Their money changes lives and makes a difference'

If you've never heard of Milly Apthorp, then it might be worth your while finding out.

The Barnet-based charity in her name has spent a staggering £10million on good causes since its creation in 1982 and it gives around £500,000 to people and organisations in the borough every year. Over the years, The Milly Apthorp Charitable Trust has bestowed a total of £7,724,000 on institutions as diverse as Hendon Youth Sports Centre, The Bull Theatre, Barnet African Health Organisation and Age Concern Barnet.

Seeking to help the sick, disabled, elderly and young people, the trust is interested in areas like health, arts, education, or sport.

It has handed out 698 awards to students in their student loan scheme, 122 for electric wheelchairs, and 105 for computers. It also runs annual schemes providing holidays for the disabled and their carers, adventure holidays for youngsters as well as the Apthorp Fund for young artists which gives awards to artists from Barnet, Brent, Enfield, Haringey or Harrow and then buys paintings from them.

The fund was set up in 1982 by Mrs Apthorp using her shares in frozen food company, Bejam, which her son John now a trustee of the trust founded. Following her death in 1989, most of her assets went into the fund. Astute investments have meant that the trustees only spend earnings from their financial dealings each year, so that the trust can give money for many years to come.

"There is more money in the trust now than there was when it started," said one of the two trustees, Lawrence Fenton. "It's very pleasurable. I'm supposed to be retired but I'm spending a considerable amount of time on this. On the other hand, I do enjoy it."

Councillor Jim Tierney, cabinet member for local partnership, said: "Residents of Barnet have been most fortunate to receive the benefit of the trust's generosity. This has helped not only capital projects and the work of voluntary groups in the borough but also many individuals young people, students, disabled and elderly people whose lives have been enhanced."

Application forms for requesting grants from the trust are available by calling Barnet Council on 0208 359 2000.

Milly Apthorp was a borough resident who lived in Edgware and Mill Hill and worked in the family business.

She had made most of her fortune after putting up money for a large stake in a frozen food company called Bejam which her son John founded.

When Bejam became a , she sold her shares and made millions.

A charitable trust was set up in her name in 1982 as she often gave money to good causes.

After Milly died in 1989, it was decided that most of her assets should go into the trust.

In 1990 the London Borough of Barnet Administered Fund was set up where the council took on much of the responsibility for administration of the fund, accepting applications and making recommendations to the trustees.

The money given by the Administered Fund has gone to good causes and to council services such as subsidised music lessons for schoolchildren from low income families.

How Milly gave away a fortune

RAFT (Restoration of Appearance and Function Trust) had just been started by some reconstructive plastic surgeons at Northwood's Mount Vernon Hospital in the late Eighties, when the Milly Apthorp Trust stepped in with a £328,000 grant to give the fledgling charity a much-needed shot in the arm.

"It was a crucial donation to help the charity off the ground," said RAFT's director of administration and appeals. "It enabled a whole programme into wound healing and skin culture.

"We can now take a tiny piece of skin and we grow the top layer in the laboratory in a special culture we can grow enough to cover a whole person in two to three weeks. It's exactly the same as the patient's own so there's no danger of rejection."

RAFT's work has been vital in reconstructive plastic surgery, whether for patients who have suffered severe burns, had a cancer growth removed, need treatment for a cleft lip or palette treatment, or many other conditions.

"I certainly believe that our skin replacement has saved the lives of quite a few children and people in the burns unit. It has been of benefit to countless patients around the country, if not around the world."

"The Apthorps are quite a remarkable family, they really, really are something very special. £10million is a lot of money to have given away. They have done a tremendous amount for the community."

The Beneficiaries

he Milly Apthorp Trust has allocated £325,000 to the Middlesex East Guides to renovate their Northern Heights Campsite between Edgware and Elstree.

The buildings at the seven-and-a-half acre site were all built before the Second World War and are in dire need of replacing.

The Guide Movement's County Commissioner, Barbara Darwood, said: "It's not just used by Brownies, Guides, Cubs and Scouts, it's also used by Gingerbread a one-parent family group, the British Red Cross, the RSPB, the Mill Hill over-50s club, the Jewish Lads and Girls Brigade, and the Duke of Edinburgh awards. "It will be used by the whole community.

"It's very very important that the whole community feel they have a chance to use it.

"We don't want to keep it to ourselves." It will also become 'fully-integrated' for disabled people. The campsite is environmentally interesting," added Mrs Darwood.

"We have got the only remaining bit of Barrome Wood that's where the name Borehamwood came from it's 14th-century hedgeland."

The Guide Movement will receive the trust's money providing that the Guides can match its funding.

The 5,000 members of the Middlesex East Guides, who come from the boroughs of Barnet, Brent, Enfield and Haringey, have raised £100,000 over the last three years including £400 raised from packing bags at Sainsbury in Edgware last month.

The camp's refurbishment will cost more than £1million in all.

"We'd much rather earn the money," said Mrs Darwood, "but earning that much is pretty impossible.

"I think it's wonderful that they the Trust are giving such encouragement to so many groups their money can in fact change lives and make a difference to people."

January 9, 2002 15:44

LEIGH COLLINS