Posted by PaulClabburn on May 2, 2014 in 2014, Awareness, Fund-raising event
Scarlett, centre, and friends. Photo by Tat Ming Mako Ng.
Students at the University of Bath took part in a Maid Cafe event recently, eating cakes, drinking tea and enjoying the entertainment – and Toms’ Fund will benefit.
The three friends who organised the costume cafe – which are mainly found in Japan but are becoming more popular over here – did all the baking themselves and made a profit of £81, split three ways into charities of their choice.
One of the main organisers, Scarlett, pictured above, had a personal reason for choosing to donate her share of the profits to CRY and Tom’s Fund in particular.
“I used to come round and have tea with Tom when we were small, and he was always making us laugh. I think it’s really important to get young people involved in fundraising for CRY and to go along and take advantage of the fanastic free check-ups they offer.”
Posted by PaulClabburn on Apr 28, 2014 in 2014, Awareness
You can find an excellent video from CRY explaining how screening plays a vital part in the charity’s research programme by clicking here.
Posted by PaulClabburn on Apr 10, 2014 in 2014, Awareness, Fund-raising event
Jamie Gavin at the finish.
Our two runners in the Greater Manchester marathon, Christine Elliott and Jamie Gavin, did us proud. Both got round in under four hours and raised £2,000 between them for Tom’s Fund and CRY.
Christine said of her first ever marathon: “The race was tough but I did enjoy it and was delighted to finish in under 4 hours. The support in Manchester was phenomenal and it had a great atmosphere. I was also really pleased to hit my fundraising target for CRY.”
It was also the first marathon for Jamie and he got round in 3 hours and 23 minutes.
He said: “It’s probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done – a great experience to look back on but the last eight miles hurt a lot. I hit a series of horrible walls and just had to tell myself to keep going. But I am really pleased to have got round in under three and a half hours and, more importantly, raised some money for Tom’s Fund and for CRY.”
Posted by PaulClabburn on Apr 8, 2014 in 2014, Awareness
CRY’s honorary president, Sir Ian Botham, @BeefyBotham, has voiced a new video to raise awareness of undiagnosed heart conditions in young people.
You can watch it here.
Posted by PaulClabburn on Apr 3, 2014 in 2014, Awareness, Fund-raising event
Jamie Gavin
Jamie Gavin, another of our former BBC Colleagues, is taking part in the Greater Manchester marathon to raise money for Tom’s Fund – giving us two runners in the same event!
It will be a first marathon for Jamie, who works in BBC Sport, and he said: “It really is a privilege to be able to do something to help in whatever small way, and to run for Tom, and it will genuinely spur me on the whole way round.
“Hopefully whatever I raise will mean a few more people can benefit from free heart testing and by raising awareness for CRY perhaps even save a life.”
Jamie said that his training had been tough on his knees but the last few weeks of his programme had been the best so he was hoping all would go well on the day.
He added: “”Claire has been such a massive inspiration to me and hundreds of other young journalists and to run in memory of her son Tom – and to raise money and awareness for CRY – will help me through all 26.2 miles.”
Claire said: “I am sure Jamie is going to succeed as he is a very determined person. When he learnt he had a BBC interview he flew back from his trip of a lifetime to Australia where he was watching the Ashes. Luckily he got the job! We wish him lots of luck.”
You can support Jamie here:
https://original.justgiving.com/Jamie-Gavin1
Posted by PaulClabburn on Mar 31, 2014 in 2014, Awareness, Fund-raising event
Ealing Eagle Christine Elliott has done a great job raising publicity for CRY – you can read about her marathon effort in the Ealing Gazette or online in Ealing Today here.
Posted by PaulClabburn on Mar 28, 2014 in 2014, Awareness
The number of young lives lost each week to undiagnosed heart conditions could be 16-18 rather than the currently estimated 12, CRY’s consultant cardiologist Professor Sanjay Sharma told Sky News this week.
You can watch the video and read the story here: http://news.sky.com/story/1230377/heart-defects-in-young-higher-than-thought
Posted by PaulClabburn on Mar 25, 2014 in 2014, Awareness
Tom’s Fund has raised more than £75,000 since we began fund-raising in 2008, according to the latest accounts from CRY.
So that’s a whole heap of “thank yous” to everyone who’s run, climbed, sung, hiked, baked or supported us in any way over the years.
The result of your efforts is that since 2009 Tom’s Fund has been able to sponsor the free screenings of more than 1,000 young people aged between 14-35. We’ve already held a day of screenings this year and there are more to come.
It also means that we’re edging closer to our aim of raising £100,000 by the end of 2014 to mark what would have been Tom’s 21st. If we can achieve that, it will guarantee screenings in future years. If you’d like to help, whether as an individual, company or oganisation, please get in touch with us here.
CRY have carried out many tens of thousands of screenings. They say that 1 in 300 young people screened will be found to suffer from a potentially life-threatening condition. A further 1 in 100 will be shown to have a condition that is less serious but which could cause a problem later in life.
Screening can make a difference.
