Time is running out to register!

January 19, 2018 by Peter · Leave a comment

Click here to apply for the CBF Triathlon

You are running out of time to register for the Christian Blandford Fund Triathlon!

Lots of people have now signed up but we also have lots of friends who said they are going to sign up who have not yet done so. You know who you are!

Please do so as soon as possible by clicking here and following the instructions. All participants are expected to make a donation of a minimum of £99 to cover their costs but if you would rather do this later just sign up with Skyline and let us know that the payment is coming later.

On a separate note we received a lovely thank you note from St George’s Hospital which we would like to share with you:

Thank you from St. George’s

 

 

Posted in Blog, Fund Raising, Triathlon. Tagged with , .

Santa at St George’s 2017

December 23, 2017 by Peter · Leave a comment

I can’t believe that this is the eighth year in a row that we have gone to St George’s to hand out Christmas presents. As usual it was a fantastic day and I am always impressed with how high the spirits are amongst the parents and staff. Thank you very much to the wonderful play specialists for helping Santa with his bags and to Hugh Miller from Boy Meets Girl Photography for the fantastic photos. Amy and Darren did a great job of ordering and wrapping the presents and Henry and Christian were on hand to help Santa.

Parents can download print quality versions of the photos here

Merry Christmas!


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

Kids electric Tesla donated to the CBF

December 16, 2017 by Peter · Leave a comment

Mark Goodier, the Radio 1 DJ, has very kindly donated a kids electric Tesla Model S to the Christian Blandford Fund which we are auctioning to raise funds for the upcoming refurbishment of the children’s wards at St George’s.

It is an incredible toy designed by Radio Flyer in collaboration with Tesla, the beautiful design features working headlights, turbine rims and an authentic Tesla paint finish (metallic red). It is powered by flight speed lithium-ion technology to provide more play time than any competitive product, charges in only 3 hours. It can be set to 3 or 6 mph perfect for children up to 7 years old.

This beautiful piece of machinery is second only to the real Model S and retails at £549. Because 100% of the proceeds of this auction are going to charity there are no fees to eBay and the amount paid will have gift aid applied, so the charity will receive 25% on top of the final price.


Please tag anybody who have kids the right age and may be interested. We are making it a short auction so we can get it to the new owners in time for Christmas!

We would prefer collection from Sevenoaks but would be willing to arrange delivery at cost if required.

The listing on E-bay is here.

 

Posted in Blog, Fund Raising. Tagged with , , , .

Artwork installed in York Hospital’s Children’s Ward

November 13, 2017 by Peter · Leave a comment

Most of the work we do has been for St George’s Hospital in Tooting but we help in other places too. We just received this thank you from York Teaching Hospital…

 

Thanks to the Christian Blandford Fund the Arts Team at York Teaching Hospital has worked with staff on York Hospital’s Children’s ward to coordinate new art work for the bedrooms.  The Trust’s Estates Team freshened up the walls with a lick of paint and a bright new colour scheme, ready for the addition of child-friendly illustrations. We commissioned local illustrator Tanya McClelland to produce the artwork, working with patients, visitors and staff to choose the final designs.  We felt her playful illustrations were perfect for the project, with designs taking inspiration from parks and outdoor spaces across the city of York and the beaches of Yorkshires East Coast.

We would like to thank the Christian Blandford Fund for making this project a reality and helping to transform the ward.

Once again many thanks from all our staff this change to the ward environment will make a huge difference.

If you have not yet entered for the CBF Lake District Triathlon and plan to do so, please do so now as numbers are limited and places are filling up fast.

Click here to apply for the CBF Triathlon

Posted in Blog, Fund Raising, Things We've Done, Triathlon.

Thank you Wendy!

October 26, 2017 by Peter · Leave a comment

Christian’s nana, Wendy Myers decided against entering the CBF Triathlon even though we are convinced she is more than capable. Wendy  decided instead to organise a bridge afternoon to raise money for The Christian Blandford Fund. There was a lot of work involved and, with Gift Aid,  Wendy raised and incredible £1500. Thank you so much Wendy!

If you have decided to join us for the Triathlon next May but have not got around to applying yet, please do so now, we need to start organising accommodation and the sooner we get a better idea of numbers the better.

APPLY HERE

 

Posted in Blog, Fund Raising.

