Who is Momentum?

Being told your child has cancer or another life-challenging condition is devastating. Day-to-day life is turned upside down.

We support the entire family during times of unimaginable strain – the children and their parents, but also siblings and grandparents too. We’re here to make sure that no family has to cope alone.

We support children and their families from all over South West London, Surrey and West Sussex. Families with children facing cancer or another life-challenging condition know we’re there at every step for as long as we’re needed. 

All families are different, so we offer individually-tailored support through our family support programme, offering practical and emotional help, as well as a range of therapy services including music, play and art.

We aim to ease some of the stresses that come with a gruelling treatment plan, so provide trips, family experiences and respite breaks. We also improve the environment for children treated in local hospitals with our children’s ward refurbishments. 

At any one time, we support around 200 families whose child is in active treatment, and a further 75 bereaved families. We’re there whatever the outcome, for as long as needed, so that no family has to cope alone. 

How was Momentum started?

In 2004, Momentum Children’s Charity Founder and CEO, Bianca Effemey, was working in the Paediatric Department at Kingston Hospital as a receptionist. However, she spent less time answering the phone and more time at the bedside of children who had cancer.

She started to see first-hand the incredible challenges facing these young patients and their families: from the financial strain and disruption to day-to-day life, to the feelings of isolation and anxiety.

The charity started with one simple act – to buy a fridge-freezer for a little girl’s hospital room. This small gesture meant that she could have ice lollies and cold drinks to help ease the terrible pain from ulcers in her mouth, resulting from her chemotherapy.

Today they do so much more, but their personal approach hasn’t changed – from providing a course of music therapy for a child struggling to express their emotions, to offering a respite break for a family in desperate need of some precious time away together.

Social Links:
https://www.moment-um.org/home/
https://www.instagram.com/momentumcharity
https://www.facebook.com/momentum.org/
https://www.moment-um.org/how-we-help/