Merry Christmas Everybody!

Festive fun for everyone!

Santa and Mrs Claus took time out of their busy schedule to bring toys to the boys and girls supported by our project in Northern Ireland at a recent family day out.  A cracking time was had by all at this well loved event, made possible by the Abby Harding Foundation.


Scottish project team Claire, Mary and Beth with Dani Greer
of Digby Brown and her goody bag delivering helpers!

Meanwhile, the Scottish project team were able to take 160 people along to watch Cinderella at the Lyceum theatre, Edinburgh!  A modern reimagining of the traditional tale, everyone enjoyed the songs, the ugly sisters and the goody bags supplied by Digby Brown solicitors who also sponsored the event.  

We're definitely starting to feel festive!



Posted by Claire, Regional Fundraising Officer (Scotland)

Louise Wilkinson Wins Prestigious UKABIF Award 2012 For Inspiration

This year’s UK Acquired Brain Injury Forum (UKABIF) Award for Inspiration was presented to Louise Wilkinson, Training Manager at the Oxfordshire-based Child Brain Injury Trust.   The Award was presented at the 4th UKABIF Annual Conference 2012 which took place this month in Birmingham.

Louise won the Award because of her awareness raising work on behalf of young offenders affected by Acquired Brain Injury, which also includes setting up the Criminal Justice and Acquired Brain Injury Interest Group (CJABIIG).  The CJABIIG was established in January 2011 as a consortium of representative groups spanning public, private and third sector organisations.

Introducing the Award, Professor Michael Barnes, UKABIF Chair said: “Despite her day job at the Child Brain Injury Trust, Louise has been inspirational through her efforts, determination and dedication to running workshops for youth justice professionals to raise awareness of the significant number of children and young people in the youth justice system with an undiagnosed Acquired Brain Injury.  This also planted the seed for what was to become the CJABIIG, with Louise being not only one of the founding members, but providing the secretariat, chairing the meetings and organising the CJABIIGs first conference”.

The Stephen McAleese Award for Inspiration is for an individual in the field of ABI and was presented by John and Susan McAleese.  

Commenting on the Award, Louise said: “I’m very pleased to have received this Award.  The CJABIIG has matured to be a powerful lobby group, driving forward the issue of Acquired Brain Injury and offending across Government.  Recently we’ve managed to procure the services of Lord Ramsbotham as the new Chair of the CJABIIG which further strengthens our influence and reach within Government – the works goes on”.

Press Release Submitted by UKABIF 

Road Safety Week

Be seen, be safe!

Monday 19th November marks the start of Road Safety Week.  Sadly, a number of children we support sustained their brain injury as a result of a road traffic accident.  Children such as Melissa, who was knocked down on her way home from school at the age of 8.  Melissa's mum Barbara said it turned her world upside down, "Melissa was in a coma, she suffered 5 bleeds on the brain and suffered a brain injury.  We were told to say our goodbyes that day, there was little hope."

Thankfully, Melissa came round from her coma and made a very promising recovery, "very quickly she began to walk, talk, feed herself. It was like a miracle. We were getting our little girl back." Barbara adds, "Melissa is now 11 years old and continues to amaze us every day with her achievements."



Barbara, Melissa, Konar and Andy collecting their
'Inspirational Family' award from Digby Brown's
Kathleen McMonagle at our recent lunch

It hasn't been plain sailing to achieve this progress, with some difficulties at school and the issue of premature puberty to deal with in a sensitive, child-friendly fashion.  The Child Brain Injury Trust has been there to support the whole family over the years, helping them and Melissa's teachers to better understand brain injury. 

"Child Brain Injury Trust have been a valuable support and continue to be. They helped us and the school recognise her needs. They go into schools and train the teachers and worked with Melissa’s peers to give them a better understanding. They also have awareness days for professionals. They will be involved with Melissa all through school."



Wearing bright or fluorescent clothes during the day, and reflective
materials in the dark can all help.  The Child Brain Injury Trust's
project in Scotland has a number of reflective 'slapwraps'
to hand out to pupils during their talks in schools.

There are a number of things we can all do to help keep children safer on the roads: adhere to speed limits when driving; be aware of cyclists and give them plenty of room; help our children learn to stop, look and listen; make sure children are as visible as possible - especially as the winter days and nights draw in.

We have some fabby bike helmets for sale that have LED lighting the whole way around them.  Click here for more info.  A portion of the sales of these helmets will also go to funding our work.

Posted by Claire, Regional Fundraising Officer (Scotland)
 









Scottish Awards Lunch

Celebrating those who make our work in Scotland possible and so rewarding

Our Scottish project was able to officially recognise the support and inspiration we receive from those we work with at our 21st birthday celebration and awards ceremony on 19th October.  Held at Edinburgh's Royal Botanic Gardens, and made possible due to the support of Digby Brown Solicitors, it was a wonderful day, enjoyed by all.



Jacqueline McPherson (Specialist Paediatric Neurology Nurse at Royal Hospital for Sick
Children, Edinburgh), received the Impact Award in recognition of her close work with the
Scottish project over the years. Awarded by Robert Swanney, Senior Partner at Digby Brown Solicitors.

