Leonard Cheshire Disability

Leonard Cheshire Disability is a major health and welfare charity in the United Kingdom, founded in 1948 by RAF pilot Leonard Cheshire VC.

In 2006–7 it had a total expenditure of £143 million, placing it in the top 30 of UK charities. [Ranked by expenditure. Source: [http://www.charitiesdirect.com/CharitiesSearchTop500.asp?sortby=E Charities Direct: Top 500 Charities - Expenditure] ]

History

The charity was originally known as The Cheshire Foundation Homes for the Sick, then in 1976 it became the Leonard Cheshire Foundation. In July 2007 it changed to its current style, Leonard Cheshire Disability. [http://www.lcdisability.org/?lid=5339 Press release]

Cheshire started the charity in 1948 with a residential home for disabled ex-servicemen at Le Court, a large country house near Liss in Hampshire. By 1955 there were six Cheshire homes in Britain and by 1992 there were 270 homes in 49 countries. [Christopher Foxley-Norris, "Cheshire, (Geoffrey) Leonard, Baron Cheshire (1917–1992)", "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography", Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, May 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/50944, accessed 18 July 2008] ]

Aims

The charity is headquartered in London and its stated objects are "to relieve the consequences of physical and/or mental disability by the provision, in the United Kingdom and overseas, of accommodation, services and support for the spiritual, social, physical and/or mental wellbeing of disabled people, by such means as are charitable, whatever their race, nationality, creed, sex or age." [ [http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/registeredcharities/ShowCharity.asp?RegNo=218186 Charity Commission for England and Wales: Charity Number 218186] ]

Activities

It provides support to disabled people through a variety of different services including care at home, residential care and training. It describes itself as "the UK's leading voluntary sector provider of support services for disabled people". Its goal is to change attitudes to disability and to serve disabled people around the world. [ [http://www.lcdisability.org Leonard Cheshire Disability] ]

Related organisations

The Ryder-Cheshire Foundation [ [http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/registeredcharities/showcharity.asp?remchar=&chyno=285746 Charity Commission for England and Wales: Charity Number 285746] ] was set up by Leonard Cheshire and his wife Sue Ryder at the time of their marriage in 1959. It now mainly operates in two fields:

*the rehabilitation of disabled people, through Ryder-Cheshire Volunteers [Registered Charity No. 1088623 [http://www.rcv.org.uk Ryder-Cheshire Volunteers] ]
*the prevention and treatment of tuberculosis, through Target Tuberculosis. [Registered Charity No. 1098752 [http://www.targettb.org.uk/ Target Tuberculosis] ]

The Leonard Cheshire Disability & Inclusive Development Centre is a joint project by Leonard Cheshire Disability and University College London (originally set up in 1997 as the Leonard Cheshire Centre of Conflict Recovery). [ [http://www.ucl.ac.uk/lc-ccr/ Leonard Cheshire Disability & Inclusive Development Centre] ]

Cheshire founded the Raphael Pilgrimage to enable sick and disabled people to travel to Lourdes. [The Raphael Pilgrimage was later constituted as a registered charity: UK charity|1098328|The Raphael Pilgrimage.]

Sue Ryder Care, a charity founded in 1953 by Sue Ryder, before she met Leonard Cheshire, is also one of the 50 largest charities in the UK. [Ranked by expenditure. Source: [http://www.charitiesdirect.com/CharitiesSearchTop500.asp?sortby=E Charities Direct: Top 500 Charities - Expenditure] ]

References

Further reading

*Morris, Richard. "Cheshire: The Biography of Leonard Cheshire, VC, OM". London: Viking Press, 2000. ISBN 0-670-86736-7.

External links

* [http://www.lcdisability.org/ Leonard Cheshire Disability website]
* [http://www.lcdisability.org/?lid=19 History of the Leonard Cheshire charity]
*UK charity|218186