Alder Hey Hospital Appeal

Today it is time for my charity of the month post and I cannot think of a more deserving one than this.

When you think of hospitals caring for sick children, the first one that comes to mind is always Alder Hey Children's Hospital.

Alder Hey were founded in Liverpool in 1914.  The hospital become an NHS Trust hospital in 1991 and they treat on average 270,000 children every year.   After its centenary year in 2014, a new hospital went into construction, with the new hospital Alder Hey in the park opening its doors in 2015.

Source

Alder Hey and the University of Liverpool officially opened the first phase of a state-of-the-art dedicated research, education and innovation centre in March 2016. 

The unique Institute in the Park is a world-leading centre for research, with leading clinicians, healthcare professionals and scientists working in partnership with young patients and their families to produce remarkable life-saving and life-changing results.

The Institute in the Park is home to around 100 research, education and clinical staff and has facilities that no other UK or European children’s hospital can offer.  The building features two lecture theatres, a boardroom seating, a state-of-the art Library, dedicated e-learning suite and quiet study room. Video conferencing equipment enables Alder Hey to beam events, meetings and teaching seminars around the world and the facility has technology for live streaming from the hospital theatres.

Alder Hey Children’s Charity Appeal

Alder Hey Children’s Charity is raising vital funds to build the second phase of the Institute in the Park.

This appeal will allow the hospital to extend the current Institute building and develop even better treatments for children and young people. The second phase of the Centre will allow the hospital to double the space available to undertake world class research and innovation.

Within this building, Alder Hey’s researchers and clinicians will continue to work with partners in academia, technology and pharmaceuticals to develop safer, better medicines and therapies for children to use in the NHS and throughout the world.

Here are some of the most remarkable feats accomplished by Alder Hey since it opened its doors.  It has been the first to:

• Test Penicillin, saving a child from Pneumonia in 1944
• Establish a neonatal unit in the UK 
• Cure the UK’s most commonly encountered congenital heart defect
• Pioneer various splints and appliances, including the Thomas Splint
• Introduce ‘liquid glass’ to reduce infection 

Alder Hey Children’s Charity works in conjunction with NHS funding to cover the running costs of the hospital, Alder Hey relies on charitable support and the money is spent directly in order to benefit patients. 

In 2009 as a result of charitable support Alder Hey was able to buy Europe's first 3T intraoperative MRI scanner.

Alder Hey Children's Charity needs our support in order to carry on its amazing life saving work and important research.   You can find out more and discover ways that you can donate by clicking here.

Oxfam - Stories of Hope

Every month we all have the same kind of withdrawals from our bank accounts.  Everything from our mortgage to the food we eat.  

We make our budgets, we live according to what we can afford and we know that every month, the money that we earn is going to home us, feed us, clothe us.  

As someone living in the UK I have many privileges.  I know that I am safe; both in the house I live in and the country I reside in.  Neither will be taken away from me.  I have food, water, sanitation.  Something as simple as turning on a tap or flushing a toilet is something that I will never need to worry about.

This is why, the most important withdrawals from my account each month are my charity donations.  For people who do not have those basic things such as a safe roof over their head, food, water, sanitation.  I cannot give a lot, but every penny really does count.

I was recently contacted by Oxfam and asked if I would help with their campaign to share stories of hope.  Stories of people who do not have the things that we take for granted every day.  People that have faced adversity every day of their lives, yet still have managed to make a life and provide for their families.

So today, I wanted to tell you about Buchumi.  Buchumi was born in Burundi.  Due to fighting and unrest in Burundi, Buchumi and people like him have been forced to seek refuge in Tanzania.  Buchumi has been living in refugee camps since 1999.  Think about that.  That is 17 years of not having a proper home.

After moving into his first refugee camp, he met his wife a few years later.  In 2010 they moved into a new camp and went on to have four children.  Due to a lack of food and small portions, Buchumi needed to support his family and find a way of making an income.

Previously a teacher, but with the schools closed down, he decided to take up tailoring lessons to learn how to sew. 