The Shearer family with Kathleen McMonagle of Digby Brown.
Deserving winners of the Inspirational Family Award.



Lauchlan Dougall and family, winner of Supporter of the Year Award.
Lauchlan raised over £2500 for the charity this year; a truly inspirational young man.

The awards were hand carved by Ike Curran especially for the occasion. More info on Ike's work can be found here: http://www.wheelchairwoodturners.org.uk/index.htm

Added by Claire, Regional Fundraising Officer (Scotland)

Summer Fete at the Trust Centre

Kelly Sarginson and other students at the Trust Centre organised a fundraising event in aid of the Child Brain Injury Trust. 

Those cake look delicious!

On the 26th June 2012 students at the Trust Centre all gathered with family and staff to enjoy a garden fete in the grounds of Alderwasley Hall School. 

Everyone helped by baking cakes and bringing in items to sell. They sold bric a brac, books, clothes, cakes and held a raffle. There was also the chance to have your face painted. 

We would like to thank Kelly Sarginson and the other students at the Trust Centre who worked hard to organise this garden fete in aid of the Child Brain Injury Trust. 

Kelly decided to organise the fundraising event; "I chose this charity because I have got a brain injury myself and I wanted to help others like me."

"I got a lot out of the experience  -  I learned a lot about The Child Brain Injury Trust, learned about how much planning and hard work goes into something like this and it was great to be able to do something for somebody else."

This was a great opportunity to help us raise awareness; we would like to thank everyone involved and a big well done for raising £158.65.

Theresa attending the cheque presentation. 

Posted by Emily Honey, Fundraising Assistant emilyhoney@cbituk.org 

Because Our Community Matters...

Part Two of How to Fundraise for Free

How our Supermarkets are lending a helping hand in the community and letting you have your say.

 

Nominate the Child Brain Injury Trust Today 

Most of us have been shopping in Asda or Waitrose and received a green token to place in the box of our choice at the check out. If you are anything like me you spend quite a lot of time choosing which box to place your token in. 

This is a great way to have your say in the community; however, you can have even more of a say than that. Each month both Waitrose and Asda support 3 local charities per branch by allocating a percentage of £1000 per charity according to the number of tokens each receives. So keep putting them in! 

Wouldn't it be great if the next time you went shopping you saw the Child Brain Injury Trust as one of the causes being supported? You can make this possible. Another great way to fundraise at no cost to yourself! 

All you need to do is go into your local store and fill out an application form and hand it over at the customer services desk. It really is that simple and it only takes five minutes! 

Alternatively you can nominate a cause with your local Asda store online - all you need to do is go to http://storelocator.asda.com/#!/  and search for your local store. Once you are on your store home page you will see a box on the right hand side labelled 'You choose... nominate a cause'. All you need to do is click on this box to nominate the Child Brain Injury Trust. 

So far we have received money from Waitrose stores in Hexham in the North East and Headington in Oxford. So all you need to do the next time you are shopping in Asda or Waitrose is fill out a form to nominate the Child Brain Injury Trust's local work in your area. 

Thank you to all who nominated us and we will keep looking for other ways to fundraise for free. 

Posted by Emily Honey, Fundraising Assistant, emilyhoney@cbituk.org 

A Mind Boggling Challenge

Our fundraiser Anne-Marie turned her hand to teaching this week at the Manor Preparatory School to deliver a session about understanding Acquired Brain Injury during Year 5 and 6's PSHCE lessons. 

Pupils at the Manor Preparatory 

During this academic year we have been privileged to be chosen as the Manor Preparatory School's charity of the year. As part of this partnership our community fundraiser Anne-Marie Macmillan went into their school this week to work with year 5 and 6's during their PSHCE lessons to help them understand the difficulties of an acquired brain injury.

The pupils were challenged to some different tasks to simulate what it would be like to live with an acquired brain injury. Firstly the pupils wore special glasses that created the effect of sideways vision and wore rubber gloves to create a lack of feeling and had to try retrieve items from a pencil case (pictured left).

The pupils were also tasked with completing a jigsaw puzzle - seemingly an easy task - but they had to wear a mask with pin prick eye holes to simulate tunnel vision (pictured below). However, the most popular challenge of all was the 'seeing stars' game. This challenged the pupils to trace around a star with the opposite hand to which they normally write with and only look at the mirror reflection. Definitely the most difficult!

Wayne Rooney even made an appearance!

Rowan Knowles, Chairman of Friends of the Manor, contacted Anne-Marie after the event to say: "I enjoyed being present at the workshops very much, it was clear that the girls enjoyed them enormously too, and the safety message was so important."

These workshops came with a serious message as Mrs Knowles acknowledges; a lot of childhood acquired brain injuries are the result of cycling accidents. So remember to wear your helmet next time you are on your bicycle or scooter.

We would like to extend our thanks and appreciation to the Manor Preparatory School for welcoming our charity into their school and fundraising for us.

If you think you would like to fundraise for the Child Brain Injury Trust at your school then please email annemariemacmillan@cbituk.org.

