ACHING ARMS

Registered charity 1153296 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register

Aching Arms provides comfort teddy bears to parents whose baby has died during pregnancy, birth or infancy. They gift bears to parents via maternity health professionals and befriending groups in the UK. The bears are used to discuss support available to parents. The charity also leads awareness training for health professionals and hosts a telephone befriending service for bereaved parents.

Objects

THE OBJECTS OF THE CIO ARE TO:-(1)PROMOTE AND PROTECT THE HEALTH (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE MENTAL HEALTH AND WELL-BEING) OF PARENTS, THEIR FAMILIES AND FRIENDS WHEN A BABY DIES IN UTERO, AT BIRTH OR SOON AFTER BIRTH ("BABY LOSS");(2)ADVANCE EDUCATION ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE OF BABY LOSS PARTICULARLY, BUT NOT EXCLUSIVELY, AMONGST HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS; AND(3)SUPPORT AND PROMOTE RESEARCH INTO BABY LOSS AND THE METHODS OF ALLEVIATING SUFFERING ARISING FROM BABY LOSS AND TO DISSEMINATE THE RESULTS OF SUCH RESEARCH.

The charity’s charitable objects and area of benefit, quoted from its governing document as held on the Charity Commission register.

Causes: Education/training · The Advancement Of Health Or Saving Of Lives · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: Brentwood, East of England, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity reported a net deficit of £9,751 for the year ended 31 December 2025, resulting in total funds decreasing from £168,545 to £158,794. The trustees confirm that the charity maintains sufficient reserves, meeting its policy target of six months' core costs, and has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future.

Automated summary of the FY2025 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.

What the accounts disclose

Accounts independently examined (not a full audit). Discloses 5 of 6 completeness components.

Policies the charity declares

In its annual return the charity told the Commission that it has the policies listed below. This is self-declared: it is not verified by the Commission or by this site, and it is not evidence of how a policy works in practice.

• Bullying and harassment policy and procedures
• Campaigns and political activity policy and procedures
• Complaints handling
• Complaints policy and procedures
• Conflicting interests
• Financial reserves policy and procedures
• Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
• Internal risk management policy and procedures
• Paying staff
• Risk management
• Safeguarding policy and procedures
• Safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries
• Serious incident reporting policy and procedures
• Social media policy and procedures
• Trustee conflicts of interest policy and procedures
• Trustee expenses policy and procedures
• Volunteer management

From the charity’s annual return (Part A, self-declared)

Answers and figures the charity gave in Part A of its annual return to the Charity Commission. They are self-declared: not verified by the Commission or by this site. Only positive answers and figures are listed; items not listed are simply not shown.

Source: this charity’s annual returns on the Charity Commission register.

Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — Aching Arms (matched by registered charity number).

Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): facebook · instagram

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/12/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~0.8 months of spending — in the bottom quarter for charities its size (median 5.2 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Donations and legacies (97% of income) — components as reported reconcile to the return’s total income; not from the accounts narrative.

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 4.1% of total income — below the median for charities its size (4.9%) (benchmarks).

Register events

• Received assets from another charity (09/09/2025) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.

Trustees · trustee networks

• Donna Dunnchair
• Andrew Morris
• Melissa Barclay
• Rachel Williams
• Steve Perry
• Sundeep Kaur

Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).

Operates in: Northern Ireland · Scotland · Throughout England And Wales

Income and spending

Common questions

Known funders

Grants to this charity found in funders’ own accounts filings.

Government & lottery funding

Grants to this charity published as open data by government and lottery funders (360Giving).

Charities like this

Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with TLC APPEAL NORTHUMBERLAND.

• TLC APPEAL NORTHUMBERLAND income £24k

Side by side with its peers

Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.