Photo credit: Amy Christian/Oxfam

With the income that he makes from being a tailor, he is now able to provide food for his family.  He is making the best out of a horrible situation and is providing a future for his family.  

 “I love tailoring, that’s why I am still doing it. For now, I would love to keep tailoring.”

Due to the influx of people coming into camps in places that were only sparsely populated before, this has meant the Nyarugusu refugee camp, that was originally set up for Congolese refugees, has quickly run out of space. Three new camps have been set up but each need sanitation improvements and emergency supplies.

Oxfam is working in Nyarugusu and Nduta, one of the new camps, to provide water and sanitation facilities, emergency food, and support to access work. Providing a safe and sanitary environment is a major priority in the work Oxfam has carried out, but helping people improve camp infrastructure and gain new skills is also a high priority. These programmes help refugees like Buchumi create an income and gain stability in their lives.

Photo credit: Amy Christian/Oxfam

This is why it is so important that we make a donation  A single donation of £25 could provide safe water for 25 people.  A monthly donation of just £5 could pay for a goat for a family.  £20 could pay for two toilets.

In just 15 years extreme poverty has been halved.  Imagine what the next 15 years could achieve.  With every donation, that time frame will lesson.  We won't live with poverty.

*In collaboration with Oxfam 

Ugly Mugs

Whenever you see a fundraising campaign, the charity beneficiaries always seem to be the same.  Whilst charities such as Cancer Research and the Save the Children Fund are vital, many smaller charities are helping people and saving lives that most have never heard of. 

It is so important that these smaller charities receive exposure too as they need funding too.  With this in mind, today I want to highlight a charity called "National Ugly Mugs" which aims at protecting sex workers from violent offenders. 

The term Ugly Mugs was first developed in Australia in 1986, where the phrase ‘ugly mugs’ was used to describe punters who became violent.  They understood that distributing descriptions of ‘ugly mugs’ could warn other sex workers and help to keep them safe.  The first schemes in the UK were started in 1989 in two cities and are now run nationwide.

So why should you care about the lives of sex workers?

Since 1990, 149 sex workers have been murdered in the UK.   A study undertaken by the Home Office shows that more than half of women in prostitution have been raped and or seriously assaulted and at least 75% have been physically assaulted.  Those figures would pose a significant argument for crimes against sex workers being treated as hate crime.

A report by the Trussell Trust has showed an appalling rise of 163% in people having to utilise food banks, with nearly one million adults and children being forced to access them in the last year.  The austerity measures implemented by the Government has forced many people into looking for alternative ways to make ends meet and for some, this can lead to sex work. 

The atypical image of a sex worker is a scantily dressed woman on a street corner but the truth often is, especially in the current climes, that it could also easily be your next door neighbour; un-noticeable to a passer-by in the street.

The Home Office study shows that 74% of women in sex work identified paying household expenses and supporting their children as being the primary instigators in being drawn into sex work.

Everyone deserves help and everyone deserves support.  You cannot impose a moral line on safety.  It is only with schemes like the National Ugly Mugs that sex workers are feeling more confident about coming forward and reporting crime because of the stigma involved and the worry that they will not be taken seriously.

Alex Bryce, Director of Services at National Ugly Mugs has said:

"National Ugly Mugs is saving the lives of some of the most unfairly stigmatised people in our society and bringing to justice some of the most dangerous offenders."

The National Ugly Mug's reporting scheme is vital in bringing information about dangerous individuals to the attention of local constabularies and the National Crime Agency.  This has already led to nine convictions of serial repeat offenders.  In its first year of offering supporting, 480 incidents were reported, including 120 sexual assaults.

The cost of running the Ugly Mugs scheme for one year is around the same of investigating a rape and around the tenth of investigating a murder.  They are desperate for funding to allow this scheme to continue and this is where we come in.

My good friend Shona is a support worker for sex workers who works alongside Ugly Mugs in Lancashire.  As well as offering support and liaising with the police to report attacks on sex workers, she also is out at night twice a week providing condoms and panic alarms, along with a colleague who offers Hepatitis B and other vaccinations.

