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Famous... who might that be?

In May we were able to purchase Best magazine and on a page spread we learnt about Carolanne Anderson’s family way up there in Scotland. And what a super family they are too. All 6 children suffer from HME.

Their story was also in a Scottish Newspaper, The Daily Record, earlier in the year and this brought us many new members in time for the Edinburgh Meeting.

A big thank you to Carolanne and all her family.

Fundraising

Oxford High School
Every class in our school pick a charity to hold fundraisers for throughout the school year. Our class, 8O, chose HME as our charity, along with one other. We decided to split the money we raised between the two.

Most classes held cake sales and competitions but our class decided to do our money raiser outside of school. In the Christmas holidays from the 14th December to Christmas Eve we wrapped presents for Christmas shoppers in Borders, the bookshop. We had three girls on three-hour shifts (although some girls did three shifts in a row!) and either sat at a table wrapping presents or s on three-hour shifts (although some girls did three shifts in a row!) and either sat at a table wrapping presents or stood at the door advertising for customers. They donated however much money they wanted to, though this wasn’t a wise way to do it as one less generous man only donated 30p. We wrapped a lot of unusual presents ranging from 4ft long fishing rods, real diamond ashtrays, golf clubs, bulky military jackets and huge framed maps of parts of the Shire out of Lord of the Rings. All of these were only on my shifts.

It was quite hard work to wrap the fishing rod but we found it good practice for Christmas. All of the girls who joined in on the event had a great time and when there weren’t any customers they just chattered over hot chocolate from the Starbucks next door.

We raised around one hundred pounds a day (mostly, as we found, from men who couldn’t wrap a present to save their life.) In total over the 10 days that we worked, we raised £1,052.92. £526.46 goes to the HME fund. Everyone was astounded at the result and realised just how generous people in Oxford are.

All the girls had a great time and were pleased to help the two charities.

Catherine Small

Many thanks to everyone in 8O at Oxford High School.

We have had a “record breaking” amount of money donated to the Group since our last newsletter in the autumn of 2003. Thank you so much to everyone involved.

Mrs A Brown’s friend Janine raised £110 through Webb Ivory Catalogue sales – thank you.

Roxy Searle’s teacher, Miss C Gibbard, donated £20.00 – thank you.

Dr George Gray raised £200.00 via his hobby of building, upgrading and repairing computers for family, friends and work colleagues. Many thanks to George for his continued support and also to his brother-in-law, John who has helped enormously.

The London Law Trust awarded us a grant of £1,000 towards the cost of the Edinburgh Seminar – very gratefully received.

Tina Read and Natalie Glascott made and sold Christmas cards and raised an amazing £120.00 – thank you for all the hard work.

Barbara Gibbs, George’s grandmother, donated £20.00 and supports us so much in our work – thank you.

£228.40 was donated in memory of Mr Ben Nicholls, Thomas’ grandfather – many thanks to everyone who contributed. This includes £53.00 from the Hitchin Priory Probus Club which is much appreciated.

A New Year’s Eve Village Dance organised by Tony Hart and supported by Barbara Gibbs raised a super £367.35 – many thanks to everyone who took part.

Mr and Mrs F Plowman, Roxy Searle’s friends, donated £100.00 – thank you so much!

£180.00 was donated in memory of Daphne Medcraft – many thanks to everyone involved.

On the 9th February, Helen Beeston hosted a vegetarian feast for friends and requested donations instead of birthday gifts. She raised an amazing £75.00 – a big thank you to Helen and her family and friends.

Ardeley St Lawrence Church of England Primary School collected £75.00 which they donated to our cause – thank you so much.

Roxy Searle played Fizzy in a production of Bugsy Malone in February and £76.00 was raised through the sale of carnations at the performances. Thanks Roxy and everyone else involved!

Cathy Small and her classmates wrapped Christmas presents in Oxford City Centre and raised an amazing £530.00 – that’s a lot of wrapping! Many thanks to all involved. (See Cathy’s report above.)

Chris Gibbs – George’s uncle – recently married Rebecca and they decided to ask guests to make a donation to the HMESG rather than buy them a wedding present! They raised £275.00 for the Group in this way. An enormous thank you to Chris and Rebecca and to all who contributed.
 

Chris and Rebecca's wedding

Wendy Aynsley forfeited her 40th birthday presents and asked for donations to the HMESG instead. She raised an incredible £100.00. A big thank you to Wendy and her family and friends.

The Comrie Pollock Law Partnership in Stirling donated £50.00 – many thanks for your continued support!

Michelle and Peter McKenna and The McKindless Group have made a generous donation of £500.00 – thank you so much.

Carole Barrington made a personal donation of £11.00 which is much appreciated along with her support.

We have received a staggering £790 in memory of Mr Roger Carter. This was raised by way of donations from many family, friends and colleagues in lieu of flowers.

Mr Carter died on 1 April after a short illness. He was the well known founder and principal of Messrs Rogers, Carter and Brown Estate Agents of Pencoed. He was also a founder member of the Bridgend and District Property News and was its Chairman and Managing Director for seven years. Over the years, Roger had become closely identified with the community, not only because of his long established and respected business but also for being particularly active on behalf of a variety of charities and civic affairs. Roger had also held the position of South Wales Branch Chairman of the National Association of Estate Agents and later became National Chairman. He will be greatly missed.

