On the 14th February lots of our members met up at Frankie and Benny’s in Liverpool for tea. The afternoon did not quite go to plan as we received a call from the restaurant about 2 hours before to say the booking had to be cancelled! It all managed to be sorted out and our 34 parents and children sat down to a nice meal and great chat together.
Liverpool Branch Meeting
Our first branch meeting for 2013 will take place this Thursday at 7.30pm in Ronald McDonald House. Look forward to seeing you there.
Panto
On Friday 14th December we went to the Pantomime courtesy of Barclays. It was Cinderella at the Empire theatre. What a fantastic show it was, the families really loved it and the kids thoroughly enjoyed it. The setting was truly magical and we had lots of fun joining in. I was close to tears myself when they brought that beautiful carriage on stage (I want one!).
My nephews Matt and Will were there and they were screaming and shouting and
nearly off their chairs wanting to be heard, the laughter and their faces was a
picture in itself. We had a little girl who kept asking why she couldn’t go on stage, maybe in a few years she will be on stage entertaining us.
Thank you Lee and all at Barclays.
Alder Hey Christmas Party
On Sunday 9th December we had our annual Christmas Party at Alder Hey’s 01 clinic. This year we had a Magician in to entertain the children. Those that
watched him said he was magic, they enjoyed him and even participated in some of the magic. The magician also made balloon shapes for children too. Some of the children played in the soft play area in the clinic.
We had new families come along to join in the fun, some of them joined the Association on the day – so we hope you enjoyed your first Christmas party with us.
After the Magician we had our party food and then we had a visit from Santa. Santa had a busy time and had all the children wanting a present from him, it was just as well he brought a full sack of goodies to make sure each child received a present. We had babies from just a few weeks old to teenagers.
Thank you Dad. You know what you did and you were a big hit! Same again next year????
View Slideshow One, Slideshow Two.
Christmas Bingo
My friend Joanne, who is a big supporter of CHA, asked her work if we could hold a charity prize bingo there. Joanne works for the local council at Stadt Moers and we were able to use their facilities. Joanne advertised this and we got a great response and also the possibility of holding more there in the future.
Thank you to Joanne for organising and Gordon for allowing us to hold a prize bingo a Stadt Moers. We appreciate your continued support.
Christmas Grotto
On Saturday 8th Dec we held our grotto at Stadt Moers for the second year in a row. Gordon and Aaron did a fantastic job of decorating the venue for us. It looked fab.
Santa turned up to visit all the good boys and girls and he even brought them an early Christmas present. We had some non-believers who came but I can assure you they left believing in Father Christmas. We had cake decorating and balloons and tombola which kept us busy for the three hours we were there.
Thank you to Father Christmas for coming along and an extra special thank you to Jo, Gordon & Aaron.
We’re Winners
Our local Asda store at Hunts Cross runs a competition for local charities to be nominated by the public to win a prize. I entered our charity for Oct/Nov comp and I am delighted to tell you we won the 1st prize of £200.
Shoppers were given small green tokens when they spent so much on their shopping and they could then put the tokens into one of three boxes associated with nominated charities.
We are so grateful to the shoppers for choosing to support us.
Halloween Party
Saturday 27th October was our Halloween party at Alder Hey. We had a good turn out and we decorated the clinic before families arrived. We had prepared “Trick or Treat” bags for the children to decorate themselves ready to put all there treats and goodies in.
We’d also got lots of games for the kids to play; we had dress a Witch, these were cardboard and they had a variety of outfits children could colour in and coloured glitter glue to add a sparkle to any witches outfit; we had make a spider using cauliflowers and tangerines plus straws and we had best dressed pumpkinks and best dressed outfits.
Thank you to everyone who made an effort here and came dressed to impress also those who made scary and fun pumpkins.
Another game we’d prepared was “duck apple”. This involved putting apples in bowls of water and the children had to dunk their heads to try to get their apple out. I must say the children were very good at this. The highlight of the event had to be when baby George crawled for the first time to have a go, his mum was so delighted! It just shows the children enjoy the events we do – it must have been good if a 9 month old crawls for the first time just to join in.
See the slideshow.
Alton Towers
Friday 20th July is a date we had been looking forward to. I personally had been praying for good weather for weeks now as it is our trip to Alton Towers and we’d been planning it for months. The day arrived and it was lovely and the weekend forecast was great – my praying worked then!
We all made our own way there, ready to meet in the bar of our hotel in the evening. This gave us the chance to meet other families and catch up with those we may not have seen for a while. We all met in the bar and I gave out welcome letters, car stickers, theme park tickets and water park tickets for those who purchased these separately. It was a good night and we all enjoyed chatting to one another which was the aim of the trip. Although we could not all sit together, as our group was large, the children enjoyed playing together and most families sat in groups with others.
One family who stayed commented “having the opportunity to stay over has meant that we have been able to meet other families in a similar situation to ours and has given both us as parents the chance to talk about how we cope but has given our kids the chance to mix with children in the same situation as they are often a bit outcast.”