Shona is new to running but has set a goal of running the 10K Great Manchester run and has set up a JustGiving page with to a view to raising much needed funds for Ugly Mugs.  To date she has raised £885.00 in donations but the more that can be raised, the better.  You can donate to Shona and this very worthwhile cause at Just Giving

*Also posted on the Huffington Post

A Day for Charity

You may remember that I recently wrote A Charity Case on my blog further to the recent Facebook no makeup selfie thing on Facebook for Cancer.

The point in my post was that these Facebook games are always about the same charity and what I wanted to do was emphasis that although charities like Cancer Research are important; there are others out there too that need help and support.

Everyone has a charity that means something to them because a friend or relative is or has been affected or indeed themselves and those charities need support just as much.

The idea was that a date would be arranged for next month whereby we would all post on our blogs/Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest accounts etc a picture of ourselves holding a sign with the name of a charity that you support, together with the link or text message number of how you can donate and the hashtag #IDonated.

I was excited to see that many of you contacted me and said that this was something that you wished to be involved in. I have decided to use Friday 11^thApril 2014 as the day for everyone to post and hope that you will become involved.

I thought that I would tell you a little about the charity that I have chosen, which is one that I have heard about recently.

Capes 4 Heroes is a non profit organisation that have a very simple, but very powerful idea. Here’s what they have to say:

“We make and personalize superhero capes for kids with disabilities, kids with life threatening illnesses and kids who just need to feel empowered. We hope our capes give these deserving kids an extra boost of strength and courage and make them feel like the superheroes they truly are!”

Sometimes it isn’t about trying to cure a disease, sometimes it is as simple as putting a smile on a child’s face when they really need to smile.

You can donate a cape to a child for $30 or alternatively whatever you can afford to via Paypal on this link You can also nominate a child who you think needs a superhero cape of their own on the website. They also send capes to the UK.

I look forward to seeing your posts on the 11^th!

Vicky x

A Charity Case

This week we have seen the latest Facebook craze which is to raise awareness for breast cancer by posting a makeup free picture of yourself. 
 

This originated back in September when Escensual.com launched the campaign Dare to Bare for breast cancer, which aimed at getting women to get sponsored to go to work or have a night out without their make-up on.   The first 1000 people were sponsored £1.00 by the company.

That has been taken over this week by Facebook users by posting a makeup free selfie.  The problem is that whilst many people have posted the photos, they are putting little or no information about cancer and are forgetting about the donation part. They simply post the photo, nominate some people to join and then forget about it.

I am aware that Cancer Research posted a message yesterday saying that although they hadn't organised the Facebook campaign, there was a text message number you could donate to (text BEAT to 70099 to donate £3).  For the majority of postings I have seen however, it was picture only.

It was the same with the colour of your bra game and where you put your handbag.  Neither did much of anything to help, unless writing "on the table" suddenly cures cancer.

Am I being too judgemental?  Probably. 

But what actually irritates me (and this may get people shouting at me) is why is it that these Facebook crazes always fixated on cancer?  Whilst Cancer Research is of course a very worthy cause, what about the other charities that need donations and awareness as well?  Alzheimer’s Research, The Stroke Association, FMA UK, SANE, the RSPCA, the Down’s Syndrome Association, everyone has a charity that means something to them because a friend or relative is or has been affected or indeed themselves.

I want to do something to emphasis that although charities like Cancer Research are important; there are others out there too that need help and support. 

My suggestion is simple.  If I can get enough people together who would like to do the same thing, my idea is that on a day to be decided next month we would all post on our blogs and Facebook/Twitter accounts a picture of ourselves holding a sign with the name of your chosen charity, the link or text message number of how you can donate and the hashtag #IDonated.

 

 

You don’t have to donate a lot.  You can donate as little as a pound if you want to.  The point is that this would be more proactive than taking a silly picture in order to raise awareness.

 

 

This is just a fledging idea at the moment so if anyone has any thoughts and hopefully wants to collaborate on this with me, please email me at thecurvedopinion@gmail.com. 

Thanks for reading!

Vicky xx