Leukaemia CARE exists to provide vital care and support to all those whose lives are affected by leukaemia, lymphoma and the allied blood disorders. Our work extends to the welfare of families and carers, as well as that of patients themselves. Quite simply... 'supporting a quality of life'

CARE: www.leukaemiacare.org.uk/
Fundraising: www.raise4leukaemiacare.org.uk/

Anyone can become a fundraiser for Leukaemia CARE and appear on the blog. Email your story to: press@leukaemiacare.org.uk

Bertie Bloodcell

Welcome to Bertie's Blog! Bertie Bloodcell is Leukaemia CARE's fundraising mascot and he's really interested to hear all your stories! This blog will highlight some of the triumphs and successes of Leukaemia CARE's fundraising heroes, and give our supporters the chance to get to know the charity and 'Team Bertie' a little bit better.

Thursday, 10 December 2009

Bertie's Back

I've been having a rest since all the hard work of the Great North Run. I've just about recovered from this year's Santathon - running with all those Santas was hard work.
I'm looking forward to seeing you all at our next few running events - the Bath Half Marathon and Reading Half Marthon in March. There are still places for each so if you'd like to join me you'd be very welcome.
Well, I'm off for a mince pie or two - talking of Christmas, why not check out our Christmas Appeal ?
http://justgiving.com/LeukaemiaCAREChristmasAppeal

Monday, 24 August 2009

Sharon Supporters' Sponsored Silence!


Aupporter of hopeful Kilimanjaro trekker, Sharon Cherry, have completed another brilliant fundraiser to help Sharon reach her sponsorship target of £3,600.


Staff at a local hairdressing salon took part in a 6-hour sponsored silence, and between them raised an amazing £450! Sharon told us the story;


"My aunt runs the salon near to my home, and very generously offered to hold a six-hour sponsored silence to help raise funds. She said it was hard, but her customers lip read to her to decide what style they wanted to make her feel better! The total was fantastic, and I made sure to send a bouquet of flowers as a thank you for all their efforts."


At this rate, Sharon will hit her target in no time at all! If you have been inspired by Sharon's success, please visit the Leukaemia CARE fundraising website: http://www.raise4leukaemia.org.uk/ for lots of ideas as to how you can get involved with supporting the charity.

Thursday, 20 August 2009

Kilimanjaro Here I Come!


Intrepid fundraiser, Sharon Cherry, has signed up with Leukaemia CARE to undertake the Kilimajaro Trek challenge, raising much needed funds for the charity at the same time! Below is a summary from Sharon about how she is busy raising the required amount of sponsorship to get her to Kilimanjaro:-

"As the amount to raise (£3,400) was quite high, I automatically set a plan in place of what I can do, who I could approach, and how much I would charge. The activities to date are; sewing trouser hems, weeding gardens, car cleaning, car boot sales, ironing, cake sales and selling car parking spaces at work. Donations have been high, largely due to a very generous contribution from my dad, plus my employers' 'Community Cashback Award' of £500.

I thought there is no point thinking you will just be handed £3,400 in sponsorship alone and I set to raising this with an urgency so that I felt it was all under control. I wrote letters to every business and shop in my large village asking for their support in sponsorship or raffle prizes. From 21 letters sent I have receieved 2 cheques and 7 raffle prizes, including a bouquet of flowers and fish & chips twice!

At the time of writing, I have about £480 to go and a few more ideas to help me achieve this. I will be selling the excess 'Old English' variety apples from my allotment, teaching someone to sew and last but not least, holding a raffle.

I took this challenge on to be an exciting thing to look forward to and aim towards and it has certainly been that. Apart from cleaning cars of my day off I've loved it!

Everyone can do something that someone will pay for, it's just your time you are giving away."

We are very proud of Sharon's effort, and her activites go to show that a bit of ingenuity and effort go a long way when settign yourself a goal such as hers. For further information or ideas about fundraising, please contact us on: 0845 521 3456

Tuesday, 4 August 2009

Triathlon queen update

Hi

Just to keep you up to date with my progress… I am 9 days away from doing my triathlon in Wick and I’ve just past the £1000 mark for raising money for Leukaemia CARE. www.justgiving.com/lornpearson

The triathlon is in Wick (far North Scotland) and the distances are 750m swim, 20k cycle, 5k run.

I’m resting a little now to get ready for it, and trying to collect as much sponsor money as possible!

I’ll be in touch to let you know how I get on.

thanks

Lorn Pearson

Friday, 31 July 2009

Pudding Party

Just thought I'd let you know about why I did a Pudding Party, and how it all came about...

After the birth of my first child, I became a stay-at-home mum with some involvement in school activities and always an interest in cooking. Over the years I was drawn into PTA activities and by the time my youngest child started school, I became PTA Chair. As well as organising social events, I did a lot of fund-raising and noticed that many people (myself included) could get a bit fed up with sponsored activities. At Christmas bazaars and Summer Fetes, the cake stall was always a firm favourite with everybody and I must admit that when things were a bit quiet, you could easily do a Cake Sale and it would be well-supported. Having received a few compliments on the cakes I prepared for these events, I thought the logical step for me when considering fund-raising for charity was to invite family and friends to a Pudding Party at my house. The desserts were all prepared beforehand, and served cold (no actual puddings such as jam roly-poly, crumble, apple pie; it was easier to do cheesecakes, flans, mousses, ice-creams, cakes, meringues, fruit fools, banoffee pie, etc.) Everybody was welcome to sample as many desserts as they liked, and asked to make a donation.

