Companies and Groups

ING Wholesale bank

How strange are fate and chance encounters? We met Sue Maynard (vice president service management at ING) at our last Family weekend. Sue and her friends were very touched by seeing the children so clearly affected by Proteus syndrome, but nonetheless enjoying life to the full!

Employees of ING raised an amazing £7664.23 by running the London Marathon in 2007. Our PSF Treasurer Paul Collins went to collect the cheque. Here is what he had to say:

“Hi Tracey,

Forgot to tell you who is who in the photos. Lady on my right, in white, is Sue Maynard, promoting PSF to her colleagues at ING bank. The lady on my left in predominately orange, is Kim Jennings, who a runner with the ING London Marathon team and the sponsor for PSF UK as a participating charity in the ING fund raising effort. Apparently ING hold other events, such as a quiz night and pitch and putt (in their offices) that build up collecting funds that culminate in the London marathon.

Paul”

CJ Coleman & Co

Raised money in lieu of Christmas cards

Lloyds charitable trust

Again thanks to Paul Collins (dad to Ross Collins) for collecting the cheque for £1000 on our behalf. Our heartfelt thanks to Nik Gooding and Lloyds.

Genesis technical recruitment

Donation of £100

Smith Child Lodge

Donation of £100

Bexhill High school

The learning support team raised funds in honour of Jordan by making Christmas cards and by a raffle at their musical show.

Claimar Care Ltd

Donation by an employee of £20

OPM

Our thanks to Dave Stannard and OPM for their donation of £200

Fundraising events

Roger finch – sponsored Triathlon

Our heartfelt thanks to Roger who raised an amazing £479.77 through his energetic efforts!

Rachel Davis – musical showcase

This event raised £575 with the help of Mandy Sellars

Rachel, who is a freelance music tutor wrote:

“Dear Tracey

Please find enclosed a cheque for £575, the result of a fundraising event organised by myself and my students with the help of Mandy Sellars, a friend of mine whom I believe you know. We hosted a musical showcase evening in which 27 students took part. The money raised came from ticket sales, programme sales, a raffle and a quiz. Mandy also wrote an informative piece for the programme and distributed flyers, as we wanted to raise awareness as well as funds. The audience response was extremely positive and I hope you will agree the event was a success, kind regards Rachel”

St Louis Catholic Primary school

The school put on a Christmas concert in honour of Dillon Chapman and raised £320.78. I received a lovely card from Dawn, Dilllon’s mum:

“Dear Tracey

A big hello to all and Happy New Year. Please find enclosed a cheque for £320.78 raised at Dillon’s Xmas concert for school. They did a 10am and 6am concert with a collection at the end and nominated “Proteus” to receive the money. We were thrilled.”

Many thanks to Mr Triggs the headmaster and all involved.

Mrs M Whitewood (Jordan’s nan) and Joanne Luck (Jordan’s auntie)

Further sales of homemade cards brought in another £93 for the PSF UK, that’s over £300 to date or around 1200 cards!

Keyline Brands

Grateful thanks to Sarah Selwood and her company, Keyline for sponsoring this year’s charity ball. Their £250 donation sponsored one of the events evening auction prizes, a Mud and Mayhem voucher for four people by Adventure Sports.

SWEET SUCCESS – Claire Raynor (Tracey’s sister from Australia)

I had not entered the fundraising arena before so went for something easy – selling chocolate! When I first picked up the 12 boxes of freddo frogs, caramelo koalas and various others; I did wonder if I was going to be 15 stone before long, however, they sold really well. Tips for selling chocolates; wait until approximately 4pm and send an email out telling everyone you have chocolates on your desk (evil, but effective). I also had help from family and friends; although they did enquire as to whether if I was going to help them out by buying them a subscription to weight watchers, I think not. Total funds raised were £300.00.

Local (Essex) fundraising report by Geoffrey Child

I have in the past written about events, organised here in Benfleet, Essex, that have been very pleasant for all to arrange and beneficial for this worthy PSF UK charity.

