Posted by PaulClabburn on Feb 16, 2015 in 2015, Awareness, BBC, Fund-raising event
Food for thought.
A cake bake at the BBC raised nearly £100 and plenty of awareness for Tom and Claire’s Fund and CRY on February 11.
BBC journalist Jasmine Coleman said:
“People in the BBC Newsroom came together to tuck into cake, take a moment to chat and raise money for Tom and Claire’s fund this week.
The BBC’s World Online team organises a fairly regular ‘bake-off’ to bring colleagues together and fundraise for different charities.
This time Tom and Claire’s Fund was the only choice.
Many of us who took part knew and loved Claire and were glad to be able to do something in her memory. Others had never met her but had heard of her work with the BBC’s Journalism Trainee Scheme and were interested to find out more about her efforts for Cardiac Risk in the Young.
The theme for the bake off this time around was ❤️ – a nod to the charity as well as Valentines Day coming up.
Yum!.
The delicious offerings included chocolate and marshmallow cupcakes by Helier, one of Claire’s former trainees, and white chocolate and cranberry ‘love’ cookies by Jasmine, who also completed the scheme. We couldn’t help but think that Claire would have enjoyed Vanessa’s boozy chocolate mousse, and Alix’s Seville Orange meringue pie, and David’s lime and coconut slices brightened up our break.
Together we managed to raise just under £94 – not bad for eating loads of cake and talking to friends. We certainly didn’t need a second lunch after that.”
Huge thanks to all concerned from Paul and Ellen x
Posted by PaulClabburn on Jan 19, 2015 in 2015, Cardiac Risk in the Young
Claire and Tom
The focus for Tom and Claire’s Fund will, as ever, be on screening and raising awareness. We have two CRY screenings planned for 2015 in Ealing. The first will be in April, the second in the autumn. Details of both screenings will appear on this site.
We also know that people are already planning to raise funds this year. If you are, please let us know via the contact form here.
Last but by no means least, our thanks and appreciation to Jim Ballantyne who has written a poem for Claire. You can read it here and Jim’s earlier poem in memory of Tom here.
Posted by PaulClabburn on Jan 5, 2015 in 2014, Donations, Fund-raising event
An hour’s “fun and vocal exercise” raised £427 for Tom and Claire’s Fund and CRY on December 10.
The Ealing Songbyrds choir only had a 60 minute slot at Northfields Tube Station but member Sheila King, a friend and neighbour of Tom and Claire, said:
“It must have been a combination of the very visible CRY banner, the sweet tones of the choir and the cash collectors that caused Ealing’s commuters to dig deep into their pockets! It was a very good result.”
The Songbyrds are on the lookout for new members so if any Ealing residents want to join what Sheila describes as a “local and informal ladies choir which meets in the Northfields area each week”, they should contact Fiona on 07732 226836.
Posted by PaulClabburn on Dec 19, 2014 in 2014, Claire Prosser, Donations, Tom Clabburn
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 18, 2014 in 2014
The following items of lost property were found at St Paul’s:
1: A rather nice brooch.
2: A rather nice scarf/pashmina thing (what do I know).
3: A rather creased but apparently unused handkerchief.
If you think any of these might belong to you, contact me via thetomclabburnfund@gmail.com
Paul
Posted by PaulClabburn on Dec 16, 2014 in 2014, Book sale, Claire Prosser
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.
Posted by PaulClabburn on Dec 12, 2014 in 2014, Claire Prosser
Tribute outside Munson’s coffee shop, Ealing. Photo by Vicky Pearson.
Thank you for coming to Claire’s celebration.
We had the service that we hoped for. Your support gave us the resolve to voice our tributes.
To those who sent kind words and apologies for not being able to join the family, we thought Ellen’s photo montage, set to music, might give you a sense of the celebration. Each song meant something to Claire.
Click to watch here.
Thank you for all the messages. We read them all, even if we cannot reply to all – there have been a lot! If you want to send us your memories of Claire to add to those we have already received, please do so. It helps.
As for us, we feel that the message outside Claire’s second home sums it up.
Enough said.
Paul and Ellen x
Posted by PaulClabburn on Dec 2, 2014 in 2014, Claire Prosser
Ellen and Claire: “Better hair than her daughter.”
Raconteuse, wit, journalist (old school), good companion, simply the best wife and the unique Mumma Bear. Above all a beautiful spirit and a woman of great courage. For the good times. All my love, Paul. Love you lots like jelly tots, Ellen.
Thank you for all the support. In the days and weeks following the loss of Claire, it will give us great comfort. We read your messages even if we don’t reply.
This site will change to become the Tom and Claire Fund. It will be the site on which we post information in the coming days.
We are going to arrange the biggest damn celebration we can for CP. It will be at St Paul’s Church, Ealing, and we will post the date on this site when we have it.
Claire’s great wish was that Tom’s Fund should raise £100,000. We’re nearly there, it’s raised more than £90,000 since 2008. So if you would like to make a donation to what is now the Tom and Claire Fund you can do so here.
In the meantime, we’d be really grateful if you didn’t call us directly and please don’t send flowers. If you were thinking of doing so, that’s very kind of you but we’d rather it went towards a donation.
Once again, thank you for all the support. Let’s do CP proud.
Paul and Ellen xx