I tried this a few years ago, in aid of Acorns (I have a couple of friends who are associated with the hospice). I held it as a Ladies Only event and was a bit nervous beforehand, until my husband helpfully pointed out that a room full of women, wine and cakes was a winning combination! This proved to be the case and it was a big success.

Sadly, earlier this year one of the mums at school lost her battle with leukaemia and I wanted to do something in her memory. I thought of doing another Pudding Party along the same lines as the first. In retrospect, I think I should have invited blokes as well because they often have a sweet tooth and it would have raised more money.

Also, if anybody wanted to adapt the idea, it would make a lot more sense to have individuals donating home-made desserts (I made them all myself, which is obviously not cheap and takes up a fair amount of time!)

Along similar lines, I invited friends to a Soup Kitchen at my house a couple of years ago. I cooked 5 or 6 different soups and served them with bread and cheese.People could stay from 12 till 2, or they could just drop in for ten minutes.

Maybe I just have very generous friends, but I have found that people are more likely to support these events when they think they are getting something back apart from a sense of "doing the right thing". Whether that is an evening's entertainment in the form of a quiz (several of which I have organised in the last three years), or home-cooked food, it seems to work!
Best wishes and good luck with all your fund-raising,
Helen Roskams

Monday, 11 May 2009

Hi

This is just to let you know how I got on at the Glasgow Women’s 10k yesterday, and a thanks to you for sponsoring me! The photo attached is how I looked after it.

So far I have raised £650 for Leukaemia CARE and have done two events:

- the Santa Dash in December 08 (27 minutes)
- the Women’s 10k on Sunday the 10th of May.

And I have one more event to go – the Wick Triathlon in August.

On Sunday I finished the 10k with a time of 48: 33 minutes - personal best for me! I came in 287th out of 10,740 runners.
It seems like the training I’ve put in really helped. The day was good and the atmosphere was brilliant.

I’d just like to say a big thanks to you for sponsoring me and motivating me to train and complete the 10k. Now I look forward to the next few months of training and the triathlon!!

Thanks again, and if you know of anyone else who might like to sponsor me, please forward on my just giving link:

www.justgiving.com/lornpearson

Friday, 1 May 2009

Flora London marathon, Sunday April 26th 2009

Our fantastic runner from Milton Keynes Chris Worton wore the Bertie suit in Sunday's London Marathon: what an achievement! He even made it onto the bbc, to see the footage click here. Looking relatively fresh too at the post race party! Here are a few pics from the day:
Our team of student and professional massage therapist volunteers helped ease the aches and pains of almost 60 runners who attended the party. They had a great day too and we'd like to thank them all for their time and effort. It was a long day for staff and volunteers, setting out from Worcester at 5.30am and getting back at 10.30approx. Still, it was well worth it and we loved meeting our wonderful runners and their families!


The final word comes from our runners:
Daniel Wagener:
Many thanks for your email and your and your colleagues support before and after the race.
It was a very difficult race and I really struggled after 30k but managed to finish in the respectable time of 3:57.
It was a shame that I could not make it to the post race party but I had quite a few people over to support me and did not want to swamp the venue!
Altogether I have now raised c. £4,700 which I am sure you will be able to put to good use. Most of the sponsoring was done via the justgiving site (http://www.justgiving.com/daniellondon09)...
Many thanks for giving me the opportunity to run the marathon and raise money on your behalf and perhaps if the memories about the painful run this year have faded I can do it again!
Glen Tinton:
Hi Nicky, Clare. A big thanks for allowing me to run, albeit perhaps yesterday around mile 20 I possibly was not thinking that same sentiment. I set out to raise £2000 and look like hitting £3550.
Nick Elia:
Hi Guys, Just a quick email to say thanks for Sunday. I thought the venue and the facilities were great. You made us feel like heroes
The massage students were also great so if you could send on my thanks it would be appreciated.
I limped home in 5hrs 17 mins … not the time I was hoping but at least got round in one piece. That was my fourth London Marathon on the trot and my third for Leukaemia Care – I would like to say it gets easier every year but unfortunately it doesn’t !
I have already applied again for next year’s Virgin London Marathon but would like to accept one of your allocated charity places for next year. I will of course raise funds for you if I get a place in the ballot.
Chris Worton:
Thanks very much for all the fantastic help and support provided by all of the LC team at the weekend, it is just what we need after the hard work and stress of the marathon – lots of care and pampering.
Fleur Stafford
Was a brilliant day and I will definately do another one if only to beat my time which I am disappointed with. I finished in 4.53 which is quite a bit slower than expected but the heat, crowds, dodgey tummy all contributed to that one! The first 16 miles were fab and I was on track for 4.20 and then I felt incredibly sick for a few miles (gels, heat, nerves...) and then back on track for the last 6 miles but by then it was too late to worry too much about my time so I just cruised along and had a great time for the last hour.
I felt brilliant on Sunday and even yesterday but think I have the post marathon blues today...what on earth am I supposed think and talk about now!!?? Already thinking of my next challenge!!
Nick Cochran and Natalie Bogaerts:
We had a fantastic day and are already thinking about 2010 despite the pain!
Thank you and the team on the day for being such a nice, helpful and thoughtful group of people. Every time someone saw we were with Leukaemia Care they checked we were ok, gave us water, offered to show us to the Naval and Military club and made us feel so special!
The facilities were perfect, nice and clean and private for a quick shower, then downstairs for a massage or food and drinks.
10/10 for everything. We're going to enter the London ballot this week and will run for you next year if we are successful, we are also looking to do some fund raising when we run in the Royal Parks race in October.

Wow, thank you guys!