If I had £1 million, there are a number of causes I would give lumps of cash to. I’m not sure I would just hand £1 million over to one person or cause in a complete sum because there are so many I would want to give a cash injection to.
The first cause I would give money to is homeless charities. For obvious reasons I guess, but I would like to see more help given to those people who are about to lose or who have lost their homes. In particular, I would like the money to be focused on women facing homelessness in particular as they are less likely to access the services available to them and are most at risk of abuse. So, that would be the first tranche of money I would give away.
Another cause I would give funding to is the British Heart Foundation, again for obvious reasons. I know it’s a well-funded organisation, but for the work it does, the research it carries out and the information it provides for free, I doubt it can ever have too much money. It does an amazing job, has helped a huge amount of people myself included, so they would receive some of the £1m.
I would donate money to the charity for pancreatic cancer. My grandmother died of this awful cancer and I’ve known two more people die of it recently. It feels as though there has been no real progress in the detection and understanding of this awful disease, partly as I understand because it is not deemed a ‘sexy’ area of cancer research to engage in. This is so terribly sad and I know the cause needs a lot more funding.
Research into how we could improve education provision for those children who struggle with rote learning and whose learning style is based more creatively would be funded from this £1m. I want to understand how we can help children better rather than pushing them to fit into an education system that doesn’t suit them at all.
Finally, I would like to give some of the £1m to help the people I know who are financially struggling at the moment. One of the ways I would do so would be via helping to establish a community-based organisation that brings together all the services and professions that people in the village I live in have so people can purchase them locally, helping everyone out. I would also add to that a wellbeing service for people including creating different types of groups, such as a book club, to alleviate loneliness and help people increase their confidence levels as well as helping provide advice and support to anyone seeking to open their own business and help provide access to training opportunities for those who want or need to pivot in their careers. This would be on the basis that give a man a fish he can eat for a day, give him a net and he can eat forever.
This is how I would spend any spare £1m I might have in the future.
Louisa Simpson 