Background to Frustrated Communication

The founders of the charity were lucky to be brought up in loving, caring families. Their mothers, in particular, were very generous and giving people. David's mother raised many thousands of pounds for Cancer Research Campaign (now part of Cancer Research UK) making many hundreds of chocolate fudge squares to sell at bring and buy stalls. Such generosity and a sweet tooth lead to Diabetes, complications and a relatively early death.

Pat's mother suffered from Alzheimer's Disease and her father from a number of Strokes. These periods of our lives caused much heartache and many frustrations. Communications were more strained than usual although insights were gained into some of these problems and challenges.

David, since his school days, has had difficulty reading and spelling and was labelled "a late developer" and worse. More recently he had a test for dyslexia and was relived with the diagnosis and comforted that there were many others with similar problems. It was problems, which came with this condition that encouraged David to try to make a difference in this area and lead to the charity's working name "Frustrated Communication". David has always found reading difficult and slow and never found enjoyment from the written word.

With some 10% of the population suffering from Dyslexia and significantly higher numbers in prison and young offenders institutions this underlined the benefits of good family support. It is for this reason that a higher than perhaps expected proportion of the money distributed has gone to projects relating those at risk of offending. Our desire is to have the greatest positive effect and have the biggest benefit from our modest resources. When reading is difficult so is filling in forms, getting the most from computers and Google.

If we help just a few through the work of the organisations we support we are some way to achieving our objective of putting a little more back. Like a pebble dropped in a pond the ripples can go a long way.