Every year RAFA....
Honorary Welfare Officers make over 25,000 welfare visits to homes and hospitals.
offers over 3,000 respite care breaks at RAFA respite care homes.
gives on-base support for service families.
advises on family and financial support.
invests in our sheltered housing facilities.
offers guidance and representation on War Disablement and War Widow pensions
Playing Lift-Off Lotto Helps RAFA to Help Others
Lift-Off Lotto is a great way to support RAF Association, giving you a chance to win a £1,000 top prize in our weekly draw. Money raised from the lottery will help us to offer residential caring, short welfare breaks and supportive and sheltered housing facilities throughout the United Kingdom.
It will also help our volunteer Welfare Officers who provide much needed advice, care and support for serving and ex-serving RAF personnel, many of whom are elderly or suffer from long-term health problems.
Rhys’s Story
We are determined to be there to support future generations of the RAF family in their hour of need, families like the Harris family.
Rhys Harris was just four years old when he was diagnosed with a very rare genetic condition called Nemo that cripples the immune system. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the first time Rhys had faced life-threatening illness.
At the age of nine months, Rhys contracted meningitis which left him profoundly deaf. Even then, Rhys’s problems continued, he contracted Tuberculosis in March 2006, complicating his condition further.
Last year his parents, Kevin and Dawn were given the horrifying news that Rhys may have only 12-18 months to live and he desperately needed a bone marrow transplant to survive.
" When you join the RAF, you think that you are indestructible and that nothing will ever happen to you. You cannot imagine the devestation and the feelings of helplessnes when you discover that your young child has been diagnosed with a rare and life-threatening illness."
The RAF Association has helped support the family in a number of ways through this incredibly difficult time. Financial support has enabled the family to keep their home in Wales whilst they were away for many months with Rhys’s treatment and assisted with transport when their family car broke down.
The local RAF Association Branch has also supported the family by providing furniture in their rented accommodation.
Following his successful bone marrow transplant, which RAF Association assisted with in holding multiple bone marrow donor sessions at RAF stations across the country, Rhys continues to make good progress and is full of energy most days. The family have since returned home to Wales to continue the life that Rhys so loves in his home town.
A local Area Welfare Officer from RAF Association will continue to monitor Rhys’s progress and ensure that there is ongoing care and support.
