Claire Prosser | The Tom Clabburn Memorial Fund

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Posted by PaulClabburn on Jan 9, 2016 in 2016, Awareness, Cardiac Risk in the Young, Claire Prosser, CRY screenings, Tom Clabburn

Your money in action for @CRY_UK

Left to right: CRY founder Alison Cox, research fellow Dr Keteepe-Arachi and patron Ben Brown.

This morning I went to see your latest fund-raising efforts turn into potentially life-saving work at the CRY Centre For Inherited Cardiovascular Conditions and Sports Cardiology, St George’s Hospital, Tooting.

All the running, climbing, book-selling, cake baking and myriad other activities you’ve taken part in since our fund started in 2008 has now raised more than £150,000 for CRY.

So it was great to

See the first of six days of subsidised screenings get underway. The fund is supporting the screenings between January and March at a cost of £18,000. Young people aged 14-35 attend from all over the UK and around 110 screenings are booked per session.
Have a look at the brand new echocardiogram machine sporting Tom and Claire’s names that was bought at a cost of £27,000.
Meet Dr Tracey Keteepe-Arachi, the CRY research fellow who was leading the day’s screening programme. Our fund has donated £10,000 towards research.

It was particularly fitting that the BBC’s Ben Brown, family friend and CRY patron, was able to attend the launch because he represents each and every one of you who has ever supported CRY. Not only has Ben done whatever he can to raise awareness, he has also fund-raised by putting in the hard miles running half and full marathons.

It was also, of course, a pleasure to have a chat once again with Alison Cox. CRY’s founder may have stepped down as Chief Executive but she is still getting up at the crack on a Saturday morning to support events such as these.

Last year alone, CRY screened 23,000 young people. It shows a need, it shows the demand, but there’s a long way to go before there’s a national screening programme to replace the efforts of CRY. Since starting in 1995, the charity has screened more than 80,000 young people.

Part of that total is down to you. On the way home I heard Patti Smith on Radio 4’s Saturday Live. She talked about writing the song ‘People Have The Power’, which includes the line ‘We can turn the world around.’ Because of your efforts to turn at least one part of the world around, Tom and Claire’s Fund has sponsored more than 1,200 of those screenings.

That’s 1,200 who have been given a chance Tom did not have.

For today at least, then, it seems right to reflect with great pride on the efforts of a remarkable group of CRY supporters, a group that has raised £150,000 in Tom and Claire’s names.

Thank you.

The echo bought with your fund-raising efforts.

Posted by PaulClabburn on Dec 1, 2015 in 2015, Claire Prosser

Claire

CLAIRE

(In memory of Claire Prosser)

We hold true to your joy of being,
your heartache and your soul.
We return, each, to the last time
we met, the last time you smiled
that ready smile, then the time
before that, and that … We recall the
hours we shared and those that were
still to come, and mull the years to come
unshared, over bridges that we crossed,
along streets that chime unchanged,
– all, henceforth, haunted by your shade.
Memory must suffice, the store
in which to treasure your timeline.
It is what we cleave to now –
friend after friend after friend …

Published by permission of author and poet, James Ballantyne.

Thanks Jim.

Posted by PaulClabburn on Sep 2, 2015 in 2015, Awareness, Book sale, Claire Prosser, Fund-raising event

Stock up on books @BrentfordFest and help @CRY_UK #Brentford #Ealing

Claire and Ellen at the Brentford Festival

Claire and Ellen at the 2014 Brentford Festival.

You can grab some autumn reading from a bookstall in aid of Tom and Claire’s Fund at the Brentford Festival this coming Sunday, September 6.

Members of Claire’s book group, Anne Marie Reilly, Mariita Eager, Debbie Young, Justine O’Driscoll and Vanessa Boulter, are organising the event. Anne Marie said: “Last year for the first time Claire and Ellen had a CRY bookstall at the Festival.

“It was a great success and Claire was delighted to have the opportunity to talk to a new group of local residents and increase awareness about the work of CRY and also raise some money.

“We thought we would like to carry on the event in memory of Claire and to continue her good work for CRY. Do come along and support us and enjoy the festivities.”

The Brentford Festival is a well established annual community-led event with live bands, food and drink, rides, stalls and more. It takes place from 12 noon to 6 pm, in Blondin Park, Ealing. Full details here.

Posted by PaulClabburn on Jun 3, 2015 in 2015, Awareness, BBC, Claire Prosser, Life After Tom, Tom Clabburn

Claire’s ‘Life After Tom’ documentary now available on BBC iPlayer Radio.

Life After Tom on BBC iPlayer Radio.

Claire’s BBC Radio 4 documentary, ‘Life After Tom’, is now available on BBC iPlayer Radio.

You can find it here.

