After the Grenfell Tower fire in North Kensington last year, survivors from the tower, the bereaved, residents of Lancaster West Estate (where the tower stood) and members of the local community were left deeply traumatised. In the days and weeks after the fire, when the community was struggling to come to terms with the tragic events, a member of the local community who had witnessed the tragedy first hand was one of the people to respond immediately to support the children and families in the area.

In the days after the fire, Susan Rudnik - a paediatric Art Psychotherapist, established an art therapy hub in a local community centre. At a time when the children and families of the local community were in need of opportunities to express their fear and grief, Susan and her colleagues provided the space to do so through art and play. This important psychotherapy work helping children and young people to make sense of what had happened continued throughout the summer months, and continues to this day through Latimer Community Art Therapy (LCAT) – working with hundreds of affected children, adolescents and adults, each month, across 9 local primary schools, 1 nursery and 5 community hubs as well as a local adult mental health centre. LCAT now has 24 art psychotherapists committed to offering long term consistent art psychotherapy to a still traumatised and broken community.

Having met Susan and learned about the work of LCAT, Chris will be raising money to support this work in 2018 through a range of sponsored events which will be logged on this page. Please consider helping support Chris' efforts, and the ongoing work of Latimer Community Art Therapy through sponsorship.