IN JUST four years, an idea by Malvern mum Kim Philpotts to provide support for families with disabled children has gone from coffee mornings once a month to a countywide special needs network with a permanent centre and an outreach team.

This will be no surprise to anyone who knows Kim. She is deeply passionate about supporting families whose children have special needs as she knows exactly what it is like to be in their situation.

Nine years ago Kim gave birth to her son Archie. He was born at 32 weeks and she discovered he’d had a bleed on the brain. Archie has learning disabilities, he is on the autism spectrum, he has health issues and finds life challenging, says Kim.

The mother of two - her younger son Fraser is five - is a nurse practitioner at a GP surgery in Stourport and remembers what it was like trying to get help when Archie was born.

“I struggled getting support for my son sometimes, so I know how difficult it is. I wanted to reach out to other parents who are on that journey with a disabled child.”

And her experiences drove her to establish the special needs network in Worcestershire called What Makes You Different Makes You Beautiful (WMYDMYB) – a charity based in Malvern.

From humble beginnings – a coffee morning once a month – Kim discovered there were many families looking for the type of support she hoped to offer. Kim advertised the events and stories about it went in the local paper.

She says: “People immediately started going along. I had a good response from the start and it just grew and grew. I then looked for a property, which I found in Howsell Road in October 2015.

“Being a professional and seeing that families struggle so much it was always at the back of my mind to open a centre where children could feel safe and be around people who understand.”

Apart from her time and enthusiasm, Kim sank her life savings - £10,000 – into setting up the centre, while local groups also chipped in with donations. The Big Lottery Awards For All England had already supported the charity with nearly £10,000 to provide services.

Over the years the charity, which has been largely run by volunteers, has helped hundreds of families with special needs children from across Worcestershire and Herefordshire.

Apart from offering advice over the phone and providing sessions for children at the centre, a youth club, sibling sessions and trips out, it runs courses for parents on topics like speech and language therapy, autism training and doing paperwork in connection with their child.

However, earlier this year Kim applied for a chance to win up to £50,000 funding from the People’s Project - partnership between the Big Lottery Fund, ITV, STV and The National Lottery that gives the public a say in awarding National Lottery funding to local projects across the UK.

And to her delight and amazement WMYDMYB captured the hearts of local people and was supported by the local community - winning a massive £49,470 for one year to run an outreach service offering support to special needs families in their own homes.

“It was always my dream to have a centre. I have put a lot of time into it and funding and the next thing was an outreach service to help families in their home,”says Kim.

“I had to put in an application for the People’s Project and had to get through several stages. We were awarded £49,470. It was such an achievement. I never thought in a million years we would win it.”

The public voted for the projects they wanted to get financial awards and Kim says she is enormously grateful for the support from the local community for WMYDMYB. “I believe a successful charity has the community behind it.”

The charity has just launched its new outreach service with two part-time outreach workers. It has also started a crèche, which is also new this summer. The organisation is keen to hear from anyone who would benefit from the outreach service and having support at home while they are bringing up a child or children with special needs.

For more information about the outreach service and the other services, including the new crèche, on offer from WMYDMYB call 07796 528026 or email wmydmyb@yahoo.co.uk

The crèche gives parents a chance to have a break from caring for their child with special needs. Children aged two to three years can stay in a safe environment and enjoy different activities like soft play for up to two hours. Children aged three to six years can stay for up to four hours.

The crèche is open from Monday to Thursday from 9am to 4.30pm.

Kim says her son has been her inspiration for WMYDMYB. “I think ‘What must it be like to be in the world they live in – having anxiety over the smallest things’.”

Archie has made lots of friends through the centre and Fraser, who goes along to the Siblings Club, also enjoys getting involved, she says.

Although Kim has several hugely demanding commitments - juggling her work as a nurse practitioner, being a mum and wife, running WMYDMYB and working on her computer at 2am in connection with the charity - she is still intensely passionate about supporting families whose children have special needs.

She says families tell her the charity is a “lifeline” and they do not know where they would turn without it. “It gives me a sense of achievement for what we have done,” she adds. “I do not think of it as selfless. These people need help.”