3BM & Fusion’s Purple Forum nominate Nerve Tumours UK as their Charity of the Year

3BM & Fusion are an experienced team used to working with public and private sector partners across London and the Southeast, within Architecture, Planning, Project Management and Quantity Surveying disciplines. 

Purple Forum is the voice of 3BM and Fusion. Purple Forum focuses on wellbeing, happiness in the workplace, employee recognition, corporate social responsibilities, support of charities and employee engagement; and have recently named us as their Charity of the Year.

"Our employees are at the heart of everything we do, which is why we strive to support charities that have a meaningful impact on them and their families. Each year, we make it a priority to choose a charity that holds personal significance for members of the 3BM and Fusion team."

Andy Rennison, Managing Director

The company has supported various charitable causes and this year they have chosen Nerve Tumours UK to be their nominated charity, as one of their employees, William, has had direct contact with the charity due to several family members being diagnosed with NF.

William's NF Story

I first became aware of Neurofibromatosis when it affected my mother. As it typically happens with NF1, her condition was only discovered after she had an accident which later needed surgery. As she prepared for this operation, a pre-op scan revealed growths on the spine. Unfortunately, due to these growths, they weren’t able to operate on her as planned. Years on, the growths have affected her everyday life, mainly by limiting her mobility, balance, and her overall independence. As chronic conditions often do, this has created a series of knock-on effects where she requires daily care and support from loved ones. This mainly affects my father.  

Neurofibromatosis 1 usually passes onto other family members. This became evident when I found out that, besides my mother, the condition now also affects my brother, my uncle (who is my mother’s brother) and two cousins, who have now also been diagnosed with and affected by NF1. My brother lost a kidney due to the side effects of nerve tumours.

My uncle and his daughter suffered serious complications of nerve tumours and sadly, issues related to NF1 resulted in my uncle passing away two years ago. His daughter, my cousin, unfortunately struggled with severe side effects of Nf1 too, however, she has spent years working relentlessly on learning how to walk again. Thankfully, she’s now able to walk again, meaning she can maintain her independence.

Luckily, Nerve Tumours UK has helped in supporting my cousin with her rehabilitation, and she found the extensive support she received through the Facebook group particularly helpful.

The internet can be an overwhelming place with sometimes too much information, either good or bad. Knowing that Nerve Tumours UK exists and is able to provide factual, supportive and verified information meant that my cousin was able to understand the intricacies of her condition. It also provided comfort; the Facebook group was a safe place to share and discuss issues or queries that she had. This level of support extended to her mother, so both as a patient and as a family member, they had comfort in knowing they weren’t in this alone.

Nerve Tumours UK has been an important source of help and their hard work is imperative to spread awareness to the public, including health care professionals. This would mean that diagnosis is quicker and easier, resulting in faster treatment to make sure any symptoms are caught and dealt with early.

The NTUK team met part of the company at their London Bridge office and gave a presentation on NF and what the charity does, followed by a discussion. 3BM and Fusion have diarised a number of different fundraising events across the year including bake sales, raffles and sweepstakes.

Nerve Tumours UK is more than grateful for all their efforts and specifically William, who completed a Triathlon on World NF Day 17th of May to raise further awareness and funds for the NF community.