Our sincere thanks to everyone who made donations and especially to Mrs Mary Carter and Neil, Kathryn, Chloe and Kerys Carter.

Tracey Ferguson raised £70.00 by organising a raffle – Thank you to Tracey and Sheffield Insulations.

The raffle, organised by Dawn, at our Edinburgh Seminar raised £43.00. Pen sales on the day raised £20.00 and we collected £22.77 by way of donations. Thank you to everyone who took part.

Jackie Edwards made a personal donation of £10.00 – thank you for your continued support Jackie!

Richard Lockyer donated £50.00 and there is a nice story behind this! Richard works with one of our members, Christina (Lily’s mum). Christina is an Art Teacher and just before Easter she asked her classes to paint an original design on eggs for a competition. In jest Richard asked if one could be painted of him and was delighted to find that Christina, over a weekend, had painted a goose egg with a nice image of himself!! Richard was so impressed that he wanted to donate some money to Christina’s chosen charity and we were lucky enough to be on the receiving end. Thank you so much to Richard and to Christina.

We also have donations from time to time from members who would rather not appear in the newsletter – a big thank you to those who are not mentioned here and also to anyone we may have inadvertently missed off the list.

We are delighted with the donations we are receiving. As many of you know, the Group is run by a small number of hard working volunteers and we rely on donations to continue our work, supporting those affected by HME. Your support does make a difference and we would like to thank you most sincerely.

Sponsored Walk

Hello everyone I thought you would like to know how the sponsored walk went. Still counting and collecting the money so once I have the total I will let you know.

Well what an eventful day we had with seven of my family members deciding to do the 13 bridges of London on Sunday the 9th May. The weather was sunny and we had a great time.

I must tell you that the night before the walk I went to my good friend’s Sue’s surprise 50th party and took my sponsor form with me (you can’t miss a good opportunity like that). The form got passed around by my friend’s mother; she was great and got the money off them there and then. A total of £94.50 was collected that night so I want to thank them for being so charitable.

On the way out we took eight gold helium balloons with us to take on the walk and we certainly got noticed:

Dawn (second from left) with her family

I designed some T-shirts for the walk and it helped to show people we meant business. I also took a charity bucket, shakers and group leaflets round with us and asked a few hundred people to help HMESG, some gave and quite a few learned what HME is and what we were about. Just in the collection that day we raised £84. I found a lot of people were very interested in where the money was going too and gave at least £1 when they knew we were registered , but they found it hard to accept that we are not receiving any money from the government. (Us too.)

We did the walk in 3 hours 45 minutes, 15 miles in total and arrived at a pub to be picked up by the coach (and have a quick drink HIC!!) But it didn’t stop there - on the way to the ladies I had to take my shaker with me and people where stopping me and putting money in.

I would just like to say a big thank you to all the HME members that have got sponsors for me and to my local friends for supporting me. We might be getting a computer donated to us, so if that is the case this money will go towards the next big conference.

Dawn (Fundraiser) xxx

Your Committee

This is the spot where in each issue you can meet a different committee member and learn a bit about them...

Hi there! Well I’m Dawn Searle the fund raiser of the group. I have met quite a few of you and for those I haven’t met, I promise you wont forget me when you do. Where ever I go in my day to day life I’m always thinking about how to raise money for HME.

It must be rubbing off from me as our young daughter Roxy (9yrs) is a budding actress who recently starred in Bugsy Malone as Fizzy at the De Havilland theatre in February. She was fantastic by the way; she asked the director if they could raise money for HME, so they came up with the idea to sell carnations on the two nights and raised £76.00 and we also got a mention in the program.  Nice one Roxy, well done!

I had a Halloween Disco in the village Hall a couple of days after Halloween. Why I hear you ask? Well, I went round the supermarkets and asked if I could have all their decorations, balloons, banners, ghosts, spiders, etc. So the hall looked fantastic and didn't cost us a penny.  It was also lovely to see Deb (editor), John and their family who came to support the event and help. We all had a great time and raised over £300.00.

Paul my hubby and I also took our two children Rob and Roxy to see Busted at Wembley on 14th March and took the opportunity to pester the security guards to hand over a letter to Busted explaining about HME and can they help us with fund raising? I’m still waiting for a reply but my motto is "If you don’t ask, you won’t get".

My local shops in the town of Stevenage all know me very well and normally ask me "What do I want now?" when I see them. They are all so supportive.

I am so lucky and proud to be part of a great committee. We all work very hard for our members to give you up to date information and support. I love the job of fund raising as I like a challenge and my main aim in life is to help anyone I can. I love my family dearly and after Paul my hubby having a stroke in July 2002 it has made us realize how precious life is.

I could be here all day telling you about what I get up too but I don’t want to bore you all so let this be a lesson to you: if you don’t write any pieces for the next newsletter...

I'LL BE BACK !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lots of love Dawn xxxxxxx

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