Back in October 2025 Saltbox’s CareLink service received £28,936.00 from the Severn Trent Community Fund. This has been used to support our clients with additional transportation when attending hospital appointments and local social groups, including our weekly Chatty Cafe.
Since the funding was introduced in November 2025 we have been able to support 48 individuals up to the end of March 2026. This included; 18 people being transported and chaperoned to 40 hospital appointments, 26 being taken to 144 social events, and 7 were given transport to our KOKU exercise group.
CareLink Operations Manager Linda Smith commented “In the past, lack of affordable and flexible transport has often been a barrier to the older people we support, accessing health appointments and social opportunities. It has been brilliant to be able to fill this gap through this funding and see the difference it has made to these individuals. The relief when we are able to help them get to their appointments is invaluable, when often they would not have gone without it.”
CareLink Service Coordinator Nikki Simpson said “Being able to offer transport to medical appointments has been invaluable to the clients I have been able to help. One lady wanted someone to be with her while getting a cancer diagnosis. If we had not been able to offer this service she would have had to go through that alone.”
CareLink Client Doreen Tyler (pictured) is one of many to have benefited, commented “Having transport available to take me to my physio appointments since I broke my hip in September 2025 has been amazing. It has taken away the stress of having to wait for taxis, sometimes at the busiest times of the day and not being sure if the taxi that I requested will turn up. Nikki and the volunteer Rob have been kindness itself, providing me not only with the assistance to my (essential) physio appointments but giving me company during those journeys which I value tremendously. I am now 75 and totally blind and as often happens my world is shrinking somewhat so the company that these people provide and more importantly the ease of getting to and from my appointments has been absolutely essential.”
Saltbox Chief Executive Lloyd Cooke stressed how important the extra funding from the Severn Trent Community Fund has been to CareLink “Once again, a huge thank you to the Severn Trent Community Fund. Our CareLink team works tirelessly for Stoke-on-Trent’s vulnerable and elderly residents, and this funding has been a lifeline. It has allowed us to go the extra mile and genuinely transform our clients’ lives for the better.”
For more information please visit: stwater.co.uk/communityfund