Second World War heroine’s trust awards £50K to hospice
A fund established in the memory of a Second World War heroine has chosen the Royal Trinity Hospice to receive a £54,000 donation.
The funds have been donated to the hospice in Clapham Common by the Andrée Griotteray White Charitable Trust, which was set up by Francelle Bradford White in memory of her mother, Andrée, who won four medals for her bravery in the war.
When war was declared Andrée was a 19-year-old working at police headquarters in Paris where she printed and distributed copies of an underground newspaper enticing Parisians to resist the occupation.
As the war progressed, she became an intelligence courier travelling throughout France on behalf of the French, British and American intelligence services.
After the war, Andree was awarded four medals: the Médaille de la Résistance, the Croix de Guerre with silver star, the L’Ordre National du mérite, and the Légion d’honneur.
Francelle established the Trust based on her commitment to raising money for Alzheimer’s and dementia research and support.
Having seen her mother live with the disease for almost 20 years, she wanted to make sure money went directly to people living with dementia.
Francelle and her fellow trustees selected Trinity to receive a grant of £54,000 part-funding the costs of a specialist nurse for a two-year period, helping care for people living with dementia either in their own homes or during short stays to the hospice.
Trinity typically cares for around 200 people a year diagnosed with dementia.
Francelle explained why she chose to support Royal Trinity’s Community Dementia Nurses with funding: “When my mother was diagnosed with dementia over 25 years ago there was little support out there.
“The diagnosis had a huge impact on me, and it was the lack of help and advice in her home environment that made me feel so helpless in what I could do to support her.
“Having been introduced to Royal Trinity Hospice it was the end-of-life dementia care and support offered in the community to individuals and their families that made me choose to support them.”
Pictured top: Director of fundraising at Royal Trinity Hospice, Anthony Davison, and Francelle Bradford White (Picture: Royal Trinity Hospice)