About Us
Rhiannon Jade Smith Memorial Trust aims to support three causes. Road Safety, Education and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Research.
Road Safety
We have been working closely with local councils to try and improve road safety locally. Initially this involved improving the visibility where Rhiannon had her devastating collision. This has been achieved by positioning bollards where a parked car had obscured visibility. There will also be double yellow lines added to ensure no parking is allowed in this area. We hope to help put in place the first Welsh Road Safety Conference later this year and we are involved in discussions at the moment to try and get this under way.
Education
Teaching was Rhiannon’s passion and she was working at a local school on placement when the tragic collision happened. It is therefore important to us that we try to help local schools and also support a PGCE student at Gloucestershire University where Rhiannon was studying to become a teacher. We have given donations to three schools so far for outside play equipment, nursery equipment, seating and a flower garden. Gloucester Uni are in the process of finding a suitable candidate to receive a bursary of £1000 from the Trust and applications have been invited. We hope to be able to support a student who is struggling financially, or who is studying under difficult circumstances. We were honoured to present the Rhiannon Jade Smith Memorial Prize in November to a candidate who had achieved excellent results despite serious illness. This was extremely moving for us as this was at the graduation ceremony that Rhiannon would have attended if she had finished her course. This will be an annual prize and we are very honoured that Gloucester Uni wanted to remember Rhiannon in this way.
Traumatic Brain Injury Research
We have been able to support Great Ormond St Hospital and UCL in TBI Research via Action Medical. This is an ongoing project which will last 3 years and we shall be making the second part of the donation next year. They are particularly looking at how scanning can help to create a better outcome for children who have suffered TBI.
Cardiff University are undergoing some extensive TBI Research at their fantastic facilities in the City Centre – The Hadyn Ellis Building and CUBRIC. We were very lucky to be invited to visit both sites and see first hand the work which is being carried out. We are particularly keen to support this research given that it encompasses work into how to improve outcomes for TBI victims who sustained the same injury as Rhiannon (Acute Axonal Injury) and of course it is being carried out at the same University where Rhiannon studied her Sociology Degree. We hope to make our first donation shortly and hopefully as we gain more funds, we can continue to support this vital research.