Thirty-one charities and organisations from across the UK have joined forces to launch the new Victims’ Services Alliance, a collaboration which should mean a pooling of expertise and a much stronger voice to promote the interests of bereaved victims.  Bea and Hu Jones have attended the inaugural meetings of the Alliance in London.  For more information please google: “Victims’ Charities forge new Alliance”.

The Survivors Session at the Crown in Stafford on January 1st certainly got the New Year off to a good start for The Moira Fund.  Their “mad-crap” raffle raised £100 for our funds and we are very grateful indeed to Steve Gullick and all those followers of ”Folky Things”.

David, Barrie and John successfully completed the Jedburgh 10k.  They did it in just over one hour – “not bad for a bunch of oldies” (not our words).  We are very grateful for the efforts of this Britvic team – a big thank you to them and all their sponsors.

Since our last update in May, by email and at the Open Evening at Weston Village Hall, we have paid for 20 victims from all parts of the country to attend a specialist-run weekend retreat near Crewe and also for the setting up of three new support groups, one based in London and two in Scotland.  We continue, of course, to help those families referred to us by Police, Homicide Caseworkers or Victim Support Officers.  We have now helped more than 160 families in a variety of ways, distressed families from Inverness to Bournemouth.  Since our visits earlier in the year to Scotland Yard, we have been invited to address Homicide Caseworkers and Counsellors in Rugby, Family Liaison Co-ordinators in Aberdeen and The Rotary Club of Glasgow – knowledge of our work is spreading.

The wonderful amount of money raised at the Stafford and the Glasgow Moira Fund Autumn Balls means we can continue to help others traumatically bereaved by the murder of a loved one.

We are grateful for the support of all those who make this possible.

The Glasgow University Union was the venue for this year’s Ball which went with a real swing, in the company of our Scottish patrons Elaine C Smith and Dame Elish Angiolini.  The inclement weather did nothing to dampen spirits and a great time was had by all.  Prizes donated for the auctions and prize draw exceeded all expectations, our guests were most generous in their support and we are thrilled with the magnificent amount of money raised.  We would like to express our deep appreciation for the kindness and goodwill of all concerned.