Foundations of the NCCF

The British Nuclear Test Veterans Association (BNTVA) Registered Charity Reg. No 1131134 was the premier UK charity representing all people who have worked with or alongside radioactive material for the benefit of this nation. Formed initially to campaign for recognition and restitution of our Servicemen who participated in the British Nuclear Tests the organisation has evolved over the years to share it’s knowledge and heritage with people from all walks of life.

In 2012 the BNTVA commenced a campaign to highlight the issues faced by veterans of the British Nuclear Test Program and their families. The campaign called for recognition and support and reached it’s peak with a march on Whitehall to deliver a 5000 plus petition calling for the Prime Minister to look at the veterans plight.

A key evolution of the campaign was to establish the identity of the Nuclear Veterans, their Spouses and Offspring and to highlight all concerns surrounding the questions of increased levels of congenital deformity and serious ill health within NTV offspring.

In July 2014 the Prime Minister, Rt Hon. David Cameron, formally recognised our nuclear veterans in a statement made during Prime Minister’s Questions. The result of this recognition was the establishment of the Aged Veterans Fund by the Chancellor, the Rt Hon. George Osborne. Using funds made available from the LIBOR fines, proposals for projects to assist the nuclear community were developed.

Three key questions exist in the Nuclear Community:

• Why do we have high levels of Physical Health issues?

• Why do we have high levels of Mental Health Issues?

• How has this affected us as a community?

To address these questions a series of projects were developed and a new organisation was created.
The Nuclear Community Charity Fund (NCCF) was launched in 2016 to manage and develop a portfolio of projects for the Nuclear Community. After an initial round of funding the NCCF secured a further three years of funding to fully realise project aspirations including the ‘Genetic and cytogenetic research program’ and to establish a Centre for the study of ‘Health Effects of Radiological and Chemical Agents’ at Brunel University London. The transition from sub-committee of the BNTVA to a charity in its own right was completed in June 2017, when the NCCF became a Charitable Incorporated Organisation on a Foundation basis.

The NCCF also operates a Remembrance project and a Community Communications project. All of these initiatives combine to educate, inform and support the work of the central activity of the Care, Wellbeing and inclusion Fund (CWI Fund) which provides funding for goods, services and therapies to reduce suffering and increase wellbeing within the Nuclear Community.