The programme, written and narrated by Claire, was first broadcast in October, 2008, and describes how she navigated the first 12 months after Tom’s death.

That it is now available on demand is due to the efforts of Claire’s friend – and producer of the programme – Linda Pressly.

Having listened to it again, it seems to me to have withstood the test of time and therefore stands as a fitting tribute to Claire, both as a mother and as a journalist.

PC, June 3, 2015.

Posted by PaulClabburn on Dec 19, 2014 in 2014, Claire Prosser, Donations, Tom Clabburn

You’ve done it – you’ve raised more than £100,000 for CRY

Tom and Claire

Claire wanted to raise £100,000 for CRY in Tom’s memory – and we asked you if you’d help to achieve that in memory of both Tom and Claire.

You’ve done that and more.

As of this morning, donations to what is now Tom and Claire’s Fund stand in excess of £110,000 since we first began fund-raising in 2008. There is still more money coming in.

All we can say is a huge “THANK YOU”.

Our focus will remain on working with CRY to provide free heart screenings for young people in west London. Our belief – Claire’s belief – is that screening can make a difference.

It can help to challenge a dreadful statistic – that 12 young people aged 14-35, like Tom, die each week from an undiagnosed heart condition.

Since we lost Tom in 2007, CRY’s figures suggest a further 4,500 young people will have died. The vast majority could have been saved with a simple test:

One in every 300 that CRY tests – and CRY has tested more than 70,000 young people – will be identified with a potentially life threatening condition.

One in every 100 will have a condition that is less serious but could cause problems in later life.

Like other health screening programmes, it can’t yet identify all those at risk. But in Italy, where screening is mandatory for all young people engaged in organised sport, they have reduced the incidence of young sudden cardiac death by 89%.

To read more on the latest research, click here.

But for now, all we’d like to say once again is a huge “THANK YOU”.

Paul and Ellen x

Posted by PaulClabburn on Dec 16, 2014 in 2014, Book sale, Claire Prosser

Ruth’s team do Claire and @CRY_UK proud

Ruth, front row, second from left, and team.

More than £1,600 was raised at a book and cake sale in memory of Claire Prosser and Tom Clabburn at the BBC’s New Broadcasting House on Monday, December 15.

Claire’s close friend and colleague, Ruth Akins, organised the event: “Claire was due to run the sale in memory of her son, Tom. The Friday before Claire died, she was concerned about the sale and I had promised her it would be fine. I never thought I’d be running the sale in her memory as well as her son’s. “

All the money raised will go to the re-named Tom and Claire’s Fund, which supports the charity Cardiac Risk in the Young.

Ruth continued: “It was astonishing to see how many books Claire had already collected only weeks ago from her former 5 Live colleagues at BBC North. With help from various people from around the BBC, we had more than 300 books on sale.

“We also had a large number of delicious cakes to sell too, thanks to the generous bakers we had in our midst. An extra thanks goes to Lorna Donlon who, as at previous sales, has always provided us with the most gorgeous cakes. “

Helpers from within the BBC were joined by Claire’s close family friends and Ruth said: “I think they found some comfort in meeting Claire’s colleagues and hearing their happy memories of her.

“Nothing will bring Claire or Tom back to us but running events such as this helps us keep their memory alive and continues their legacy.”

Claire’s husband, Paul Clabburn, said: “I was very touched but not the least surprised when Ruth said she was going to carry on with the book sale as a tribute to Claire. That’s Ruth for you. Claire and Ruth were a brilliant professional team and very close friends and Ellen and I would like to thank Ruth for her support over the years.

“We are also, as ever, astonished by the number of helpers that Ruth has listed below – we are extremely grateful to everyone for their time and commitment. Thank you.”

Organising/Book collection and delivery – Gillian Dear, Geraldine Ryan, Romello Arulanandam, Matthew Turner, Isabel Turner, Gina Bentley, Dave Bentley, Kate Riley, Sandy Smith, Elaina Boateng, Suzanne Yates, Jessica Latimer. With special thanks from Paul and Ellen to Annie Flury for so many years of organising the 5 Live books.

Cake providers – Victoria Lee, Jane Kinghorn, Lorna Donlon, Geraldine Ryan, Dhruti Shah, Ruth Akins, Ronnie Macfarlane, Jane Saunders.

Book sellers – Sue Ellis, Jane Kinghorn, Sam Upton, Alison Lobo, Jacky Hems, Sue Howells, Isabel Turner, Felix Turner, Anna Eastment, Kate Riley, Gina Bentley, Suzanne Yates, Phil Thomas, Chandrika Kaviraj.

Cake sellers – Mariita Eager, Victoria Lee and Dhruti Shah. “Mariita was the queen of cake selling – they were sold out by 1:30pm and we didn’t finish until 3pm,” said Ruth.

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