Health and Medical Hardship Support

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• 15 January 2023
• BKM Community Editorial Team
• Campaign has ended
• New York, USA

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Health problems and financial hardship reinforce each other. Illness costs money and takes away earning capacity at the same time, and families already stretched have the least room to absorb either.

What This Appeal Does

It helps community members meet health-related costs they cannot manage alone, and supports the health awareness sessions we run in Manchester.

Locally

Our health and wellbeing sessions cover conditions that affect South Asian communities disproportionately, including diabetes and heart health, along with how to access NHS services and where to turn for mental health support. Sessions are run in plain language with Urdu explanation available.

We provide information and signposting, not medical advice. For anything concerning your own health, please speak to your GP.

How to Give

We arrange donations directly rather than through this website. To contribute to this appeal, or to ask how your donation will be used, please contact us:

Telephone: 07727 874307
Email: info@bkmcommunity.com
In person: 53 Hemmons Road, Manchester M12 5TW

You can also send us a message and we will get back to you.

BKM Community Group is a community organisation and is not currently registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales. Donations to us are not eligible for Gift Aid. How we are constituted and funded is set out on our About Us page.

Why Medical Hardship Happens in a Country With Free Healthcare

Treatment is free at the point of use. The costs that break households are the ones around it.

• Lost income — the largest cost by far, particularly for self-employed and shift workers who simply are not paid when they cannot work
• Travel — repeated hospital trips, parking, or taxis where public transport is not manageable
• Care at home — equipment, adaptations, and the earnings lost by whoever gives up work to provide it
• Heating — a person at home unwell all day needs the heating on all day
• Overseas treatment — where a relative abroad needs care that is not free there

None of these appear on a hospital bill, and none of them are covered by anything. A family can be financially destroyed by an illness that cost the NHS nothing to treat.

What This Appeal Covers

Practical costs arising from illness: travel to appointments, help while a household earner cannot work, equipment, and support for carers.

Carers

The person caring for a sick relative is frequently in worse difficulty than the patient, and gets asked about far less. If that is you, the offer of help extends to you as well.

Visiting the Sick

Visiting someone who is ill is an established Sunnah, and it costs nothing. If you know somebody unwell in our community, go and see them. It is more useful than most people believe.

Asking

Contact us in confidence. Illness is not a failure and needing help through it is not a fault.

Zakat or Sadaqah?

If you are giving zakat, please say so when you contact us. Zakat has eight categories of eligible recipient set out in the Quran (9:60), cannot be spent on running costs, and we keep it separate and account for it separately. Sadaqah is not restricted in the same way.

If you are unsure which applies, read Understanding Zakat or Sadaqah: The Everyday Charity That Goes Beyond Zakat, or simply ask us.

Why There Is No Donate Button

We do not take card payments through this website. Every donation involves a conversation, which means you can ask exactly where the money is going and get a straight answer before you give anything. It is slower, and for an organisation of our size we think it is better.

Telephone 07727 874307 · Email info@bkmcommunity.com · 53 Hemmons Road, Manchester M12 5TW