Burns support groups
Burns Family Group
The Burns Family Group offers support and information for families with a child who has experienced a burn or scald injury. We provide an environment where families with similar experiences can meet and support each other to help promote positive thinking.
Residential family weekend
This usually takes place in September at Littlehampton's Fire Service Rehabilitation Centre and is funded by the Children's Burns Trust. Several families from this and other burns units in the South East of England attend a weekend of therapeutic workshops, activities for the children, support from professionals and shared experiences from parents to parents.
Summer camp
In August, a group of 8–13-year-olds attend the residential summer camp at Grafham Water, enjoying a range of physical activities and making shared memories.
Each year there is usually a National Burns Camp for children and young people between the ages of 8–18. The camp provides a place for children to meet who have experienced a burn injury and help to develop their sense of independence and confidence along with often making lifelong friends.
Fundraising
The Burns Family Group needs to raise money to give children the opportunity to attend camp each year. If you are willing to raise funds or have any fundraising ideas, please contact Annette Maynard (Health Play Specialist) on 020 3315 3707 or annette.maynard1@nhs.net. Your support would be very much appreciated.
Support website for families of children who have had a burn injury
Supportingchildrenwithburns.co.uk contains information to help support parents or carers of children and young people who have experienced a burn injury of any kind or size. When a burn injury happens to someone you care about it can be as distressing for you as it is for them. This website is not just for parents whose child has had a major burn, as we know that it can be a difficult experience regardless of how big the burn was, or whether or not a hospital stay or surgery was required. Other adults, such as grandparents, might also find this resource helpful.
Previous events
We are now able to have in-person events and to plan activities for the year ahead. Recent examples include:
- Activity days
- National Burns camp in August
- Trips to Alton Towers for teenagers
- Annual Family weekend at Littlehampton Fire Service Rehabilitation Centre in September
- National Jamboree at Grafham Water in October
For more details please call Annette on Mars Ward on 020 3315 3706 or email caw-tr.burnsfamilygroup@nhs.net.
London Area Burns Adult Group
The group continues to meet roughly four times a year and is open to adults (16+) who have experienced a burn of any sort, at any age, and have been treated at any hospital. Although based in London, we have members from all over the country. We alternate between meeting to listen to speakers, have group discussions, and take part in social events. We are happy for people to bring family and friends with them.
We maintain a steady list of about 100 people. More than half have never actually been to one of the events. We occasionally remind people they can unsubscribe if they don't want to receive the notifications but we only have a few of those each year. How do we make sense of this? People want to stay connected but at the level they can manage. There is no expectation of participation at all. Having said that there are some absolutely lovely, kind, warm-hearted people who do come whenever they can and we hear and see them be very supportive to others, especially first-timers.
This is not a traditional support group and people do not usually come and talk in detail about their burn experiences. People do not directly ask ‘what happened to you?’, ‘how big is your burn?’, ‘how bad was it?’ etc. People have sometimes confided in us before coming that they worry that their burn will be the smallest one or the biggest one—nobody wants to be too different.
People who feel comfortable sharing their experiences do, it feels quite natural. This group offers a unique opportunity to not only get support from but also to give support to other burns survivors. People tell us that it can be really valuable to meet others with experiences of burns.
Looking back on 2025
Our membership remains steady and we now have a regular pattern for our meetings to alternate in person (summer and winter) and virtual (spring and autumn) gatherings. This seems to work well, especially for those who find it difficult to travel into London or are not ready to meet up in person. The summer event on June 14th was a first for many of us - a Sound Bath - hosted by our very own group member, Seiem Ghebrecristos. A full yoga studio of us lay down for an hour and were bathed in sounds and vibrations from beautiful gongs, resonant instruments and even bird song. It did not feel like a whole hour and was very relaxing. Afterwards most of us met up in the hospital gardens for a picnic and catch up. Thank you to Seiem and to everyone who joined us. In autumn we had the opportunity to hear from Kate Attrill, Clinical Lead Therapist Burns and Plastics Therapy, Chelsea and Westminster about the latest scar management techniques and technologies. Kate has been kind enough to share an anonymised version of her slides with us. Please note it does contain photos of scars. Our final final gathering of 2025 was a December catch-up and warm beverage in the Christmassy environment of the Royal Festival Hall on London's Southbank. We were lucky to get a table to accommodate us all and spent a good couple of hours chatting about 2025 and what is ahead for some of us in 2026.
Recent events
Our most recent event was on March 17 when we were joined by Sukie Sandhar, who spoke with us about her plans to set up a group for adults with burns in the Midlands. Sukie received her burns treatment with the team in Birmingham but was struck by the gaps in support afterwards and wanted to pick our brains to think about how she might go about setting up a group. Hopefully she took away some good ideas and we look forward to sharing with you any developments that come out of it. We also discussed ideas for our summer event, more of which to come as plans are finalised.
Upcoming events
Our next event is our summertime in person event on Saturday 17 March 2026. We are thrilled that our talented group member, Seiem Ghebrecristos, has once again agreed to put on a bespoke Sound Bath just for us. The venue will be the CW+ Yoga Studio at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, 369 Fulham Road, London SW10 9NH. The event is likely to be for an hour from late morning, followed by a bring your own picnic lunch in the hospital garden if the weather is fair and TBS if it is not. We suspect this is likely to be a popular event so the numbers will be limited to make this the best experience for participants. If you are interested in coming along send an email to the usual address and we will add you to the waiting list. Depending on the level of interest we may need to prioritise those who were unable to join us last year. More details to come.
Other events
- Wednesday 9 September 2026 autumn online video catch up on Teams
- Wednesday 9 December 2026 in person end of year weekday evening gathering
For more information, to RSVP or to join our database please contact:
Lisa Williams
T: 020 3315 2504
E: lmwilliams@nhs.net
Dan’s Fund for Burns website and weekly live chat forum for burn-injured adults
Adultburnsupportuk.org brings together all of the most helpful resources and information on the aftercare help/support available to burn-injured adults in the UK and putting it on one site for easy access. A weekly moderated Live Online Chat occurs every Wednesday from 7:30–9pm (UK time) and has grown from strength to strength. The ABSUK Live Chat has been developed to provide the opportunity for those affected by a burn injury to share their story and give and receive mutual support in a real-time, safe and private forum. Chat is now fully moderated by people with lived experience of burns.
To participate in the live chat, users must be registered and logged in. If you would like to share your experiences or discuss any issues you may be having in relation to burns, please register ahead of time and then log in on the night.
Hexi Burns Module
In 2023 we welcomed invited speaker, PhD student Christia Huntington, to talk about her work creating a burns module of the HealthTalk website. This site has now transitioned onto Hexi - Health Experiences Insights. If you are interested in reading and hearing from others with burn injuries from those with lived experience of burn injuries you can access the site below and they would be interested in your feedback about the content.
Coping with the stress of a traumatic incident
We give this leaflet to our patients and families who have experienced a traumatic event. It contains information about how people might be affected, common reactions, helpful hints including grounding, self care and potential sources of help.