OxyChai
1837. Sarah Dafner
Sarah Dafner, from Manchester, is a mother of six who has raised over £300,000 to set up a Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy chamber in the city after using the therapy for her son Tzvi who was left severely brain damaged at the age of 3 months after contracting flu.
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy involves a course of 40 days treatment using an oxygen chamber, and Sarah realised that there were no units available for children in the Greater Manchester area, requiring many families like hers to travel long distances for access. Seeing how hugely beneficial the treatment was for her son, she decided to start a campaign, ‘OxyChai’, to establish a new state-of-the-art centre for the city. With huge support from the Jewish community, Sarah has now set up a chamber in Salford, which is run as a charity and staffed by trained volunteers to help families facing a range of health conditions benefit from access to Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy.
In a personal letter to Sarah, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said:
“I am lost in admiration for how you have crowdfunded over £300,000 for a Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy chamber in Greater Manchester. By founding ‘OxyChai’, you have given an opportunity for other children with a range of conditions to experience the same unique treatment which benefited your son, Tzvi.
“It is a wonderful initiative which demonstrates the generosity of the Jewish community in Greater Manchester.”
Sarah said:
“It is with great honour that I receive this award. After seeing how much my son and so many others have benefitted from Hyperbaric oxygen, I knew this was something that had to be accessible to everyone.”
Pictured below: the chamber funded by Sarah’s campaign
