Launching a Military Charity
When Nikki Scott created military charity, Scotty’s Little Soldiers following the death of her husband, she had only one thing in mind: to make sure no bereaved military child or young person felt alone or forgotten.
Over a decade later, Scotty’s supports more than 600 bereaved military families, with the charity’s long-term goal being to support 1,000 bereaved military children annually by 2030.
Here, Nikki explains how Scotty’s Little Soldiers went from her own personal passion project to a charitable organisation that supports hundreds of bereaved British Forces children around the world.
Scotty's founder, Nikki
The day my world fell apart
My husband, Corporal Lee Scott, was killed in Afghanistan in 2009. Lee was part of the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment and totally loved his job, being part of a team and making a difference.
When I was told Lee had died, my world fell apart. I just felt completely alone and had no idea how I was meant to carry on without him. The most painful thing was knowing our two children would have to go through life without their daddy. Our daughter, Brooke, was just 7 months old and would have no memories of him. Our son, Kai, was 5 years old, and I now had the horrendous task of telling him his daddy was never coming home.
Corporal Lee Scott
A charity for bereaved military children
Lee was buried in King’s Lynn, as that’s where our families were, but myself and Lee’s friends still lived in the garrison in Tidworth, and I wanted something we could visit easily as well. We did a 50K walk to raise money for a memorial bench, but people were so generous that afterwards we still had £5000 left over. I wanted to give the money to a charity that combined both the military and children, as those were the two most important things in Lee’s life, but I couldn’t really find anything that resonated with me. That’s when I first had the idea to start something myself, but at that moment in time, I was in a very dark place and wasn't in the right frame of mind.
It stayed that way until nine months after Lee’s death when, while on a family holiday, something clicked. I was sat watching Kai in the pool, laughing and smiling with his cousins, and I could see my old Kai returning. I realised that I hadn’t seen him laugh like that in months. It was a real turning point for me. I suddenly realised that I needed to sort myself out and show the children that life was for living and that’s what Daddy would have wanted.
Kai and Brooke visiting Lee's memorial bench
Helping more children smile
I immediately knew that I wanted to help bereaved military children and young people, like my two children. I'd also had a visiting officer actually say to me that, if I were ever to start something, to not limit it to children whose parents died in Afghanistan. He had a friend who’d returned from tour and died in a road accident two weeks later, but the professional support his family received wasn’t the same as those who were killed in action.
I had lots of help from friends and family, and there were a lot of forms to fill out – the wording and terminology had to be spot on – but we were eventually able to register Scotty’s Little Soldiers and get our charity number.
Kai smiling on a family holiday
Making it official
We held a launch party in Tidworth, where I was still living, and had a fundraiser at the same time. Local press covered the story and we ended up getting a decent amount of attention. As well as money, lots of people actually donated toys for the children, which gave me the idea to send gifts to bereaved military children on their birthday and at Christmas, as these can be especially difficult times.
I never realised how much it would take over my life, even though looking back it seems obvious. The difference is that, back then, I was still grieving and I just wanted to keep busy. Every moment I could, I would be contacting families, looking at where they needed the support, working out how to raise more money. My brother was really involved as well, and so were my friends and the rest of my family, all volunteering to help out around their day jobs. We all wanted to keep the momentum going.
Even now, I don't ever think about how big I want Scotty's to become. It's about the need. Scotty's will be as big as it needs to be in order to provide bereaved military child with outstanding support. My original goal was just to raise enough money to buy a holiday home for our families to have a respite break. As I spoke to more and more of our families, though, it became clear there were other times of year, like the anniversary of a parent’s death, where these children needed support. That’s kind of where the SMILES Programme started.
Brooke in a Scotty's Little Soldiers hoodie
A community for bereaved military children
Shortly after Lee was killed, two Army widows messaged me through Facebook and said their husbands had also died – one in Iraq, the other Afghanistan – and that if I ever needed someone to chat to, just ping them a message. I was so grateful to them for reaching out to me, and after chatting for a while I told them about my idea for what would eventually become Scotty’s. They were 100% on board and both said it’s something they would join. They also knew other bereaved military families, which meant we started to get people hearing about us just through word of mouth.
Lee and his son, Kai
Scotty’s first Christmas party
Scotty’s first Christmas party was in 2013 at Alton Towers and it was such a special day. I was never interested in hiring a community centre or something like that – these families had been through one of the worst things a family can endure and driven a long way to be there. Attention to detail was, and still is, absolutely key for me. I remember what it felt like to go and meet other widows and all the feelings that go with that, so I wanted to make it as smooth and easy as possible for our families. To this day, I try and make sure that the team understand what that’s like. It takes guts to come along, especially if it’s your first time. Because of that, it’s so important that our families feel supported from the moment they hear about the Christmas party, right up until they’re driving home.
A Scotty Member having fun at one of our Christmas parties
Watching the charity grow
I'll never forget the first time I saw a Scotty’s sticker on a stranger’s car. Normally, if I saw anything to do with Scotty’s outside of work, it had been put there by one of my friends or family. It was a surreal feeling. I also remember a time when someone walked right past me and my daughter wearing a Scotty hoodie, and they had no idea who we were, yet the charity clearly meant a lot to them. Moments like that are amazing.
Eventually, me and my brother, who had been heavily involved in creating the charity and had been a trustee since the beginning, quit our jobs to focus on Scotty’s full-time. We stopped working from my kitchen and got our first office. It was super scary but a massive moment for both of us and we’ve not looked back since.
Nikki with her brother, Stuart, and son, Kai
My advice to anyone setting up a charity
Really think about it first, because it will take over your life, especially if it’s personal to you and a cause you're passionate about. You have to love it. On the other side of that, if the charity reaches a significant size, you also need to be prepared to let other people in and trust them to do important work.
The Scotty's team at Robertson Barracks
Hiring our first Team Member
It was eye-opening for me when Scotty’s hired our first new member of the team. I obviously felt protective over all we’d done up to that point, but I didn’t have the skills to take the charity any further on my own. Letting someone else take control over certain things and seeing the positive difference it made was a big moment, and helped me focus on elements of the charity I was better placed to deal with. It’s all about what’s best for the children and young people we support, at the end of the day.
Nikki and the team at our 2023 Get Stuff Done Day
My favourite thing about Scotty’s
The most rewarding part is 100% when the children and young people we support tell us about the difference it’s made and how they want to give something back. We recently had a Springboarder join our Springboard Council for that reason, where they can help guide the direction we take and the support we offer other 18–25-year-olds going forward. They weren’t even a young person who had been to loads of Scotty’s events or attended many Christmas parties, so for them to be motivated to join the Council just from receiving gifts, going on the odd break and knowing Scotty’s is here if they need it meant a lot. It showed me that we’re doing the right things to make our Members and Springboarders feel supported and really having a positive impact on their lives. From the second I came up with Scotty’s that has always been the driving force behind the charity, and that will never change.
Scotty Members attending the London Remembrance Parade
If you are the parent or carer of a bereaved military child or young person, click here.
If you work with bereaved children & young people, click here.
If you are a bereaved young person seeking support, click here.
