Little Grace

By Damian Slack. Grace's dad.

My partner, Tina, and I stayed at The Sick Children’s Trust’s Guilford Street House for nearly a month (from April 25 to May 24, 2010) whilst our daughter Grace was being treated at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH). She was just 14 months old.

Grace was initially based at our local hospital, Hillingdon Hospital in Uxbridge, with a preliminary diagnosis of pneumonia and a heart murmur. But in less than 24 hours she began to deteriorate so badly that she had to be transferred to GOSH where she underwent emergency surgery to replace her aortic valve and repair her mitral and pulmonary valves.

During surgery, further complications arose and after a seven and a half hour operation Grace was returned to intensive care in a very poorly condition, so poorly in fact that further emergency surgery was conducted in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU). She would remain on this ward for an additional three days with her chest open to aid the swelling and reduce the pressure on her heart.

During this time, all my partner and I could think about was Grace. Our state of mind, as you can imagine, was all over the place and the last thing we wanted to do was leave Grace for even one moment – especially with her being in such a fragile state.

We heard about The Sick Children’s Trust through the accommodation department at GOSH. As Grace was in CICU we were unable to remain with her during the operation, ward rounds, evenings and nights and staying at Guilford Street was an important part of our time in the hospital. It gave us a stable base where we could discuss the events of the day and be together through what we both agree was the hardest time in our lives.

Allowing Tina and me to stay together meant we were able to be there for Grace, knowing that at any point the ward could call us on the room phone or our mobiles and we could be by her side in moments. We were so close to the hospital, we were able to go back for the observations and medications every two hours but also had the normality of being in a house.

One of the best things about having the ‘Home from Home’ at Guilford Street was when we wanted to bring our other children up to visit Grace. We would all meet at the house initially where we would sit down in the lounge and prepare the children for visiting their sister for the first time. This allowed us the opportunity to explain to them what all the machines and tubes were prior to them seeing her.

Another positive from being in the house is that every person staying there has a story to tell and is also at differing stages of treatment/progress during their stay. We met a few families, some of whom helped us get through the long nights of waiting by chatting together over a cup of tea or watching television in the lounge.

There was one family in particular that we became close to, Phil and Tony, who have a 17 month old daughter with leukaemia. In fact, we became such good friends and went through a lot together that they have asked us to be their daughter’s godparents when this is all over.

One of our main dreams from day one in the house, after seeing the children’s breakfast bar in the kitchen, the lounge and the playroom with all the toys, was to bring Grace back to the house and enjoy them. Towards the end of the last week, this was something we found great comfort in.

Our house manager was also fantastic and genuinely cared. Tina knew all of the families’ and children’s names and the condition they were suffering and would regularly ask for updates and had a good ear for listening. She always would make time for a chat and was a dab hand at making the tea while we were back at the house doing washing or waiting for Grace to wake up.

Grace has now been diagnosed with Takayasu's arteritis – an inflammatory disease with unknown causes – and is looking to spend a long while yet recovering. With many more visits to Great Ormond Street Hospital in the pipeline, it is reassuring to know that Guilford Street house will be there to support us should we need it.

Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah!

What a fun day we all had on Saturday 19 June, 2010. Lydia Solomon, community fundraiser, and PR and marketing Manager, Sarah Wallace, were joined by six of our supporters at Upton Park, the home of West Ham United, for an afternoon of exhilarating zip sliding!

The sun was shining as Jolene Cowlbeck, Keith Allen, Jackie Hammond, James Barry and Paul and Leon Woodhouse. took to the ground’s upper stands and kitted up for the 100 yard long zip across the pitch. The strong wind made for an extra exciting kick to the adrenaline which was no doubt already pumping in all those participating.

Our very own Stevenson house manager, Joan Coker, also decide to have a go as a special birthday treat, that, and as a life long West Ham supporter she couldn’t miss this unique opportunity!

