Pseudomyxoma Survivor is a registered charity but what does that mean?

Pseudomyxoma Survivor is a patient advocacy and support organization for people affected by pseudomyxoma peritonei (PMP), a rare and complex form of cancer, and appendix cancers. The organization aims to improve the quality of life for PMP and appendix cancer patients and increase public understanding of this rare and challenging disease.

As a registered charity, we are an organisation which:

• Has exclusively charitable purpose (as defined by law), and
• Exists for the public benefit (as defined by law).

It doesn’t only mean that we are a not for profit organisation, it’s more than that. There are 13 categories of charitable purpose and Pseudomyxoma Survivor comes under the category “the relief of those in need by reason of youth, age, ill health, disability, financial hardship or other disadvantage (including relief given by the provision of accommodation or care)”.

A charity cannot be set up to personally benefit its trustees or employees, though it may of course employ staff (we don’t, we are too small for that). We have to have identifiable benefits and those the benefit is aimed at have to be the public or a section of the public (in our case, the PMP community).

We have organisational objects describing the aims of the organisation which are listed in our governing document. These have been scrutinised by the Charity Commission to determine whether our objects are exclusively charitable. We’re not allowed to have directly political objects, but we can take part in political activities if they help support its charitable objects.

As a charity, we have to keep to certain rules and regulations set by the Charity Commission. If we don’t meet these requirements, the Commission can take away our status as a registered charity. These are:

• Follow our Constitution
• Produce and publish our Accounts
• Produce and publish our Trustee Annual Report
• Produce and publish our Annual Return

As a charity, we have a legal requirement to be subject to the High Courts’ charity law jurisdiction. Pseudomyxoma Survivor must be independent of outside control in a way that would prevent it being subject to the control of the High Court.

Our trustees are the people who serve on the governing body of a charity. The trustees are responsible for the general control and management of the administration of a charity.

In charity law, a ‘political purpose’ cannot be a charitable purpose. That means that an organisation cannot be a charity if it has a ‘political purpose’. However, Pseudomyxoma Survivor can carry out ‘political activity’ if it facilitates or supports the delivery of out charitable purposes.

Pseudomyxoma Survivor was registered on the 2nd September 2011.

You might like to read