Category Archives: Blog

The Greatest Showman Sing Along in Sevenoaks!

THE STAG THEATRE

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 4TH

4 – 6.30PM £15 per person,

includes:
Popcorn and a choice of soft drink (bar open) In aid of the Christian Blandford Fund – raising money to refurbish the children’s ward at St George’s Hospital, Tooting For tickets please contact: Ruth Bussey or
Kym Herregods

Thank you so much Kym and Ruth for organising this event for the Christian Blandford Fund,  we can’t wait to go along and enjoy what promises to be an amazing night!

Claudia, Kim, Leyla and Ruth returning from the CBF triathlon
Posted in Blog, Fund Raising.

One of the more unusual items we have purchased…

One of the benefits the Christian Blandford Fund has is that its small size makes it very efficient so we can approve purchases that meet our criteria very quickly. The wonderful play specialists at St George’s had an interesting request, a mini MRI scanner. Children being treated often find MRI machines scary and, as they need to lie very still, their fear can not only be distressing for them but can lead to unusable images. This is how Justine, the play specialist put it…

This piece of equipment would absolutely prove so invaluable in preparing children/young people for scans and it would also help to reduce the number of patients who go for the scan under a G.A through fear of the actual machine. Showing patients exactly what it looks like (rather than a photograph), how it works and the noise it makes can definitely help to reduce fears, anxieties and misconceptions which will enable fewer G.A’s, risks and waiting times for the patient/parent carer. This is such exciting news for us and we have waited so long for a revolutionary idea like this!

I wondered if I could make a wish for the MAGNETOM from you, I completely appreciate that it is very expensive, but the value it would bring to Play In Hospital at St George’s would be second to none, state of the art and help to bring us up to modern day healthcare standards! Which I strive to achieve at all times.

We were able to approve the cost of it quickly and I am happy to say that it is now being used on the ward at St Georges.

This is from a recent e-mail from Justine.

Please see pictures below of our lovely Olivia with my Play Specialist Hayley, learning all about having an MRI scan using the Mini-Magnetom MRI scanner model, which the wonderful Christian Blandford Charity purchased for us to help to teach our patients about having a blood test. As you can see, Olivia really benefitted from the experience and had a wonderful time learning about having an MRI scan. Olivia is a patient on Pinckney ward and has recently had her head henna’d which she absolutely loves. 

We are delighted that the scanner is being used and is making a difference and we wish Olivia all our love and best wishes.

Posted in Blog, Things We've Done. Tagged with , , , .

Our collaboration with The Tesla Owners Group UK and Elon Musk!

It started off with one or two Tesla owners donating mini Teslas that they received from a referral scheme. Mark Goodier, you may remember, donated his for us to auction and raise funds for our charity. Other owners approached children’s hospitals to see if they would like them, yet more owners pledged money to buy more. Will Fealey, the president of the Tesla Owners UK group had the bright idea of asking Elon Musk for support and Elon agreed to help! There are more details in this news story.

The Christian Blandford Fund have offered to help in collecting the money, claiming the gift aid, and assisting in the administration as much as we can. It fits perfectly in our mandate, to help improve the lives of children and their families, particularly those affected by cancer, during prolonged stays in NHS hospitals. We have bought a couple of little electric cars for St George’s in the past and thoroughly agree that going to an op in an Electric mini Tesla is much more fun (and less scary) than going in a wheel chair.

We are also delighted that Will Fealey has joined our charity as a trustee and we look forward to helping Will and the generous Tesla owners who have donated help as many children as they can.

You can read Will’s post on the Tesla Owners UK site if you would like to recommend a hospital or hospice who would benefit from a Radio Flyer mini Tesla you can do so here.

Amazon Smile

Don’t forget that we have joined Amazon Smile. If you use this link before you shop at Amazon, they will make a donation of 1.5% of your expenditure for no extra cost to you!

Please click on this link to set The Christian Blandford Fund as your charity of choice. Thank you again!

Amazon Smile

Posted in Blog, Things We've Done. Tagged with , .

Finton House school fete supports the CBF

It is always lovely when somebody chooses to support the Christian Blandford Fund, not because they know the Blandford family but because they have been touched by something we have done and want to support what we do.

Finton House School is very local to St George's Hospital and have picked the CBF to be the chosen support in their Summer fete. One of the mums at the school, Lisa, sent us this message...

I suggested your charity to be our chosen support for the upcoming school fete for a few a reasons.  We spent 3 years in and out of Pinckney ward with our son Rory as St George’s was our local hospital.  Rory was complicated so was more often then not whisked off to GOSH.  However, it was during ours stays at George’s we read about Christian’s story and your charity on the posters on the ward but also continued to follow you and your hard work online.

As a fellow parent who has experienced life within the 4 walls of a hospital (and the maze which is life in the community when not there), I have been so impressed by your attention to detail, your true understanding of what will really help and your generosity of spirit in wanting to make it easier for others.

 

Photo kindly supplied by Finton House School

Thank you so much to the staff, pupils and parents at Finton House for thinking of us. St George’s are about to embark on a major refurb of the Children’s wards, something we have been pushing for since Christian was ill and we have been making a big fund raising push to raise the money needed, so your timing is perfect!

