Get Involved

Undiagnosed Children’s Day

Undiagnosed Children’s Day is a nationwide event that happens on the last Friday of every April. It is a day where we increase awareness of undiagnosed genetic conditions and raise funds to support SWAN UK (syndromes without a name), the only dedicated support available in the UK for families of children with undiagnosed genetic conditions.

Last year Undiagnosed Children’s Day took place on 29 April. Fundraisers, schools, families, companies and donations raised an amazing grand total of £20,700! With your help next year we can raise even more.

With your help we can keep providing our unique and vital service to families of children with undiagnosed genetic conditions across the UK. It will also help us to realise our Big Ambition – that all families affected by a syndrome without a name get the support they need, when they need it.

SWAN UK received a three-year grant from the Big Lottery Fund in 2016 but we still need your help to achieve this ambition.

Here at SWAN UK we’ve currently got about 2,000 members with more making contact every day – we know however there are so many more families out there who need our support so we want to try and double our membership by 2017. Your support can help us do this!

So with Undiagnosed Children’s Day 2017 right around the corner, we have come up with some fun and exciting ways for you to get involved. In 2016 we had a range of fundraisers participating in fun runs, cake sales, raffles and much more. This year we’re letting our imaginations run wild and have come up with even more ways you can get involved – whether it’s as an individual, through your child’s school, or by getting your friends, family or company involved.

You can download our Fundraising Pack by clicking here or email fundraising@undiagnosed.org.uk and we can post one out to you.

Alternatively why not support us online? Click here to find out more.

Host an event and/or make a collection

You can also involve your friends, family, work colleagues, neighbours, school, place of worship or club in an event or activity to raise money:

• Coffee mornings, bake sales, barbeques, garden parties, home-selling parties, any sort of party!
• Concerts, pub quizzes, golf days, cricket matches, sponsored walks.
• Non-uniform and dress-down days at school or work, sponsored diets, head shaves, beard growing.
• Babysitting, lawn-mowing, car cleaning, bag packing at your local supermarket.
• Unwanted gift/clothes sales, car boot sales, e-bay sales.

You can also help raise funds for SWAN UK with our collection tins – maybe you could ask your local chippie or newsagent to have one on the counter?

If you would like to make a collection for SWAN UK, including as part of an event you have organised, you should consider whether you need to obtain a licence. Different collections have different rules associated with them.

Some of the most common are:

street collections, private collections, static collection boxes and house-to-house collections.

If you do need to obtain a charity collection licence, make sure you allow plenty of time. The time it takes to process applications varies greatly in different local authorities. In some areas licences can be obtained within a week, whilst in others it can take up to 12 weeks. If you need more information about whether you need a licence or not please email us: fundraising@undiagnosed.org.uk.