Saturday was an early start. As we were staying at the hotel we could get in the park early. It was nice to see the families at breakfast and then we split up for the day at the theme park. I left the day visitors tickets at the hotel reception and headed off for the park. I wasn’t looking forward to our first ride “Oblivion” as I’d woken up that morning with a headache and didn’t want it to get worse. However, we all loved the ride and my headache was gone! Well now it was time to hit all the other big rides for the big kids and some of the smaller ones for the little children.
A few of us decided to meet for lunch so we said whoever arrives first should try to get seats for the 14 of us. When we got to the meeting place a few other families wanted to join us so then we moved even more benches together to fit us all in. Talk about taking over the place, you could see people looking. After the lunch and show I asked the characters to come and have pictures taken with our group and they obliged.
The day was one of the few hot days that we were lucky enough to get this summer which meant that there was no need to worry about the children becoming cold after riding the Log Flume and Rapids, which turned out to be a very popular choice. Youngster Grace Cartwright, aged 7, was so excited about her first ever trip to Alton Tower as it was the first time she has ever been tall enough to go on many of the roller coasters – much to her Granddad’s delight who got to ride with her. When asked what kind of day she was having Grace replied “Awesome, can you ask Val if we can come again when I am a bit bigger”.
Now back to the park for round two. While there we bumped into a few of our day visitors and we all had a fabulous day, shame it closed at 6pm. Those that purchased water park tickets said they greatly enjoyed it too, so much to do and so many rides to go on. As the day drew to an end there are always ones who just want one more quick go and for Jason and Michael Casey and Aaron and Thomas Mawdsley–Welsh that ride would be “Sonic” – a roller coaster with a difference as not only do you get the trills of a regular coaster you also get to be spun around at the same time – not for the faint hearted.
Week 14 – Monday 30th January 2012 – The last few days
Good morning all.
Had a busy weekend as Matt was 13 yesterday – gosh a tiny teenager but to think how far he has come. Big celebrations for us I can tell you.
I would just like to say what a pleasure it has been, to be have been able to do much more for CHA over the last 3 months due to the kindness of my work, RSA, allowing me to have a 3 month secondment. I really do feel I have made a difference. I know and you know I put in all kinds of hours per week anyway as I have such a passion for doing my best to help others.
Today I will start with a little recap of all that I have managed to do with the help and support of RSA. Without the secondment lots of it would not have been done especially daytime meetings.
On my first day I met with a manger of Alder Hey over ICU, HDU, K2 critical burns and 01 this definitely would not have been possible without secondment as I could not get to a daytime meeting. Since then, Ian the manager has really taken an interest in what we do and even asks his deputy Jamie to come to our monthly meetings and our relaunch, which he has been doing.
I have also worked at McHouse at Alder Hey, cleaned bedrooms, done ironing, help prepare a Christmas dinner for families staying there too and generally help out.
Myself and Lisa hosted a Charity Ball
We took families to Euro Disney
I have updated with fresh info and pics notice boards at both Alder Hey and new Manchester Children’s Hospital and Ronald McDonald House. I have had branch meetings in Liverpool and attended meetings in Manchester too. I organised a Christmas Party at Alder Hey. I organised a Christmas Grotto in Whiston (already been invited back to do again this yr) and I have done a charity shop .
I did Hook-a-Duck in Jewish school locally at their Chanukah fair (also been invited back when they do this year’s fundraiser in summer and Christmas). I have done prize bingo. I have done monthly branch meetings supporting families who come.
We got in The local press (a parent put a Thank You in Echo for Disney trip). We got in the Jewish Telegraph for attending Chanukah fair. We have done relaunches at both hospitals (providing an awareness, who we are, where we are).
I have made up info packs for families and left at Alder Hey so even when I am not around they can be given to parents. We have done trips to Manchester Science Museum, roller skating and more planned. We have done Taking CHA Forward meetings. I have sorted out theatre tickets with credit we have had for a year and a half due to not being able to use during the past 18 months and finding time to sort. Been around the hospital and met staff and some parents.
So onto 2012 and here is what I have already organised before I return to work:
- Swimming in Feb.
- Pancake party at Alder Hey in Feb.
- Theatre trip in March.
- 5 weeks at the charity shops.
- Dinner dance in May venue sorted awaiting final arrangements.
- Ball of Hearts Nov 2012 all sorted here. Contracts signed and deposit paid.
- Christmas Party and entertainment for Alder Hey (that’s something being that organised).
- I have arranged another Taking CHA Forward for April.
- I have also managed to secure Barclays to take us on again in 2012. I have been told I will be allocated a team. I will be having a meeting with them tomorrow so update you on that when I know more.
- Received £500 donation from RSA as although I am not in the office my friends know what I am doing and put CHA forward for an award, how good is that.
- Today I received an email confirming I have been successful with my application for 60 tickets to Alton towers so a great day out we will have with them.
- Well now I am off to McHouse for today and tomorrow. I am at meeting with Barclays in morning and I will be around Alder Hey in the afternoon.
I am sure you will agree that’s quite a lot done and planned. I do hope to be able to build on this in the future with the support of RSA – back to work on Wed. It’s been a pleasure.
See you all soon
Val Frew
A very proud volunteer of CHA x