The Wessex Neurological Centre Trust (WNCT) is a registered charity committed to providing support for the Wessex Neurological Centre and the patients it cares for. Since its founding in 1982, the charity has funded many projects, particularly in respect of research into disorders of the nervous system, but also to provide items of medical equipment to the hospital.
Why Smile4Rich? In July 2002, 15 year old Richard Bowler collapsed whilst training with his local football club. He was rushed to the Intensive Care Unit of QA Hospital in Portsmouth where he was found to have suffered a massive brain haemorrhage. Sadly, he never regained consciousness and died the following day. Following news of his death, hundreds of his friends at Brookfield School in Sarisbury Green, Southampton, left messages on a ‘memory board’ in the school grounds. One such message ended with the words ‘Smile 4 Rich’. Family and friends were devastated by the tragedy and vowed that some good should come from Rich’s death. In the following 18 months over £29,000 was raised for local projects and charities, including donations of over £8,000 each to the Wessex Neurological Centre Trust and the Portsmouth Hospital’s Rocky Appeal.
In April 2004 it was agreed that Smile4Rich would become the ‘public face’ of fundraising for the
WNCT and the trustees approved the launch of the Ambulance Appeal. It is now the Wessex Neurological Centre’s preferred charity partner and is committed to providing increasing levels of funding, both via public appeals for focussed projects such as the Ambulance and PVT appeals, but also to further our understanding of a wide variety of neurological conditions and how best they can be treated.
Our Corporate Friends