The event was run by Zip Slide UK and the team did a fantastic job of calming everyone’s nerves as well as getting them excited about what lay ahead of them. We were joined by a number of other charities on the day, including a wildlife one whose supporters all dressed up as gorillas (that was quite the sight to see!)

The final money count isn’t in yet, but we are looking at raising in excess of £700, which is brilliant considering it was quite a small event.

Thanks again to everyone who was involved. We hope you enjoyed the day as much as we did.

Virgin London Marathon (with a difference)

By Lydia Solomon, Community Fundraiser

The Set-up

The London Marathon is our most important day of the year for sports fundraising, and what a day it was - 14 runners, one proposal and a very happy Community Fundraiser!

Preparations for the event began last September, when we were finally allocated our precious Golden Bond places. We had seven this year due to a couple of runners having carried over their places after suffering injuries in 2009 and it wasn’t long before the applications started flooding in.

After days of reading through the applications and making some tough decisions, we finally allocated our Golden Bond places to those who we were confident would do a good job.

The other runners were made up of those lucky enough to get their own place through the general ballot. It is always touching when people decide they want to raise money for us over all the other charities out there, so I was very grateful for this.

Fundraising and preparations

And so The Sick Children's Trust London Marathon team was formed and what a good bunch they were! Fundraising began straight away with online sponsorship pages being set up left, right and centre and fundraising materials being sent out regularly.

Unfortunately we had a couple of runners drop out due to injury, but with training of this intensity this is to be expected and these runners have both pledged to use their deferred place to raise money for us next year.

A couple of months before the big day my attentions turned to plans for a charity presence on the day. This is always a big job, as when there are 35,000 runners and over double that number in spectators to take into consideration, there is a lot to think about! I was lucky enough to have my wonderful colleagues offer to help out on the day, so that was one less thing to worry about.

We decided to set up a cheering point near the mile 12 marker so that we could give runners a much needed boost half way round. This would then be followed by a meet and greet at the finish and a post-Marathon reception at a restaurant near the finish line.

So once I had briefed my army of willing volunteers and let our runners know exactly where we would be, I was ready.

The Big Day

Before I knew it, it was April 25th and the day of the Marathon had arrived! Up bright and early I headed to Bermondsey to our cheer point. My boyfriend Gregg, who was also running the Marathon for our charity, travelled into central London with me but we parted ways at Waterloo as he nervously went off to get his train to Greenwich.

I couldn’t have been happier with the turn out at the cheering point. All my colleagues had their Sick Children’s Trust t-shirts on and were waving balloons and a few had brought friends and family. Plus lots of my friends and Gregg’s family had shown up to cheer him on and the father of one of our other runners was there as well so we had a good crowd.

At about 10:30am the marathon masses started to make their way to mile 12 and we had a great time cheering people on, even those who weren’t running for us. Everyone was happy, music was being blasted out from the windows of nearby flats and the atmosphere was electric!

The proposal

Then came the moment that I’ll remember for the rest of my life. My boyfriend, Gregg, had wanted to know specifically where we would be so that he could come over and say hello quickly as he passed. When he finally appeared he did just that, but instead of saying his quick hello before running off, he got down on one knee and produced a diamond ring from the back pocket of his shorts! I was overcome with shock and I was so caught up in the moment that I almost forgot to say yes, until Gregg said that I had better say yes or else he was going get a cramp staying on one knee! So I did and he ran off to finish the race.

But the story took a dramatic turn when Gregg collapsed half a mile before the finish. His body had overheated, with his core temperature rising to over 40 degrees and his heart rate reaching 220 bpm! After two hours of ice-packs and popping jelly babies, Gregg was given the devastating news that because he had not technically finished he would not be getting a medal. But after months of training this was not an option for him so he convinced them to take him back to where he had collapsed so that he could finish. With a bit of help he triumphantly hobbled across the line in an overall time of 6:34:16 (although he was on for a time of just four hours before he had collapsed).

A happy ending

Happily, all of our runners finished and with some really good times. We then treated them to a top notch buffet at the Mint Leaf restaurant on the Haymarket where they were also offered sports massages.

