Six hundred property professionals attended Norwood’s annual property lunch at the London Hilton on Park Lane on Friday, raising £470,000 for the charity which supports and empowers neurodiverse children, their families and people with neurodevelopmental disabilities.
The event featured broadcaster Nick Ferrari in conversation with guest speaker Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, who said that “without organisations like Norwood, an awful lot of youngsters would be underserved.”
With the charity depending on £12 million in voluntary donations, its honorary vice president Mark Pollack paid tribute to the “overwhelming” support the organisation has received from the property industry since the event’s inception in 1999.
Honorary life president Ronnie Harris spoke of funding for Norwood’s services coming “under the most serious pressure in decade…as we continue to try to redress the gap between the available government funding and the cost of our current provision”.
Addressing the crowded room, Norwood client Jill Slotnick spoke of the isolation she experienced raising her son Eden, diagnosed as a baby with chromosomal disorder Partial Trisomy 9P, which would result in global developmental delay.
Guests at Norwood annual property lunch, June 2025 Sharon Green Photographic
Having been told by doctors to “take him home and love him”, she said: “When a family member mentioned Norwood to me when Eden was two and a half, I opened the door on a community I never knew existed and which would be my rock through difficult times, becoming Eden’s family as he grew into adulthood and found his own independence.”
Norwood Property Lunch June 2025. Pic: Amber Pollack Photography
She added: “They say it takes a village to raise a child, and in our case, it took Norwood. They’ve always been there for us throughout Eden’s childhood.”
Only Norwood’s adult residential services and short break services for children with neurodevelopmental disabilities receive any kind of statutory funding.
