Congratulations to the Family Fund on launch of Family Fund EXTRA

12.00.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 27th Apr 2009

Mike Pringle MSP has submitted a motion to the Scottish Parliament commending the Family Fund's excellent work in supporting disabled children and their families, and celebrating the recent launch of Family Fund EXTRA, the Family Fund's new online shopping service.

Family Fund is the UK's largest charitable provider of grants to disabled children. Last year, they gave over £29m in grants to 48,000 families across the UK.

Through the Family Fund EXTRA scheme, any family with a disabled child can now get discounts of up to 25% from five leading online retailers - Comet, Argos, BSM, Haven Holidays and Stone Computers. At the same time, anyone shopping online can help disabled children at no extra cost to themselves by going through EXTRA to nearly a hundred retailers, such as Amazon, Tesco, M & S, Boots, HMV, John Lewis and Toys R Us.

Mike's motion quickly attracted cross party support from MSPs

Derek Walpole, Chief Executive of the Family Fund said

"We really appreciate the support MSPs are giving us in spreading the word about Extra, which could make daily life cheaper and easier for thousands of families.

"We are always looking for ways to help disabled children's families make their money go further and we hope later this year to set up the first-ever provider of financial services just for disabled children's families.

"Meanwhile, we have raised the age limit for our grants in Scotland so we can now help young people up to their 18th birthday."

Mike Pringle MSP said

"I was delighted to be able to support this excellent initiative.

"The Family Fund make a valuable contribution in supporting thousands of disabled children and their families across the UK.

"I encourage everyone to use the new Family Fund EXTRA service to do their bit in supporting disabled children."