This year we are celebrating 10 years of impact. Whilst we wish that babies didn’t need neonatal care, and families didn’t need support, we also want to recognise how much we have achieved over the last decade.
Over the last 10 years, Spoons has supported over 5,000 families through peer to peer support, community groups, individual therapy, and our family support service.
We’ve also created volunteer opportunities for almost 100 parents with neonatal lived experience, and supported hundreds more to be involved in co-production to help improve neonatal services.
When Spoons first started in 2015, there were just three of us Sarah, Lee and myself. Not only were we trustees, but between us we did everything: volunteering on the neonatal unit, running support groups, organising fundraising events. You name it, we did it. There were plenty of late nights spent round kitchen tables, dreaming of building a service we once thought was impossible.
But we weren’t on our own. From the very beginning, we were lucky to have a brilliant community of families around us – baking cakes, helping at groups, designing leaflets, developing training, cheering us on.
We were a group of parents who’d been through neonatal care ourselves, brought together by a shared passion to help others facing the same journey.
The neonatal unit at Oldham and later North Manchester played a huge part in our growth. They trusted us, welcomed us in, and gave us the freedom to support families in a way that felt right. Manchester Foundation Trust and the North West Neonatal Network have also been key to helping us expand our peer support services, and we’re so grateful for their belief in us.
Now, in 2025, we have a small but mighty team of six staff, working hard every day to support families at their most vulnerable. And we couldn’t do any of it without our brilliant volunteers – whether they’re on the units, at our community groups, or behind the scenes helping us meet our charitable objectives and stay on track.
We’ve changed and grown over the years, but our core values haven’t. We’re proud to still be a charity led by lived experience, and we’re endlessly thankful to the neonatal community who’ve stood by us and supported Spoons for the last ten years.
To celebrate 10 years of supporting thousands of families, over 40 of us are taking part in the Great Manchester Run on 18th May, to raise funds to keep our important services going. We hope our supporters will help cheer us on, and perhaps leave a small donation and message of support on our fundraising page: https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/spoonsgmrun25
Thank you for standing beside us on this journey.
From, Kirsten and all the Spoons Team x
