About Sparks

 

 

 

 

When you ask an expectant parent if they want a boy or a girl, the answer is almost always the same – they don’t mind as long as their baby is healthy.  That’s what Sparks is all about.

We have evolved to become the only UK charity that seeks to find treatments and cures for all conditions that affect pregnancy, babies and young children. 

All of our pioneering, groundbreaking work has a single aim: to give every child the chance to be born healthy, and grow up healthy.  Our breakthroughs have helped thousands of children who only a few years ago may not have survived, let alone grow up, experience and share the simply joys that most of us take for granted.
The need
 
In the UK around 700,000 babies are born each year.  Sadly 1 in 30 of these will be born with a condition which may affect them for life.  That’s around 70 families every day that are told their baby has been born with an illness, disability, or in the worst case scenario, that their baby’s life is at risk.

It is just as hard to come to terms with your child developing an illness in the early years of life.  Every day 10 families have to hear the devastating news that their child has cancer.  This is just one example.

The importance of Sparks’ work is highlighted by one startling statistic: less than 1% of the NHS budget is committed to paediatric research.  Without charities like Sparks and the dedication of our supporters, most of this vital research would never take place.
How we are making a difference
 
We work with the leading doctors and research teams in the UK and around the world to ensure we fund we the highest quality research with the greatest chance of saving and changing lives forever.

Development of the ‘cooling cap’
Every year 1,000 babies in the UK die or suffer irreversible brain injury through a lack of oxygen at birth.  If your baby survives at all, the legacy of just a few moments of oxygen deprivation during delivery will be lifelong brain damage.
Sparks researchers have developed a ‘cooling cap’.  This is used to reduce the temperature of the brain and has been responsible for saving approximately 1 in 6 babies from death or serious brain damage.  This technique is bringing hope to babies in the UK and abroad.  Sparks is now funding further research into ‘total body’ cooling in order to give these babies an even greater chance of survival.

 
 
Discovery of a gene that could cut the risk of cancer
Neuroblastoma is an aggressive childhood cancer of abnormally developing nerve cells.  It is a devastating cancer that affects mainly babies and young children, and is one of the biggest cancer killers of the under fives.  Neuroblastoma is unpredicatable, for some children it can disappear without treatment, others will develop an aggressive form requiring intensive treatments such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery.  Many will still relapse.  Tragically, most of these will die.
Sparks funded researchers have discovered that a gene called clusterin is frequently inactive in these aggressive cases.  Sparks doctors have recently proved that the presence of clusterin in the body suppresses neuroblastoma growth.  Using a new class of drugs, researchers will now attempt to reactivate the gene, causing neuroblastoma regression.
 

 Research has cured conditions that used to claim hundreds of thousands of lives. We don’t need a miracle to beat childhood illness, we need more research. These are just two of many groundbreaking discoveries as a result of Sparks funded research.