Supporting UK Patients

In the UK one of TB Alert's key aims is to improve "concordance" - ie helping to ensure that patients are able to complete their course of medication.  This is vital because incomplete treatment can lead to drug resistance in the patient and anyone they pass the TB on to and is much more difficult to treat and more often fatal. It doesn’t sound difficult to take tablets but when patients are homeless or illiterate, or cannot afford a bus fare to get their tablets it is not always as simple as it seems. 

TB Alert's Patient Support Fund supports the work of UK TB nurses to improve patient concordance and to tackle patient Patient Support.  We know that many TB patients are from the poorer sections of society, and some fall through the gaps in benefits and support.  We want to make sure that no patient is prevented from completing their treatment through lack of money , that their health while undergoing TB treatment is not compromised because they are not receiving a nourishing meal every day, and that nurses are supported in the difficult job of supporting a high case-load of patients through the long TB treatment.

If you are a health professional or key worker supporting a TB patient, and want to find out more about how to apply to the Patient Support Fund, click here.

Click here to read about some of the grants we have given.

Where the money comes from

Oxford Immunotec is a diagnostics company which has developed a new diagnostic test for TB called T SPOT-TB.  Oxford Immunotec shares the aims of TB Alert and is sponsoring this fund for the benefit of patients in the UK.

The Margaret de Souza-Deiro Fund is a charitable trust founded in 1927 by Miss Anstace Howard in memory of the late Miss Margaret de Sousa-Deiro. The fund was originally intended "to provide or assist in providing treatment for indigent women suffering from early pulmonary tuberculosis". With the decline in the rate of TB though most of the 20th century, the objects of the Fund were extended by Orders of the Charity Commissioners, to help in thecare, rehabilitation and after-care of women in financial need suffering from any disease. Since the UK has experienced an increase in TB cases from 1987, the Trustees now feel it appropriate to give renewed focus to the Fund's original purpose, and are supporting women with TB through TB Alert's Patient Support Fund.

Lilly UK is a pharmaceuticals company which manufactures TB drugs. Lilly has established the MDR-TB Partnership to support charities and other organizations in the fight against MDR-TB.

We would like to extend our thanks to other supporters of the fund, including Pace Micro, the children of Bolton School Junior Boys Division, and Rotary International Britain and Ireland (RIBI) clubs throughout the country. To visit our Rotary Patient Support Fund Appeal Page click here.