This is another brief account of more recent events that have not only increased the general awareness of the PS condition, but also raised us some additional funds.

***************************************************************

• A Black Tie Ball was arranged in July 2007. The Hertfordshire venue was a lovely marquee, pitched in the grounds of a delightfully converted mill, on the edge of the river. Hotel accommodation was made available to many guests.

The weather was kind, and the champagne reception, held outdoors with bagpipe music, was lovely.

A great meal was then served, followed by an auction of items mainly donated by PSF friends.

The evening was completed with live music and dancing. A great evening was had by all, plus the fact money was paid to our charity. A great bonus!

Some pictures, taken that night, are now shown.

Paul and Donna Collins (parents to Ross) also attended the event:

“Hello Tracey,

We thought we would update you with our night out last night at the Summer Ball arranged by Nick Elmes & Jo Brewster, in aid of PSF UK. We had thought that this event would be shared 50/50 with another Charity, but we learned last night that Nick had moved it over to being totally in aid of PSF UK. A full black tie event, held in a beautiful marquee next to the River Stort, on the Essex side of the River (the other side being Hertfordshire). There was a Raffle; Auction (which included a Micro lite flight with the Proprietor of the Hotel) which they hope will raise a tidy sum. The party went onto 5am this morning, (we lasted until 2am) and the expectation is that over £1,000 will have been raised.

We are feeling a bit tired a the moment, but happy,

With lots of love,
Paul, Donna, Jamie, Ross & Scott”

• The Benfleet Methodist Wives Club continues to support “the children”.

Our godson, Ross Collins, lives in a nearby area and does attend some of their fund raising events. They also hear a great deal of news regarding Jordan. I believe that knowing people that benefit directly from fund raising is so meaningful and gives so much enthusiasm to these lovely ladies.

In November 2007 I visited the club again, and was proud to hand them a framed certificate confirming their fund raising, for a second year. It is quite amazing the different ways they manage to find to raise funds. They make items, including greeting cards, run white elephant stalls, hold coffee mornings and find many unusual ways of having sponsored challenges.

Thank you ladies. You are all so very kind.

• A Charity Christmas card! What about it I thought? Is this a first for us?

For good market coverage, both picture and greeting had to be carefully selected. Competition is great. Charity cards are very good and popular now.

I decided to paint our picture and have the original printed. A friend managed to persuade a client of his to print the card without charge. The friend supplied envelopes and packaging and I printed the sales flysheet. A good combined effort. Good friends are great to have! The cards were ready by September.
The end product was ten cards in a pack, all showing the PSF logo, registration details and confirming the charity would receive 100% of all money paid.

The result was we gave PSF £1,175. Not bad for a first, was it?

Two photographs of both the painting and finished card are shown for interest
*************************************************************

THE 2008 CHARITY BALL

BIRMINGHAM OPENS ITS HEART TO PSF!