Congratulations Zip Sliders

Congratulations to everyone who braved the 250m zip slide across the Manchester Canal on Sunday 14th October. 

Don't Look Down!

The sun was shining for our 33 participants on Sunday 14th October. They each zip wired across the Manchester Canal starting 30m up the Air Shard at the Manchester War Museum North (pictured left) and ending on the other side of the canal at the Lowry. 

We would like to thank all of you who took the leap of faith from such a height! 

Well done Rachel

In total we have managed to raise over £4,500 and the money is still coming in. So a big thank you to everyone who supported our zip sliders. 

Among the 33 participants was our very own Rachel Ritter from the fundraising team (pictured left) who managed to face her fear of heights and stepped out 30m up in the air, gaining speeds of up to 25 miles per hour as she traveled 250m across.

Well done to everyone who took part and we hope you had a great time - we all enjoyed seeing the photos and cannot wait to see the footage from the headcam one of our participants, Gaynor Exley, wore as she traveled across. We will make sure we share the footage, so check our Facebook page regularly for updates - www.facebook.com/childbraininjurytrust. 

In the meantime here are some photos of our brave participants! 

If you think you or your friends may be interested in a zip slide event in aid of the Child Brain Injury Trust then please contact emilyhoney@cbituk.org and we will help you find one local to you.

 By Emily Honey - Fundraising Assistant for the Child Brain Injury Trust

Have You Booked Your Tandem Skydive Yet?

Part One of fundraising for FREE

Firstly, I would like to say a huge well done to our two skydivers this weekend - Kerry Black and Peter Tucker (pictured below). Both of them have been working hard to reach their fundraising targets and would appreciate any donations however small it may be -
http://www.justgiving.com/kerrenceb or http://www.justgiving.com/petertuckerskydive. 

Pictured: Peter Tucker's Tandem Skydive

Come rain or shine we are eternally grateful to everyone who has undertaken a Tandem Skydive in aid of the Child Brain Injury Trust this year. As we may have mentioned, this year is particularly special to us, it is our 21st Birthday! In 2012 we pledged to raise £210,000 to help us celebrate our birthday. This cannot be achieved without your help. 

Pictured: Kerry Black parachuting

We understand times are hard and raising money for charity may not be the first thing on people's minds, this is why we wanted to let you know you could be doing your Skydive for FREE. All you need to do is raise £395 and your jump will be paid for.

If you are interested, all you need to do is book your jump today with Skyline - www.skylineevents.co.uk, or contact emilyhoney@cbituk.org to help get you started. It is that simple!

Now it's your turn to Skydive 

Once again thank you to Kerry Black and Peter Tucker who thoroughly enjoyed their Tandem Skydive; although Peter did let me know he might not be rushing to do another again. Well done! I look forward to hearing from some more daring skydivers soon. 

Hibs icon Pat Stanton launches drive after charity helps grandson

          

Pat Stanton with Graeme and grandson Oliver. Picture: Ian Georgeson

FOOTBALL legend Pat Stanton has launched a fundraising drive ahead of a charity abseil for his brain-damaged grandson.

The Hibs icon and his wife, Margaret, were left distraught when Oliver Porter, now three, suffered a brain haemorrhage within hours of being born with his twin brother, Luca.

 

A build-up of cerebral fluid meant Oliver then had to undergo emergency surgery aged just two weeks – the first of a series of operations which saw him go under general anaesthetic 30 times and spend the first seven months of his life at the Sick Kids.

 

His parents, Graeme, 41, and Kirsty, 42, who live with Oliver and his four brothers in Tranent, East Lothian, initially struggled under the emotional and financial impact of taking care of their son.

But thanks to support provided by the Child Brain Injury Trust (CBIT), the family has bounced back, with the couple now preparing to send Oliver to nursery.

 

To show their thanks, Graeme plans to abseil from the Forth Bridge to raise thousands of pounds for the charity.

 

Former Scotland captain Pat, 68, who played 398 times for Hibs in the 1960s and 70s, said he hoped as many people as possible would donate.

 

He said: “You hear about brain injury in the papers but suddenly it was happening on our doorstep. It was a different thing altogether. “But CBIT were amazing. They were there to help the family in any way they could.”

 

Mr Porter, branch manager at the Plumb Centre in Hawkhill, said: “There’s a whole lot of pressure there that you just won’t experience until something like a brain injury actually happens. You try to keep your marriage and your kids’ lives as normal as possible, but things very nearly fell apart. “It was a battle to get anything at first – advice on benefits and other kinds of support – but the charity were great. They’ve taken the kids out and about to places like the climbing arena at Ratho where we got to meet other families living with brain injury. “We realised we weren’t alone and it’s important that we give something back to them.”

 

Mrs Porter, a part-time human resources worker for RBS, said: “I think there has to be a lot more support for families like ours and the profile of brain injury needs to be boosted in Scotland.”

 

Claire Murray, CBIT regional fundraising officer for Scotland, said: “These donations mean we can keep supporting local families.”

 

Donations can be made at virginmoneygiving.com

 

Copy c/o Edinburgh Evening News