The Stump Club

The Stump Club is a place for children to communicate with and support each other, expressing how they feel after suffering the many and varied consequences of meningococcal disease. More importantly, it is a place where they do not feel any different from the others in the group. Its name refers to the fact that everyone who belongs to the club has lost a digit or two, an arm or a leg. The President is elected from amongst the children based on the largest number of stumps the child has. In their children’s world, they innocently refuse to recognise the difference between loosing a leg or a toe.

Through its close alliance with the Stephen Sanig Foundation, the Stephen Sanig Research Institute is doing its part to support the children of The Stump Club. Our ultimate aim is to use our technology to prevent the suffering that gives The Stump Club its raison d’etre in the first place. However, in the mean time the children who are already members of The Stump Club, and those who are still to join, are in need of support for their lives, which have been made heavier in the shadow of meningococcal septicaemia.

While we at SSRI do all that we can to support The Stump Club, we also ask that those of you who are particularly touched by the plight of these children familiarise yourselves with the work of The Stump Club and lend them your support in whichever way you feel moved to do so. Meningococcal disease is multifarious in its effects, having consequences for the physical, social, and psychological well-being of its sufferers, and it is only by holistically addressing each of these aspects that the lives of those who have survived its trauma can again be made whole.