The Starfish Story

As the old man walked the beach at dawn, he noticed a young girl picking up starfish and putting them into the sea. He asked her why she was doing this.

Her answer was that the stranded starfish would die if left until the morning sun.

"But the beach goes on for miles and there are thousands of starfish" countered the old man. "How can your effort make any difference?"

The young girl looked at the starfish in her hand and placed it safely into the waves.

"It makes a difference to this one," she said.

The Starfish Trust

The Starfish Trust, named after The Starfish Story, was founded in 1988. The Trust was funded by Almondsbury couple Charlie and Mary Dobson.

From 1997 the Trust was run by Chief Executive Bob Woodward, founder of CLIC (Cancer and Leukaemia in Childhood) - now CLIC Sargent.

Over the years Charlie and Mary Dobson gifted, via The Starfish Trust, some £6.5million to help severely disabled persons, in particular severely disabled
children, to realise their potential and to have a better quality of life.

In 2010, and close to its last £1m of funds, it was decided to accelerate the gifting of the last tranche of the trust’s cash in one go as the funds were no longer attracting enough interest to cover its annual administration costs.

For information as to which charities received the final funds, please click here.