Thanks to your support, we’re celebrating 40 years of being there for those with congenital, acquired, and inherited heart conditions and their families.
Read more about our plans for the year ahead, and how you can help to support us for the next 40 years and beyond!
Text 40ECHO followed by your donation amount to 70470 to give that amount. Texts will cost the donation amount plus one standard network rate message.
In 1983 Dr Michael Joseph, the first Paediatric Cardiologist at Evelina London, established ECHO together with parents of children affected by heart conditions.
In its early years, the charity focused on emotional support to families in the heart community treated by the children’s cardiac team across Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Trust through a shared understanding.
While we have made adaptions and grown, parents and relatives of children who have travelled the heart disease journey have always led and supported ECHO, and the charity’s history and work now span back an incredible 40 years.
The need for our services is greater than ever. In recent years we opened ECHO’s first ever office, launched a hybrid approach to services, adapted some of our social activities and classes to the virtual world, increased our membership criteria to include families treated by the Royal Brompton Hospital and its networks, and the age we support young people has extended from 18 to 25.
Although the way we have given support has changed, our goal has remained the same throughout – to be there for children affected by heart conditions and treated by the Evelina London Children’s Hospital networks and their families for the next 40 years and beyond.
Help us to raise £40 to celebrate 40 years and check out our 40 charity fundraising ideas to get you started! Raise £83 – the year ECHO was launched – and we’ll send you an ECHO pin badge!
From the day we started June 15th, 1983, we have been connecting the children’s heart community so for the next 12 months we invite you to #celebratewithecho and get involved in our community. Here’s what we’re doing, but please let us know if you have any plans to fundraise for our 40th.
Unleash your creativity and design a heart doodle, and you could win a FREE ECHOVERSARY tea towel! 40 designs will be picked and printed on a tea towel. All entries with a winning design will be sent one of these fabulous, limited edition ECHO Heart Doodle tea towels! These will then be launched in the ECHO shop in time for the end of year. You have until 15 August 2023 to get your entries in.
To mark our 40th year we’re asking you to join our appeal to help us support even more heart families in times of need. Raise £40 and join our paper chain, or raise over £83, 1983 was the year we launched, and we’ll send you an ECHO pin badge.
If you need help to get set up for receiving donations and sponsorship – whether via an online fundraising page go to: https://echo-uk.org/get-involved/fundraise/. If you have any questions or would like to discuss your own idea for a 40 for 40 fundraiser, ECHO would love to hear from you, email us at hello@echo-uk.org, otherwise check out our own 40 charity fundraising ideas to get you started.
Explore with us how ECHO is focused on bringing together parents of children with heart conditions, for emotional support through a shared understanding in our short film. We will also launch a new series of ECHO Case Studies, to support the wider community. Our video resources celebrate how proud we are to have helped thousands of families during our history and those who will need us in the future. Keep your eyes peeled for updates.
Heartificial Intelligence is an immersive installation investigating the roles that technology and community each play in the healthcare journey of young heart patients. ECHO created the exhibit in collaboration with Triple Dot Makers and researchers at Wellcome/EPSRC Centre for Medical Engineering.
Led by a group of nine young members of ECHO Teens who have heart conditions and their siblings, they used projection mapping, audio, and sensors to create installations that will pulse in sync to the heartbeats of the visitors while a sound recording excerpt explores themes including trust towards artificial intelligence in healthcare.
You can visit this free exhibit between July and December with some planned opportunities to meet the designers and youth worker.
Enjoy five traditional card games with this special ECHO 5-in-1 Card Games pack. All the games are easy to play and will feature 52 not to be missed ECHO memories and facts. We’re currently busy creating this special pack so keep your eyes peeled for updates.
Join us to celebrate 40 years of ECHO and experience spectacular views of London as you dangle in free space from the ArcelorMittal Orbit, 262ft above the ground.
Team ECHO will be at base camp with picnics. Abseilers, supporters and the ECHO community are welcome to bring food and refreshments and join us for this fun 40th abseil at London’s Olympic Park.
For more information and to sign up, visit: echo-uk.org/abseil
This event is open to all ECHO members and invited supporters who have experienced loss within the children’s cardiac community. It will give bereaved families the chance to meet with each other and the ECHO team to talk, reminisce, and, if needed, lean on one other for comfort and support. ECHO will provide some crafts and activities for children attending, and refreshments for all.