On March 8th 2008 Birmingham took to its heart PSF UK and demonstrated its kindness and overwhelming generosity to Joel Hales-Waller and the Charity. Two special people, Julie Laight and Claire Hales professionally organised a “Night of Laughter” Charity Ball which was held at the ICC in the centre of Birmingham. Over two hundred people attended a lavish celebration of Joel and the other children in PSF. The Ball was compared by T.V’s Central Newsreader, Llewela Bailey and auctioneer Rory Daly. The Ball successfully raised for Joel and PSF UK a sum in excess of £23,000. The evening was opened by Geoffrey Child, PSF’s auditor, who detailed the history of PSF and how it has grown to help many people in supporting them with mobility and medical equipment and advice over the last 10 years. Then Lisa Hales, Joels’ mother, gave a heart felt and emotional insight as to how Joel and his family cope with his disabilities and what it means to them in having a child with these extreme difficulties. The reception she received from all present was one of admiration and was well deserved. Before the meal started, guests were invited, for a price, to take part in the Knife, Fork and Spoon game. This entailed all guests standing and holding up their Knife, Fork or Spoon in response to answering a three part multiple questions. If you answered wrongly, you sat down, and the winner of two hundred pounds was the last person standing, who answered all the questions correctly. During the sumptuous meal, funds were raised by an auction which included items such as signed pictures and memorabilia of the Red Arrows, Lewis Hamilton, David Beckham and Christiano Ronaldo. There were other wonderful gifts given up for auction, such as a tour of the House of Commons, expensive meals, team building day, a signed self portrait by John Hurt and two top class air flight tickets to New York. After the auction a spectacular raffle was held with prizes ranging from football tickets, signed copies of a Jeffrey Archer and Trinny & Susannah books and a Bill Bailey T shirt and CD. But the top prize was a wonderful 18ct yellow and white gold diamond necklet which was valued in excess of a £1,000. The night of laughter evening was overseen by a troupe of performers dressed as apes who ensured no one could take the evening too seriously. The apes were very clever and demonstrated drumming skills to match Phil Collins and singing prowess that matched Pavrotti! A magician also spent time with every table with how to do magic by Paul Daniels, which was very funny. The fund raising was finished by an auction for 10 beautiful large Teddy Bears, who were all given good homes. To complete the evening, an excellent live band started to play, which lead the guests into dancing up to the early hours of the following Sunday morning.

This report is brought by the PSF treasurer Paul Collins aka Groucho Marx, but that’s another story!

The evening included an auction of the following “lots”:

Lot 1: One hour’s cricket coaching with Michael Powell & Dougie Brown
Lot 2: Signed Red Arrows picture
Lot 3: Mud & Mayhem Driving Experience for Four Supported by Keyline
Lot 4: Tours of the House of Commons & Big Ben plus lunch & first class rail travel
Lot 5: Cristiano Ronaldo Signed Boot Presentation
Lot 6: Coutts Dining Room Experience for Six Supported by Coutts & Co.
Lot 7: Team Building Day for 10 Supported by More than Bricks and Mortar Ltd
Lot 8: Lewis Hamilton Signed Cap & Photo Presentation Supported by Deloittes
Lot 9: Dinner for two at Simpsons and Bentley Factory Tour
Supported by Bentley Birmingham
Lot 10: Signed Self Portrait of John Hurt Donated by John Hurt CBE

The PSF UK would like to thank:

Autoglass ■ Bigwood Chartered Surveyors ■ Ceasers ■ Claimar Care plc ■ Enigma Fire Systems Ltd ■ Ernst & Young and RBS ■ Harvey Ingram ■ Hammonds ■ Higgs and Sons ■ Life ■ Lodders ■ Mazars ■ Pinsent Masons ■ Pointon York SIPP Solutions ■ Rudell The Jewellers ■ Sk:n ■ Ward Lovett ■ Wragge & Co. Adventure Sports ■ Jeffrey Archer MBE ■ AMD ■ Bill Bailey ■ Llewela Bailey ■ Birmingham City Football Club ■ Birmingham Hippodrome ■ Bentley Birmingham ■ Brophy Riaz and Partners ■ Dougie Brown and Michael Powell ■ Coutts & Co. ■ Rory Daly ■ Deloittes ■ Ebitda Limited ■ Ethos ■ John Hurt CBE ■ JE Consulting ■ Keyline ■ MTBM ■ Marcus Galleries ■ Number nine the gallery ■ Andy Parker ■ Raddisson SAS Hotel Birmingham ■ Red Arrows ■ Rudell the Jewellers ■ Simpsons ■ Sion Simon MP ■ Sk:n ■ Trinny and Susannah ■ Virgin Rail ■ Waitrose

Andy and Maggie at AMD Print Ltd – for the charity pop ups that they have so generously donated.

Calling all companies!

If you would like to be involved in the Charity Ball 2009, either in advertising or in sponsorship, please contact Tracey Whitewood-Neal on tracy.whitewood_neal@virgin.net or Julie Laight on julie.laight@btinternet.com