So all in all I’m really happy with our London Marathon 2010, our runners enjoyed themselves and so far we have raised more than £24,000 - Bring on 2011!

Now Gregg and I need to start our own fundraising to pay for our wedding!

Spring Ball at The Hurlingham Club

The Sick Children's Trust was enormously lucky to be nominated as the first charity to receive support from the recently formed company "Charity Events Ltd". This committee, of five passionate and inspiring friends, has spent the last six months tapping into their personal and business contacts alike, to pulled together what was a stunningly successful ball at the exclusive Hurlingham Club in London.

The event was organised in honour of an eleven year old girl called Georgia, who has been fighting a brain tumour over the past year. During this time, her family have stayed at Acorn House, The Sick Children's Trust's "home from home" in Cambridge and the Spring Ball highlighted her bravery throughout this battle.

The event was hosted by radio and television presenter, Gabby Logan, and guests included her husband and Scottish international Rugby Union player, Kenny Logan, along with Strictly Come Dancing star, Karen Hardy, and, of course, Georgia herself.

With 300 guests and 28 auction prizes, the evening was a fundraising hit and brought in a staggering profit of £62,000 for The Sick Children's Trust!

We are hugely grateful for "Charity Events Ltd" for undertaking this enormous challenge and for creating a fun and memorial evening for everyone who attended. Thank you so much for your support!

A magical evening by Rob Clark, Corporate Fundraiser

Hey presto!

It was ‘A Magic Moment’ once again last week for The Sick Children’s Trust when The Magic Circle Headquarters kindly opened its doors to our trustees and their invited guests. Not even a torrential downpour could discourage our supporters as they made their way to the champagne reception. Claudette, Jane, Suzanne and I made sure our guests were made to feel welcome and were not denied the opportunity to buy a raffle ticket or two!

On the stroke of 8pm we were invited to watch The Magic Show, a 45 minute exercise in complete bewilderment. How can a marked £20 note end up inside of a lemon? How did the mind reader know that the guy in the third row was thinking of the number 77? He asked a lady in the front row to think of the name of her first boyfriend , she did and he guessed Peter and he was right but how did he know? How ever it was done, it was done well and with slick one liners that kick started what was to be a great night for our charity.

After The Magic Show everyone was invited to sit down for the evening meal and our guests enjoyed the full Mosimann effect with some table magic thrown in from magicians Neil, Graham and James. The wine was fantastic and generously donated by our trustee Gary Boom, another contributory factor to the success of the evening.

The time seemed to fly by as the wine and conversation flowed but just as the coffee was being served the call went up for more raffle tickets: so we obliged. Entire books of £100 were starting to disappear just like magic (no pun intended!) After the prize draw we asked our multi tasking magician/host James Freedman to begin the auction. The bidding began slowly but with James on the microphone the pace began to quicken and by the time we reached the lots for 'Make A Child Smile’ the arms were waving and the heads were nodding. These lots are always popular as it provides the winning bidders with an opportunity to accompany a group of children’s entertainers on a visit to hospitals such as The Royal London , Addenbrooke’s and Sheffield Children’s Hospital.

So well done to our events executive, Suzanne, the evening was a real success and we managed to raise a whopping £60,000 for The SCT. Our little team of Claudette, Jane, Suzy and myself were tired at the end of the night but pleased with the result. A special thanks to our trustee James Rigby who treated the four of us to a full Mosimanns and the best steak I’ve ever had. So well done and thank you to everyone involved for a great FUN-draising evening.

Our Great Yorkshire Dinner Party

by Laura Burton, hostess of a Sick Children's Trust Great Yorkshire Dinner Party

We held a Great Yorkshire Dinner Party to boost funds towards The Big Move appeal. Having learnt that this local ‘Home from Home’ is moving to Leeds General Infirmary in May 2010 and that is costing £1.7 million, we thought we’d get involved!