The CBF 2018 Triathlon – update

October 18, 2017 by Peter · Leave a comment
The CBF Triathlon

Click here for more details

 

We are very happy to say that the take up for the CBF triathlon in May next year has been fantastic but we still have a long way to go. In order to join us for what promises to be a fantastic event please follow the following steps

Step  1 – Please click here to donate to the Christian Blandford Fund

Step 2 – Click here to sign up with Skyline who are organising the event

Step 3 – click here to set up a Virgin Money Giving page to start your fund raising select organised event and search for “CBF”

Thank you to those who have donated more than the recommended £99 per person to join us. The extra amount you have given goes straight into the fund, and will help us meet our ambitious target of raising £100,000.

We welcome people signing up in teams and couples but  remind you that the recommended donation of £99 is per person taking part. The cost of entry for the charity is £320 per entry but the Blandford family are happy to be donating the majority of this fee and we ask everybody, in return, to make the minimum donation of £99 each.

Gift Aid – please tick the gift aid box if you are a UK tax payer. If you pay  more than 25% tax, we recommend you making a note of this donation for your own tax return.  If you are an additional tax rate payer, for example, you can claim back another 20% of your donation on your 2017/18 tax return. Many people forget to do this.

You can see the progress of the Campaign on the Virgin Money Giving page

If you use Facebook and Twitter please follow us and share our posts. Social media really helps!

The last  big event we organised was a 10km run in 2014. Life was tougher in those days but this was a certainly high point in a dark time…

Posted in Blog, Fund Raising, Triathlon.

The big announcement – please read and share

October 2, 2017 by Peter · Leave a comment

Ten year’s ago this month we wrote this on our blog…

Last week Christian had a bone scan and a CT scan and the results came back today, he is clear of cancer!

We’ve got a long way to go and he is still in danger from the treatment, his kidney function, for example, is still not what it should be, but we are obviously very relieved. There was a strange moment in the school car park when he started back at school. A whisper went around the crowds of parents and teachers when they saw Christian, and as he stood there looking confused, a round of applause went up from everybody around him.
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Claudia and I have decided that we should celebrate the fact that, not only did Christian survive against all odds, but he as matured into a wonderful and talented young man. We both feel the triathlon planned for 2018 will be a great event and opportunity to raise a significant amount of money for the much needed refurb of the children’s wards at St George’s. We have had some very positive feedback from people who want to be involved and the high cost did not seem to put too many people off. However, we were still unsure.
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We have decided that we’d mark this momentous year by sponsoring the event ourselves. The triathlon will cost the Christian Blandford Fund £330 per person and we initially wanted people to cover the majority of the entry fee themselves. Instead, we have decided that we will make a donation to cover the majority of the cost of entry for the first 70 people.
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All that we ask is that those who sign up make a small contribution (we suggest £99) themselves and make a big effort in their fund raising. 100% of money raised will go to the Christian Blandford Fund.
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We hope that by covering most of the costs of this event, our contribution will end up raising significantly more than simply donating the money to the Christian Blandford Fund. With your help we aim to raise over £100,000 which will make a massive difference to the refurbishment of this children’s wards at St George’s. .
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More details
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The triathlon will be in the Lake District  on the 18th-20th May 2018 and will entail a 2 mile open water canoe, an 8 mile bike ride, a 7 mile trek up Haystacks followed by another 13 mile bike ride cycling through some of the most beautiful parts of the Lake District.
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Anybody that attends would also have to make their own way to the Lake District and pay for their accommodation and meals while they are there. Skyline will be very happy to help you find rooms and we hope to be grouped in a one or two hotels with preferential rates. The plan is to travel up Friday night & have a chilled evening as it’s an early start on the Saturday. Saturday night, after the triathlon, we hope to arrange a celebratory dinner and a fun night with as many of the attendees as possible.
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It will be a lot of fun and we are very excited about it and really hope that by sponsoring the event we can raise a lot of money and have a lot of fun with many of our friends and family. People are very welcome to come up and support even if they are not partaking.
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Peter and Claudia Blandford
Posted in Blog, Christian's Story, Fund Raising.

We need your help – please respond and share

July 6, 2017 by Peter · 3 Comments

St George’s Hospital, Tooting, is about to start renovation works on all their children’s wards and they have asked the Christian Blandford Fund to assist with both ideas and financing. This could be the biggest and most important project we have supported and will directly help thousands of sick children every year. The children’s wards badly needed renovation when Christian was a frequent visitor ten years ago, and very little to improve them has been done since. We have not been able to help until now because there has always been a long term rebuilding plan which, frustratingly, never materialised. We now have the green light to go ahead and make some significant changes.

We have been looking at some fund raising ideas and would really appreciate your feedback on this idea.

