Charity launches university grants for bereaved children of front-line healthcare workers
A charity founded by NHS workers during the pandemic is launching a fund to support children of front-line healthcare staff who died with Covid-19.
The Healthcare Workers’ Foundation’s fund will provide an annual grant of £5,000 to pupils beginning a higher education or higher qualification course.
The Memorial Fund, part of the charity’s Families Programme, aims to ease the financial pressure and strain on prospective students who have lost a parent.
The charity said that to date it has helped more than half a million healthcare workers through its support programme, including £48,000 in childcare grants and £69,000 spent on counselling.
Dr Dom Pimenta (pictured), co-founder and chairman of the Healthcare Workers Foundation, said: “To get through medical school, I myself relied on scholarship funding, and that was with the support of my family, financially or emotionally.
“Getting through without either would have been immensely difficult, if not impossible.
“We have had 1,500 NHS and care worker deaths in this country since the start of the pandemic, a number higher than nearly anywhere else in the world per million.
“Every death is a tragedy in and of itself, but we cannot compound that misery on to the families they leave behind, particularly the lifelong prospects of their children.
“This is why we have launched this new fund; we cannot abandon the families of those who lost their lives looking after ours.”
Applications can be made through the Healthcare Workers’ Foundation website from Tuesday.
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