Activity Boost

These grants support adults and children with cystic fibrosis to boost their activity and fitness levels when they are going through a difficult time with their health.

You can apply for gym membership, activity classes, or personal training sessions. Your CF specialist physiotherapist or the exercise professional on your CF team must agree that this is a good type of exercise to help with your CF, so talk to them before you apply.

Grants are looked at by in independent grant panel who make decisions on the applications. The panel meets every 2 months.

If you want to apply for a grant for exercise equipment, please take a look at our health and wellbeing grants instead.

We take applications from adults or children with CF who are under the care of a UK-based CF team, have a diagnosis of CF, and are on a low income or can’t afford this type of exercise themselves.

We can only accept applications from people who will benefit most from short-term support with physical activity. This is usually people who are on the transplant list or are recovering from transplant, or those who have been very unwell recently. We ask you to tell us about this on this form.

The applicant, their parent/carer, partner or a member of their CF team can complete the application form.  On the form, the ‘applicant’ is always the person living with cystic fibrosis. If the applicant is over 18, they need to be made aware that the application is being made for them.

We cannot accept applications for memberships/classes that have already been booked or purchased.

Please read the information on this page. Once you have done this, please download and complete the application form.

Download the application form

Our Helpline team can support you if you have any questions or need any help filling in the form.

Please email applications to [email protected].

You can apply for up to £350. We will ask you to tell us how many months of gym membership or sessions of training/activity this would fund.

Local council gyms can offer good value for money, and lots of gyms and exercise providers offer discounts for people with disabilities or long-term health conditions so it’s worth asking them about this.

Please contact us before you apply if the membership/sessions/activity you are applying for the grant to fund costs more than £350 as we are not usually able to part-fund.

Yes. Please include evidence of costs for the membership/sessions/activity. This can be a link to a webpage, a screenshot, photo, formal quote, or price list. If this is not included, the application won’t be taken to the panel for a decision.

Yes. The supporting statement needs to be completed by your specialist CF physiotherapist or an exercise professional who is part of your CF team (the endorser) and emailed to us from their professional email account. You can also send your completed application with the endorsement to us and we’ll contact the endorser to check they provided the supporting statement.

Our panel consider the endorsement carefully when making their decisions. It should provide more details about how the membership/sessions/activity will boost activity levels and why this intervention is so important for the applicant at this particular time. General information, for example, on the benefits of exercise for people living with CF, will not be enough for the panel to give a grant. This is due to our limited budget.

When we receive an application we do some initial checks to make sure the application meets our criteria and that we have all the information we need.  All applications must also have an endorsement and evidence of costs before they can be taken to the panel.

If any information is missing or we can’t accept the application we will contact the applicant or parent/carer to let them know. We may also contact the endorser for further information.

The applications are anonymised before being taken to our independent panel for assessment. The panel meets every two months, and our panel members have a detailed knowledge and understanding of cystic fibrosis. They will consider whether to provide a grant based on the applicant’s CF health and the need for them to be able to boost their activity levels and/or their confidence in exercising. They will also look at whether the professional who supports the application can help the applicant make the most of the grant and put a plan in place to help them stay active when the grant period ends.

Meetings are in January, March, May, July, September and November each year.

Upcoming panel dates:
Thursday 16th May 2024. Application deadline is Tuesday 7th May 2024.

We inform applicants and endorsers of the outcome within two weeks of the panel date.

If the application is successful, payment will be made two to four weeks after the panel date. If bank account details are not included in the application this will delay payment being made.

Activity Boost grants provide short-term help to boost activity levels and build fitness and confidence in exercising. If your application is successful you won’t be able to reapply at the end of the grant period and you will not be able to apply for another Activity Boost grant for three years.

 If you do apply again in the future, we might have to prioritise people who have not received previous grant support from us.

Yes. We are happy to consider reapplications if there is extra information you’d like to add or if your CF health has changed.

We will contact you after you receive the grant to request a copy of a receipt/proof of purchase. We might also ask for feedback or offer other support. If you do not provide a receipt/proof of purchase you may not be able to apply for grants from us again in the future.

We will contact you and the professional who endorsed the grant to find out more about the difference the grant has made for you after 3-12 months.

Yes. Please contact our Helpline if you have any questions or need any help applying for a grant.