Mummy’s Star is the only UK charity dedicated to women and their families affected by cancer during pregnancy. Our aim is support pregnancy through cancer and beyond.
Why we believe in Safe Motherhood Week
We support Safe Motherhood Week as we believe passionately that mums to be and new mums should have and have a basic entitlement to choice! Choice in their birth plans, choice in their anti natal and post natal support and choice in how they are medicated and treated if they are diagnosed with illness or have a pre existing condition.
On 18 June 2013, together with friends and family, Peter Wallroth founded the charity Mummy’s Star in memory of his wife Mair.
Mummy’s Star is the only UK charity dedicated to women and their families affected by cancer during pregnancy. Our aim is support pregnancy through cancer and beyond.
Mummy’s Star is the only UK charity dedicated to women and their families affected by cancer during pregnancy. Our aim is support pregnancy through cancer and beyond.
Prior to this Peter worked in community regeneration sector from 2002 to 2014 both in housing and local authority settings, working to support residents improve some of the most deprived communities in Manchester
Specialties: Community development, fund raising and bid writing, project development and management, partnership development.
In the course of our work the charity focuses on supporting women and families where the:
- Woman is diagnosed or treated for cancer during her pregnancy.
- Woman is diagnosed or treated for cancer within a year of her giving birth.
- Family in the first year of a birth lose their female partner as a result of cancer
Our work is done through four main strands
- Providing a one stop shop for advice on cancer diagnosis in pregnancy including links to localised services. This is supported directly by Macmillan.
- Advocacy/Campaigning for changes to make it easier for families in these circumstances for example to transfer maternity leave to a partner/surviving partner, dealing with benefits/changes etc. This element will also offer employment rights advice. Furthermore we advocate on behalf on our families to bring in additional support around them, their treatment plan and post treatment/post surgery, working with agencies to provide options and reduce isolation
- Small grants for families which could be for anything which is deemed as supporting the family such as paying for a support carer/nanny to help in the house, payment to make up for unpaid leave taken by a partner to support at home above and beyond the allowances of paternity and travel costs. This is not an exhaustive list
- Facilitating peer support in a supervised setting via the use of administrated internet forums for affected women, their partners and wider family members. Also, where appropriate, providing support for affected women individually via email, phone, Facebook and occasionally in person, thereby reducing isolation.