We are two late twenty somethings and love going for dinner with friends, so this was the perfect way in which to rasie funds for a great cause. We wanted to do a pre-christmas meal so held a dinner party with a twist: a Xmas Xfactor Xtravaganza! We tied it in with the finale of Xfactor complete with masks and impersonations. However, there could only be one mask for us hosts, Simon Cowell of course (minus the high waisted trousers!)

We laid the table with Christmas crackers, candles, heart shaped lollipops and party poppers (and of course a bottle of vino or two) and our guests arrived at 7pm. We made it clear they were to have a restaurant experience, whereby they paid a set price of £15 for our delicious menu and in return we would run around after them all.

Upon arrival our guests had smoked salmon and brie heure d'oeuvres and a glass of champers and a very warm welcome. We did a brief chat about The Sick Children’s Trust and where the guests' money was going. We sat down in time for the powerful music that welcomes in the judges and made everyone one aware of the rules, fines were to be paid for talking through the songs or for being cheeky to the waitresses! Everyone donned their masks and slipped in to character (some a little bit too much!)

Then we prepared our main course of homemade turkey curry, naan and samosas. It went down a treat, “more drinks anyone?” as we topped up everyone’s half filled glasses! Snippets of conversations included a mixed opinion of George Michael's duet with Joe McElderry and Robbie’s (off que) rendition of Angels with the lovely Olly Murrs. We were watching like hawks to increase our fundraising, hoping more people would speak during the songs!

Dessert was a fresh chocolate biscuit bake with homemade champagne jelly; you could tell the bubbles had a profound effect! This got us all in the mood for musical chairs, musical statues and a dancing competition… you’re only as old as you feel!

We raised £185 for a night we will never forget; not bad considering we had so much fun in the process! Paying it was easy: we just logged on to The Sick Children’s Trust website and voila, paid online!

Christmas Cheer

Our Events Executive, Suzanne Patrick, updates us on A Christmas Quiz.

As the events executive here at The Sick Children's Trust, it's not really surprising that I love all things festive and joyously embraced the opportunity to put on our first Christmas Quiz in London. However, I was truly amazed that at the enthusiasm for others to get involved and by those who dressed up for the occasion...

Preparations started in full in November, once the Big Chocolate Tea Party campaign drew to a close. There were questions to be written, prizes to be found and most importantly guests to be invited.

Here in London, we've always found it tricky to fill venues. There are just so many different events taking place every night of the week and even the most ardent supporters can't always attend. So we were delighted when tables started confirming and over sixty eager quizzers reserved their places at The Wine Tun.

Surprisingly, finding prizes proved to be the easiest part. Ping Pong and The Real Greek restaurant chains generously donated vouchers for first and second place, whilst comedy club Fymfyg once again came up trumps and sent us tickets for third. The hardest part was actually writing the quiz itself: the questions always seem so much easier when you have the answers in front of you and it's not until you watch people on the night that you know if you have got it right or not!

Fortunately, everyone had a brilliant time and promises to return again next year. A warm welcome on the door by our very own Christmas presents, Sarah and Karen, quickly set the tone for the evening, whilst Chris Fitchew from Beau Productions proved to be a hilarious quizmaster.

The good news is that the Christmas Quiz is now available to download from our website and you can put your family, friends and colleagues to the test!

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas, Suzanne

Topping out for the Big Move

Our House Operations Manager, Sue Cartwright, gives us an update on the Big Move Appeal.

Photo Caption: (L-R) Matthew Parsons with our Patron , Christopher Timothy.

Our new house refurbishment at the LGI in Leeds is progressing well and with the new roof near to completion we held a 'Topping Out' ceremony to mark the occasion. One of our patrons, Christopher Timothy agreed to be part of the photo shoot along with the Parson family who have used Eckersley House many times during their son Matthew's illness and treatment at St. James's.

I prayed long and hard that we would have a dry and sunny day as up on the roof there would be little shelter should a November wind decide to blow....my prayers were answered and we were rewarded with a good day!

We all donned our high vis vests, boots and hard hats and the photo shoot began! Christopher and Matthew were stars and very patient during the many photo poses on the ground and up above.

