I would like to express how much having a laptop bought for me by the Samantha Sykes Foundation has supported me with my studies over the past year. As a care leaver, without the financial support of family, it can be very difficult to afford a laptop.

Last year, the Samantha Sykes Foundation provided our care leavers with 13 laptops, software packages, over 100 essential textbooks and dance clothes.

The Foundation has been fantastic, allowing me access to tools and equipment that I wouldn’t have been able to afford on my own.

I knew nothing of the Samantha Sykes Foundation before I started at Huddesfield University. The books I received through the charity have become a valuable resource for all my studies.

The Foundation provided some of the textbooks which were indispensable to my learning. I was also able to attend the Butterfly Ball, which enabled me to meet other students from similar background and which I really enjoyed.

The Samantha Sykes Foundation has supported us since 2014 and we’re immensely grateful for this.

The Samantha Sykes foundation have made it so that I can practice as a social worker. Without their financial support, I wouldn’t have been able to enrol on a Master’s in Social Work course. I had just finished university and left the care system and had no money to achieve this dream. SSFT stepped in and assisted in my two years at university. I now work with looked after children on a daily basis. I now have a home and will not be a statistic, this is all down to the SSFT.

I am 21 years old and, through Samantha Sykes Foundation, I have had therapy, which has helped me during these most isolating times. I feel like I have a supportive person who I can talk to and who listens to me. My therapist has helped gain my confidence back and improve my communication skills.

I have received a laptop from the Samantha Sykes Foundation as I have started a Games Development course at Uni. I am so lucky to have been given something so expensive, that will help me on my course. Everyone on my course can afford a laptop but I couldn’t. To me this was a really really big deal, it’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever owned and I am so thankful for it.

I am 18 years old and I got a laptop when I started my health and social care course. Before that, I had to do all my course work on my foster mum’s laptop and my work kept getting misplaced. I love my laptop and it’s helped me get onto level 3. I am happy that I can come to you in my times of need.