Our Achievements
2005 - 2010
Between 2005 and 2010 GACAC raised more than £200,000 for young people with developmental and mental health needs. With the money we:
- Built a superb new playground at The Terraces, Mount Gould Hospital, CAMHS. It’s a bright, sensory environment, designed to engage and stimulate the children who go there.
- Bought a minibus – which helped children enjoy day trips, go to therapy sessions more easily and generally get out and about in the community, developing life and social skills.
- Funded cutting-edge play and therapy equipment that made a dramatic difference to children with special needs at CAMHS.
- Added a new extension at the Child Development Centre for a parent room and consultation rooms.
- Created a peaceful garden with seating for young people.
- Transformed the art therapy room into a new, multipurpose therapy space.
In 2010
In 2010, when charitable funding for The Child Developmental Centre was subsumed back into Happy Hospitals and, with the move of The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service to the then Plymouth Community Health Trust, we re-launched as a new registered charity reaching out to the community by offering small-to-medium-sized grants for projects on a very local, even family, level.
Rather than fund larger scale, more ambitious (and often bureaucratic) projects, we firmly believe that modest sums targeted very specifically can be highly effective. The idea is to make a big difference to the lives of the people we help.
From 2010
From 2010 onwards we have continued to raise money and have been able to fund a variety of projects providing
- equipment & resources for our Bud-Club support group for families.
- grants to various local schools for sensory and play equipment.
- GACAC teddies for children suffering with anxiety issues and mood awareness wrist bands for children living locally.
- mobile sensory boxes for the CAMHS Community team
- play equipment for the day programmes at the Terraces, Mount Gould.
- toys and equipment for the Psychotherapy team at Mount Gould.
And much more…
We believe targeted funds can have a hugely beneficial effect on children’s lives. If you think that your child/children could benefit from the type of help outlined on this website, we may be able to help you through one of our grants. Please make an application…
Friends of Give a Child a Chance
Our Trustees
NICKY EVANS
CHAIR
Nicky has been chairperson for Give a Child a Chance since 2009. Her interest in Children’s Mental Health stems from her 20 year teaching career, during which she was lucky enough to work at the Children’s Day Unit at The Terraces, Mount Gould Hospital.
Nicky learnt an enormous amount from the team of mental health staff there.
Now that she is retired, she combines this role in GACAC ,with her other interests, which include supporting a Maasai village in Kenya (the water bore hole is nearly complete!) and enjoying life in North Cornwall.
LAURA HERNANDEZ
VICE CHAIR
Laura started her CAMHS career as a Paediatric Nurse but shortly transferred to children’s mental health nursing in 2004. Laura is now the manager of the Neurodevelopmental team at CAMHS, which supports young people who have Autism, Learning Disability, ADHD, and Tourettes.
In her spare time, Laura loves camping so most weekends in her van with her family.
She is also a Co-Chair of Governors at the primary school her daughters attend – Laura enjoys this role and has a particular interest in emotional health and wellbeing in education.
As Laura’s husband is Cuban the family often travels to Cuba to visit their extended family.
MADELEINE MATTHEWS
TRUSTEE
Madeleine joined as a trustee in 2018. Being a parent of an SEN child, she wanted to give something back to the service that had provided amazing support to her family.
Madeleine lives in Plymouth with her husband and son and has a grown-up daughter and granddaughter, whom she loves dearly.
She is an experienced fundraising coordinator for another local charity and having worked in the charitable sector for many years she loves to share her wealth of knowledge with Give a Child a Chance.
Madeleine enjoys spending time with her family, walking, cycling, and loves to explore Devon & Cornwall in her camper van.
COLIN KNIGHT
TRUSTEE & TREASURER
Colin has been treasurer of Give a Child a Chance for 11 years now and a trustee for 5. On retiring from full-time teaching Colin wanted to continue to help young people and thought that becoming part of the charity was one way of doing this.
He is very keen on watching sport and regularly attends live sporting fixtures. Colin is an LTA licensed tennis referee and organises junior and senior tennis tournaments.
Colin also likes to travel and spend time with his adult children and grandchildren.
ADELE TOWLEY
TRUSTEE & SECRETARY
Adele joined Give a Child a Chance in 2014 and quickly became a Trustee. Adele is a family Psychotherapist since 2002 working in CAMHS, she is mindful of the challenges that some families experience where a child may have additional needs.
Joining the charity brings together her 30+ years of working with families in Plymouth including a previous role working with military families where she set up a support group for service families offering mutual support and care where the family had a child with Special Education needs and the military parent was deployed. Adele lives in Plymouth and enjoys walking when she isn’t helping her partner with his pub and restaurant.
SARA WALKER
TRUSTEE
Sara was the inaugural chairperson of GACAC when it was set up. At the time she was a Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist at CAMHS in Plymouth.
Since retiring in 2013 she has remained involved, taking on the role of secretary for several years.
She is also a volunteer and trustee of Saltash Food Bank and a Parish Councillor in her village.
She enjoys caring for her grandchildren, gardening, baking, playing golf and traveling. She has also worked as a volunteer in a children’s charity in Turkey, where she has a holiday home.
We also have a team of Committee members who give up their time for free to help and support us, they are:
Jo McCaren
Emma Baker
Helen Patterson
Colin Terry
Haidee Dampney
Sarah Goddard