It was a great day and good to meet Christopher who has supported our charity for many years. He was immensely impressed by the new building and how big it will be. He, like the rest of us, can't wait for the day we cut the tape and open the doors so many more families, like the Parsons, can benefit from our work.

Thanks to everyone involved including Jennifer Middleton, The Parsons and the staff from William Birch Ltd and of course Christopher.

A day in the life of...

A day in the life of The Sick Children’s Trust Corporate Fundraiser, Rob Clark (right, with his sons).

6.45am Rise and Shine! but hark what’s that appalling noise filling the room? Could it be the latest appalling offering from a ‘Britain’s Got Another Celebrity X Factor So Get Me Outta Here’ finalist? Oh no it’s my dodgy radio alarm blaring out interference as it struggles to find the right channel. Whatever, I’m awake now and raring to go and in a single bound I crawl out of bed and prepare for work with near military precision. I can hear my wife Mary asking if I have my train pass, keys, sandwiches etc etc …to which I mutter ‘of course !’ and then spend the next 10 minutes frantically searching for these elusive items. It’s as if these objects take joy in hiding from me in broad daylight only to appear when Mary turns up! With essentials in place I grab my bag and the last slice of toast, kiss the wife and kids goodbye and head for the train.

7.30am Good news, the train is on time - must be my lucky day. It’s not long before I arrive in Whitechapel and the noise level increases as an Air Ambulance hovers over The Royal London Hospital.

8.45am A short walk later and I arrive at Head Office which is situated next door to Stevenson House our ‘Homes from Home’ supporting families with sick children receiving treatment in The Royal London Hospital. First things first and on goes the kettle, then I draw up a rough plan for the day and check with my weekly / monthly schedule to prioritise my workload. On this particular day the top of the list is meeting preparations for my forthcoming visits to Bridgewater Place in Leeds and Yorkshire Building Society in Sheffield.

My aim as Corporate Fundraiser is to build long term partnerships where ever possible, I like to make verbal contact at bare minimum but face to face meetings are best. This is more important now than it has ever been as we work through tough economic times. Corporate Fundraising has been hit and donations have been scaled down as Companies like everyone else are feeling the pinch. We have to ensure, more now than ever, that our approach is carried out in the right way and that we need to maintain and improve key relationships with warm donors and where possible create new ones.

Getting to meet our corporate supporters is vital but so is visiting the real heroes of our charity - The house and assistant house managers. These visits are fun and help build important friendships but also provide an opportunity for fundraisers to see the families and to understand why fundraising is necessary.

10.23am a phenomenon known as ‘10.23sies’ kicks in, a phrase coined by my colleague Sarah due to our inability to wait for the traditional Elevensies. The SCT machine collectively breathes a sigh of relief at the sight of one of our resident tea-aholics collecting empty cups on the way to the kitchen.

10.25am Meeting preparations completed and onto the next job: The Corporate application to Next Plc. I follow a basic format that has been passed down from generation to generation, well from the Head of Fundraising at least. This process starts with a check to ascertain if we are a good fit with Next Plc which involves research. An initial review of our paper and on-line files advises of any prior donations and relevant criteria to be adhered to. A review of the Next Plc Corporate website and Annual Report is very useful and CompanyGiving.co.uk is a great source of information.

Our files show that Next PLC is a ‘warm donor’ - donated to the SCT in the past – and as such these checks are quicker to complete than a review of a cold contact. The next step is to establish any links through our Trustees, or members of staff / friends or relations etc. In addition to this another useful tool is our own information database ‘Donorflex’. The combined effect of this research helps to establish a complete picture of the company and helps to ensure our application is as strong as possible.

A phone call follows, normally to a Corporate Social Responsibility Officer, dependant on the size of the company. The personal touch is essential as the added information received helps us to understand what makes a company tick, are they purely philanthropic or do they have a corporate edge to their charitable giving. Talking to someone also helps to find out how they require the information to be presented and in what format – online application or a formal written request with full back up. Finding these things out not only saves time but gives us a better chance of donation success at the end of the process. (Thank you Mr Cholmondley Warner, you’re welcome Grayson!)

