Francesca applied for a grant to buy a new bed for her daughter Valentina. Using her past employment in both fashion design and fashion retail, Francesca was successful in her application and shares her story here.

Since having Valentina I have not been able to return back to work. I have drug resistant epilepsy, which I have lived with since I was 5 years old. But monitoring and tackling my condition alongside parenting has made it impossible to additionally consider returning to work." 

"I don't receive any government financial help, in part due to my most recent employer not registering me as an employee. We therefore have to survive on a single income household just above annual minimum wage and this has been the case ever since I became pregnant over 3 years ago." 

"When I first applied, we needed a new bed, mattress and bedding for Valentina as she was outgrowing her cot and needed a full size bed to transition to. It was also essential Valentina had a new coat, shoes and some other clothing items, as she had outgrown the ones she had." 

"The new bed was really important as Valentina was starting toilet training and this could not be done successfully overnight while Valentina was still in a cot." 

"Now Valentina has her new bed she is able to get up in the night when she needs the toilet, use the potty and get back into bed herself with no disturbances. This is fantastic and she is really proud to be able to do everything herself without help. She loves her new bed, she says it is nice and cosy. She was delighted when it arrived jumping in saying "I'm in the big bed, I'm in the big bed!"

"Valentina has also loved each and every new item of clothes bought for her having a big grin each time she sees something new running to tell whoever she can find about her new item of clothing.

The whole experience of the FTCT grant application process was excellent. It was very easy to navigate the process and the response times and communication between the teams were very quick."

Everyone was extremely efficient, friendly and was very clear in their requests of what documentation they would require in order to help complete the process. If you need help and have past working experience, apply and see what might be available for you.

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