National Lottery funding boost for sporting memories charity

15 May 2018 11:05 AM

2.9M for community projects across Scotland

A Scottish charity that improves the wellbeing of older people by helping them to recall their sporting memories, is one of 13 groups sharing in £2,392,176 of National Lottery cash. For a full list of awards in your area see accompanying list of grants.

The Sporting Memories Foundation Scotland receives £349,903 from the Big Lottery Fund to continue and increase the number of social, reminiscence and inclusive sporting activities it delivers for older Scots who are affected by dementia, depression and loneliness. The project will work across Lanarkshire, West Dunbartonshire, Glasgow, Edinburgh and the Lothians.

By tapping into a passion for sport, the project will reconnect people like Iain to the people and generations around them. Iain, from East Kilbride, has a dual diagnosis of early onset dementia and Parkinson’s disease.

He said: “After receiving my diagnosis I didn’t really want to go out of the house and had lost confidence. The Sporting Memories group got me active again and I look forward to going every week. I now help new members settle in when they join and I’ve also started volunteering to help run another session so that more people can benefit from this.”

Welcoming the award, Chris Wilkins of The Sporting Memories Foundation Scotland added: “We see day in day out how our Sporting Memories groups make a real difference to peoples’ lives and are thrilled to have received this support which will allow us to add to our staff and to support our growing team of fantastic volunteers. We have demonstrated that our weekly groups help improve lives by building confidence, nurturing new friendships and improving wellbeing and this award will help us extend this impact to more older sports fans across the Central Belt.”

Announcing the grants, Maureen McGinn, Big Lottery Fund Scotland Chair, said: “This project from Sporting Memories Foundation Scotland is an excellent example of the type of activity which National Lottery  funding  supports. Like many of the other activities receiving funding, it will bring people together around common interests, encourage them to develop friendships and feel more connected to the wider community.”

Big Lottery Fund Press Office: 0141 242 1458/07823 552 889
Website: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk
Twitter: @BIGSCOTLAND #NationalLottery
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BigLotteryFundScotland

Notes to Editors:

• The Big Lottery Fund supports the aspirations of people who want to make life better for their communities across the UK. We are responsible for giving out 40% of the money raised by the National Lottery and invest over £650 million a year in projects big and small in health, education, environment and charitable purposes.
• The Big Lottery Fund Scotland is focussed on helping people and communities most in need throughout Scotland through its five-year £250m funding scheme as well as small grants scheme National Lottery Awards for All Scotland.
• Since March 2007 Big Lottery Fund Scotland has taken devolved decisions on National Lottery spending, the Committee, led by Chair, Maureen McGinn plays a strategic role in the future direction of the Fund in Scotland.
• Since June 2004 we have awarded over £8 billion to projects across the UK that change the lives of millions of people. Every year we fund 13,000 small local projects tackling big social problems like poor mental health and homelessness.
• Since the National Lottery began in 1994, £35 billion has been raised and more than 490,000 grants awarded.