Thank you.”
(Comment from a parent)

“ERIC is a very valuable resource. Keep up the good work.”
(Comment from a health professional)

So many parents tell us how thankful they are for our services and how we’ve helped their family cope through tough times. Thanks to your help, sometimes we have even provided the solution. Yet without your continued support, we cannot continue to support families or help them to cope with the misery of having a child with continence problems. Please visit www.justgiving.com/ERICAnnualAppeal to donate.

Thank you so much for your help.

Yours sincerely,

Jenny Perez

Director