After our reflection session at the Garden Museum just minutes from Evelina, we will be picked up by a Route Master bus for a private VIP sightseeing tour of London and afternoon tea, as we remember the children and young people who left us too soon. The day will be led by ECHO’s CEO and trained bereavement counsellor.
If you have any questions, or you would like to attend please email hello@echo-uk.org.
The stunning 13.1-mile route takes in many of the capital’s world-famous landmarks on closed roads, and four of London’s eight Royal Parks – Hyde Park, The Green Park, St James’s Park and Kensington Gardens. We have several charity ECHO spaces, so if you fancy running alongside more than 16,000 other runners on this scenic city run then head to our website.
Show your support for ECHO and what we have achieved over the past four decades with a beautiful, limited edition pin badge. They are perfect for accessorising clothing and bags.
ECHO Teen’s Film Club was created in March 2020 in response to the global pandemic which saw the nation go into lockdown.
Prior to this ECHO supported our Teen members through the ECHO Teens, at in-person events.
With many of our members required to shield and stay at home throughout this period, ECHO moved in-person activities online and created the Film Club to ensure this support continued.
Over a period of 12 months those in attendance were set series of topical challenges which focused upon them, their hobbies, their interests and their identity.
The thoughts and feelings of the group were captured and produced in a short film Home But Not Alone – More Than Our Hearts.
As part of ECHO’s 40th Year we are proud to share their amazing film with the wider heart community at our VIP online film premiere.
We’re currently busy sifting through all these so keep your eyes peeled for updates.
Throughout the month of January, we’ll be holding a flash sale in our shop. Grab yourself a bargain and help us to ensure that our heart community is getting the best possible support.
January is also the perfect time for a post-Christmas clear-out of old clothes, books, gadgets and, dare we say, unwanted Christmas gifts! Whether you sell them online or at a car boot, why not donate all or some of the proceedings to ECHO to help us to provide services that offer a lifeline to children with heart conditions and their families.
February is National Heart Month, a time to raise vital awareness around heart conditions and an opportunity to fundraise for ECHO in honour of our 40th birthday.
7th-14th February is also Congenital Heart Disease Awareness Week, so there’s lots of reasons to celebrate, be bold, wear red and raise vital funds for ECHO.
Why not reach out to your child’s nursery or school and ask them to get involved? We’ve put together a letter you are welcome to amend and send here. You could also invite your colleagues to wear red on a certain day during February. It really is so easy to take part and you can find everything you need on our website.
ECHO provide a thoughtful selection of packs and activities which can be handed out to patients and families to mark a selection of key dates throughout the year, including Mother’s Day.
Our packs are given out to mothers and carers on the cardiac wards, who may go without being in hospital, and are designed to help reduce isolation and provide a morale boost. Our work is totally dependent on donations, we receive no government or NHS funding, so as always, we’re eternally grateful for your support.
Donate online here. £15 funds a Mother’s Day pack and let’s them know they’re not forgotten and gives them the recognition they deserve.
If you (or a friend or family member) are one of the lucky ones to win the ballot or have received your place through a running club (or even deferred your entry from 2023) for the 2024 London Marathon, we would be delighted to have you join ECHO’s birthday celebrations by raising funds for us. Setting up a Facebook Fundraiser or adding an Instagram Donate sticker to your Instagram Story are great ways to raise money, simply follow these instructions.
If you’ve not been one of the lucky ones and don’t quite fancy running 26.2 miles, then we’ve got charity spaces for London’s only half marathon through Westminster and the City of London. The London Landmarks Half Marathon route is also adorned musical performances, DJs, dancers, themed cheer stations and more, so it’s a real fun event. If you are interested in applying for a charity ECHO space, please head to our events page.
To those of you who have raised money over the last 11 months – thank you for the difference you have made. If you haven’t already joined our fundraiser appeal to celebrate 40 years of ECHO – there’s still time! We’d love you to raise £40 and join our paper chain, alternatively, raise over £83, 1983 was the year we launched, and we’ll send you an ECHO pin badge.
If you need help to get set up for receiving donations and sponsorship – whether via an online fundraising page go to: https://echo-uk.org/get-involved/fundraise/. If you have any questions or would like to discuss your own idea for a 40 for 40 fundraiser, ECHO would love to hear from you, email us at hello@echo-uk.org, otherwise check out our own 40 charity fundraising ideas to get you started.
To mark the end of our year of celebrations we will be holding a summer activity and party on Saturday 15th June 2024. Lots of families, professionals, and supporters past and present will be invited. Venue TBC – save the date!
