British Benevolent Fund – Providing Support

The British Benevolent Fund was founded over a century ago to provide financial assistance for British nationals in extreme financial distress and who have no other recourse, whether friends or family or state support.

The BBF works with partner charities from www.supportinspain.info  across the country as well as the UK´s consular network in Spain in order to help those who have no other means and are facing fire financial straits – often brought on through no fault of their own.

Rachel is a single mother – recently split from her ex partner. As the split became final she decided to take a short holiday with their son to Spain.

She booked flights and told him the plan. To her surprise he offered to pay for the hotel.

It seemed a nice gesture and hopefully a sign of some stability for their child.

The hotel he had chosen was lovely – and expensive – and it was too good to be true – on arriving late at night she discovered to her horror that he hadn’t made any reservation at all. Indeed, the confirmation he had sent was a fake one.

To make matters worse – when she tried to pay for the night while she looked for something more economical, she found her card didn’t work. She would find out later that the bank account which was still shared with him had been blocked.

She had nowhere to go with a young child in the dead of night and no money nor access to money.

She tried phoning her mum but she was asleep – there was no answer anywhere.

The hotel manager took pity and gave her a small guest room till morning.

It was then that we were alerted to her situation by the British consulate who had been informed by the hotel.

We were able to help her with food, emergency accommodation and a flight back the day after back to the UK.

She sent a heartfelt note of thanks.

You never know when you might be stuck – The BBF can only help people like Rachel with your support – if you would like to make a donation to the British Benevolent Fund please visit our www.britishbenevolentfund.org – thank you on behalf of the many for your help. Olaf Clayton, Chair BBF