Earlier this year, Claudia took part in a triathlon in the Lake District which entailed a 2 mile open water canoe, an 8 mile bike ride which included the very tough Honister Pass (most people got off their bikes and walked this part!), a 7 mile trek up Haystacks followed by another 13 mile bike ride cycling through some of the most beautiful parts of the Lake District.

Along with her 12 team mates, they raised £14,000 for charity and had an absolutely incredible weekend. Claudia and the rest of the trustees think this would be a fabulous event for the Christian Blandford Fund. If we could get 70-100 people involved, it would be a lot of fun, we’d all get fitter training for it and we could raise a significant amount of money for a well targeted project.

The problem is that an event like this is not possible to organise on the cheap. In order for it to be safe for all those taking part, it requires route marshals, support vehicles, instructors, first aid staff; hire of bikes, canoes and insurance. We have asked Skyline events, who organised the last one Claudia attended to quote for an exclusive event for the Christian Blandford Fund.

The event will cost the charity, depending on numbers, about £330 per person. Anybody that attends would also have to make their own way to the Lake District and pay for their accommodation and meals while they are there. Skyline and us will be very happy to help you find rooms and we hope to be grouped in a one or two hotels with preferential rates. The plan is to travel up Friday night & have a chilled evening as it’s an early start on the Saturday. Saturday night, after the triathlon, we hope to arrange a celebratory dinner and a fun night with as many of the attendees as possible.

We do not believe in expensive events where a large part of the money raised goes to pay for the participant to have a great weekend. This leaves us with a dilema: is it possible to have the event such as this and maintain our charity ethos where money that is donated goes directly to help those that need help and not on staff salaries and expenses?

The conclusion we have come to is that the cost of the event has to be covered by the participant and the gift aid on any amount they raise. So for example, having a £150 registration fee for the participant who would then have a fund raising target of £900, the gift aid on the money raised plus the registration fee would cover the costs. This means 100% of anything donated would go to the help sick children in hospital. People could, of course, pay the full amount of the event without having a fund raising target at all.

We would really appreciate your help with this, for it to work we’ll need at least 70 people who attend and fund raise. We are torn as we feel this event could be amazing, but do not want to exclude anybody by the entry fee or fund raising target. We would love to hear your feedback. If you have read all this and are excited a the prospect of joining us in May 2018 for a weekend of walking, cycling, canoeing and no doubt lots of giggles, then please tell us. Similarly if you feel that the joining fee and/or fund raising target is too high, we want to know.

The brochure is here

Please either reply by email or we welcome a public discussion on our Facebook page where this post will also go.

https://www.facebook.com/christianblandford

We need your help – please read, respond and share…

St George’s Hospital, Tooting, is about to start renovation works…

Posted by christianblandford.com on Thursday, 6 July 2017

Posted in Blog, Fund Raising.

Who ever said never meet your hero didn’t know Ludovico Einaudi

June 18, 2017 by Peter · Leave a comment

Christian’s Favourite composer and musician is Ludovico Einaudi who has been a huge inspiration since Pete’s friend Sean Gardiner recommended him. Peter and Christian were both very excited to be going to Chelsea Hospital to watch him live in such a beautiful outdoor venue. What Christian didn’t know is that Marc Parish, his uncle, had arranged for a meet and greet after the show.

On the way into London, we noticed a piano at Sevenoaks station with a sign saying “feel free to play” so Christian did…

The concert was amazing and we were so lucky to go a  very small after party where Christian got to spend some quality time discussing music with his hero, Ludovico, who was incredibly charming and attentive even though had just come off the stage from what must have been an exhausting show.

Thank you so much to much to Marc, Zeina from Decca, Gianluca, and of course Ludovico and his amazing team of charming musicians for giving a young lad and his father a wonderful day.

Posted in Blog, Christian's Story. Tagged with , , , .

Thank you Sophie and new music from Christian

June 10, 2017 by Peter · Leave a comment

Christian, continues to excel in his music. If anybody wants to hear more of the tracks he has written, he has set up a channel on Sound Cloud. You can listen on a browser here, Soundcloud also has apps on IOS, Android and even Sonos, where you can install the app and search for him.

Christian

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Claudia’s friend, Sophie Martin has done the London to Brighton challenge for the Christian Blandford Fund. That is a 100km run! an amazing achievement and we are so grateful that she chose the Christian Blandford Fund to support. Sophie has raised nearly £1000 with gift aid and all of that money, like everything raised for the Christian Blandford Fund, will go to improving the lives of children unfortunate enough to be in hospital, particularly those affected by cancer. Sophie’s Virgin Money Giving page is here .

Sophie

Posted in Blog, Christian's Story, Fund Raising. Tagged with , .
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