12pm But as with all best laid plans ….Aon Benfield have been in contact and need their collection box emptied and can we collect it. This is done quickly and although unplanned it provides us with another chance to keep in touch with one of our key supporters. On the other hand the totally unexpected can also occur.

1pm Lunch often means a quick dash to Tesco’s and a working lunch but I do try to fit in a short run around Stepney from time to time. It’s a surprisingly beautiful area especially down by the canals in Mile End. My home town!

2pm-4pm The application process to Next Plc is now in full swing. This is not an on-line application so there are no specific categories to follow. The judgement call is trying to gage what will appeal to Next Plc and this is where the experience of my colleagues can be so beneficial. A brief discussion with any one of the team often means various tweaks can then be applied to the application making it a much stronger ask. After a few final checks the application is submitted and now we just have to wait. This is the bit I do not like, the waiting, but that’s the way it is.

4pm I then grab a quick five minute meeting with Andy our Head of Fundraising which can last up to an hour but from it will come more ideas and a new list of potential donors. And off I go again……

4.30- 5pm Another check on emails / follow ups. A call into Sue Cartwright our Operations Manager regarding the Morley Bedding Company and Barker and Stonehouse. These companies are assisting with reducing costs for our ‘Big Move’ appeal in Leeds with supplying soft furnishings.

5pm Continue with follow ups and prepare the groundwork for more potential donors. AstraZeneca’s application is next on the list, another previous donor and a good fit. This is an on-line application through the Company website.

6pm I love this job but things don’t always go as smoothly as suggested above but again that’s the challenge. Yesterday for example my day was sabotaged just before lunch when we were told our long planned Tower Race at Bridgewater Place was under threat. However a few calls later and with help from Charlie Gilchrist, our excellent contact at Manco the managing agents for BP, and we were back on track. This emphasises the importance of time spent developing solid corporate relationships. They are priceless.

7.30pm Trouble free ride home - really was my lucky day - and back indoors chilling out with my family. No doubt playing hallway football with my youngest and spending the rest of evening relaxing in front of the TV.

But guess what? Tomorrow night is Karaoke night with the SCT..what a scream! No literally it will be a scream as none of us can sing a note!

Our Big Chocolate Tea Party

Fiona Pollington kindly hosted a Big Chocolate Tea Party for us in October. Here she tells us all about her day.





We first heard about The Sick Children’s Trusts plans to hold Big Chocolate Tea Parties on its website in July and straight away we decided we wanted to hold one after staying at Acorn House with our daughter at Christmas.

Our original plan was to invite a few family and friends to the house but before long it had developed into hiring a hall, children’s entertainers, local press, radio and inviting the town mayor!

The planning and preparation went fairly well and we had a good response from various businesses with regards to raffle prizes. Two days before the tea party we met Shaun Udal (former England test cricketer) who kindly donated four tickets to see a game of cricket at Lords in 2010 – what a star!

The main problem we came across was the lack of teacups and side plates, we didn’t manage to get any arranged until three days before the party which was a slight worry.

Three days to go and the big bake started! Eggs, flour, marg and of course chocolate filled the kitchen. I think the oven breathed a sigh of relief when Sunday afternoon came and it finally was switched off. My mum was a huge help and she made some fantastic looking cupcakes which unfortunately nobody got to taste them as she had a slight accident which resulted in them covering the hall floor! Our neighbour and close friend Myles, was also a big help - he made his very first cake especially for the cake stall which was marketed as “man made” and sold to his brother in law to be.

The Big Chocolate Tea Party was a big success and we raised £420. We thoroughly enjoyed organising it and are just so pleased that we have been able to give a little something back after finding Acorn House and The Sick Children’s Trusts such an invaluable facility when our daughter Amelia was so poorly. She has thankfully since made a full recovery and is back to her normal cheeky self!