Posted in Blog, Fund Raising.

Thank you so much!

The 2018 CBF Triathlon Most of the sponsorship money has now come in and we have raised a staggering £95,000 including gift aid in the Christian Blandford Fund triathlon. You can track the latest number here, we are incredibly close to our £100,000 target.   Peter, Claudia and the rest of the trustees would like to thank all the incredible people who took part this year and made such an enormous effort in the fund raising. We would also, of course, like to thank everybody who supported this fantastic cause by sponsoring one of their friends in the event. We appreciate that most of you must get asked to support various causes frequently, so we are particularly grateful to so many of you who chose to dig deep and support us this year. We are in discussions with St George's and thanks to you wonderful participants and sponsors, the refurbishment of the children's ward should be underway soon. Amazon Smile We have joined Amazon Smile. If you use this link before you shop at Amazon, they will make a donation of 1.5% of your expenditure for no extra cost to you! Please click on this link to set The Christian Blandford Fund as your charity of choice. Thank you again! Amazon Smile
Posted in Blog, Fund Raising, Triathlon. Tagged with .

Christian Blandford Fund – GDPR

If your inbox is anything like ours, it’s recently been filled with emails asking you to read new privacy policies or asking permission to email you. This is because of a new European privacy law called the General Data Protection Regulation (or GDPR), which comes into effect on May 25. While this is an EU law, the basic principle behind it - treat people's personal data the way you'd want your own data to be treated - benefits everyone. We have always followed this principle in caring for your data, but we have taken this opportunity to review my processes and policies yet again. You can view the updated privacy policy at https://www.christianblandford.com/privacy-policy/ Our blog posts automatically feed Facebook and our email list. if you are reading this on e-mail, it's because you've either signed up for a fund raising event, or you signed up on our website. You can opt out at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of each newsletter email. I hope you're finding the emails useful, and thank you for subscribing.
Posted in Blog. Tagged with .

A nice message from Claudia

Good News!! Today Christian and I have been at Great Ormond Street Hospital for his annual ultrasound/bloods/X-rays/consultant for his kidney. It's an amazing hospital full of wonderful Dr's, nurses, play specialists, therapists etc. However it is also a sad place full of very, VERY sick children. It reminds me how far we have come and how incredibly lucky we are. The Doctor told us that Christians kidney ultrasound looked good and assuming the bloods and urine come back OK, we won't need to go back again!! ??
Posted in Blog, Christian's Story.

One lucky supporter will win a week in an incredible Spanish villa with its own pool

As a thank you to the wonderful people who have supported the Christian Blandford Fund, the Blandford family are donating a week in a villa in Begur, Spain to one lucky winner. Everyone who has sponsored somebody, donated to our charity or is joining us for the event will be entered. The lucky winner will be drawn on the Saturday night after the triathlon and that person will be able to choose any week outside of July and August in the next two years to take friends and family on an amazing holiday. You will have a choice of either Villa Begur or Villa Sa Riera subject to availability, both have 6 bedrooms, their own pools and sleep up to 12 people. You can compare the two villas and get more details on www.begurvillas.com. Anybody who is taking part in the triathlon please feel free to use this offer when raising sponsorship.  Anybody who sponsors you will automatically be entered. As another thank you, participants in the triathlon will be eligible for 20% discount for any booking in the next three years. For a chance to win a week in one of these incredible villas you can of course sponsor Claudia and Peter, our fund raising page is here . Thank you very much!

Villa Begur

Villa Sa Riera

  The winner of the free week in the villa will be chosen randomly.  The Christian Blandford Fund is not paying anything for the prize. The winner and their chosen companions will have to make their own way to Begur in the Costa Brava. The entry into the draw is not contingent on a donation, if you wish to be entered into the draw please send us an email with your details. Good luck!
Posted in Blog, Fund Raising, Triathlon.

We need a few more people to join us on the CBF Tri!

The sign ups for the CBF Triathlon are going really well and we are very excited that there will be nearly 50 of us taking part.  On the 18th May we are going up to the Lake District and having a fantastic weekend while hopefully raising £100,000 to completely refurbish the children's ward at St George's Hospital. We would love it if another few people joined us. If you are partaking, can we please ask you to forward this to others who may be interested in going with you? It would be fantastic if we could get the number up to 60 participants. If you need to pull the heartstrings, feel free to use this video! If you want to appeal to the wallet strings point out that The Christian Blandford Fund does not pay any trustees or staff and 100% of the money raised will go to our aim of improving the lives of seriously ill children, particularly those affected by cancer. Thank you, Peter and Claudia Blandford  
Posted in Blog, Fund Raising, Triathlon. Tagged with .

Christian amazes the crowds at Toulouse Airport

We hope you enjoy this video taken at Toulouse Airport last week For those of you who are either participating or thinking of participating in our triathlon, please feel free to share this with people who have or are thinking about sponsoring you, you can use the share buttons at the bottom of this page. Also please take a look at our previous blog post with some useful info for triathlon participants...
Some great news and important info for triathlon participants
   
Posted in Blog, Christian's Story, Fund Raising.