Helen Baker

Helen Baker contacted the Fund for help towards her living costs. The wife of a former engineer, Helen ran into financial difficulties after her husband’s death, by which time the couple’s life savings had been mostly spent on nursing home fees.

She found the application process easier than she expected, and now receives a monthly cash grant in addition to help with her phone bill (a real ‘lifeline’), and the provision of a TV set. At 83, she now lives in a ground floor one-bedroom retirement flat near the seafront.

The names and details in some of these accounts have been altered to preserve confidentiality. And though the photographs all show people who have been helped by the Fund, they may not match the individual account.