by Val | Jan 8, 2012 | Val's blog
Hi Everyone,
Here is next week’s secondment plans. Busy week ahead.
Monday 9th January 2012
Morning: going to view Hilton Hotel, Liverpool as a possible venue for Ball / Dinner Dance.
Afternoon: I will be at a meeting in Manchester Children’s for a North West Children’s congenital heart network. This is a new meeting I have been asked to join by Alder Hey’s cardiac general manager.
Tuesday 10th January 2012
Day off
Wednesday 11th January 2012
Day off – Matthew’s op
Thursday 12th January 2012
Hope this will be a day I can start being a ward buddy with Lorna. My application has been approved.
Friday 13th January 2012
Going to view venues for Ball / Dinner Dance. Aintree race course, Town Hall Liverpool, Crowne Plaza Liverpool, Catholic Cathedral Liverpool.
Saturday 14th January 2012
Book sale in Ormskirk market, fundraising plus we are seen in the community.
Sunday 15th January 2012
Roller skating in Stockport – family day out.
Again fabulous that I have this secondment or I would not be able to get all this done and in order.
See you all soon.
Val Frew
A very proud volunteer of CHA
by Matthew | Jan 3, 2012 | UK resources
Useful and reliable information about giving medicines to your child – written and reviewed by children’s doctors (paediatricians), pharmacists, and parents and carers.
www.medicinesforchildren.org.uk
by Val | Jan 1, 2012 | Val's blog
Hi Everyone,
Hope you had a lovely Christmas and New Year. Well now we are in the last few weeks of my secondment. This week’s plan is:
Monday 2nd January 2012
Bank Holiday.
Tuesday 3rd January 2012
Today I will have to go for blood test first as this is part of the CRB check now.
- My CRB form I will hand in at Alder Hey today. (Anne, Gill Mc is seeing if she can get extra 2 (1 for you and 1 for Michele C).
- I need to make some phone calls to check out venues for Dinner Dance in May and Ball in Nov.
- I need to check menus from emails I already have for some venues. Hopefully by tomorrow I will have more to look at too.
- I need to do follow up letters to people who still owe money for Auction items from our Ball.
- I need to check availability for market stall for some book sales in 2012.
Wednesday 4th January 2012
Few hrs Mchouse and few hours at Alder Hey
Thursday 5th January 2012
I am working at Mchouse and in the evening it is my Liverpool branch meeting.
Friday 6th January 2012
I have an appointment at Empire Theatre Liverpool to check what we can use our credit on in 2012 if you remember back when I booked Chitty Chitty Bang Bang I was not happy with seating and we still have a £200 credit. Last year we could not use as every time I tried they kept saying we couldn’t use against shows I was looking at.
I will be looking into where we can do a first aid course and hoping to sort that out soon.
I want to find out more about auction houses. I have a few things in storage that may or may not be worth a bit more than we would get in charity shop. Worth looking into.
See some of you this week and some of you next week,
Val Frew
A very proud volunteer of CHA
by Matthew | Jan 1, 2012 | Notices
The next Manchester branch will take place a week later, on Wednesday 22nd February 2012, due to half-term hols.
by Val | Dec 25, 2011 | Val's blog
Got photos online showing what I’ve been up to…. here.
This week at Alder Hey I met 2 families so was able to briefly talk to them. 1 family raised some funds for us but does not want to join just yet but know where we are and I gave her my tele number in case she wants a chat.
Gill has commented on how good it is having me around so glad it is working.
Next week plans:
Mon – Bank hols
Tue – Bank hols
Wed – Mchouse
I have left Thurs and Fri open can I do anything for anyone? Do you need me to be anywhere? If not I will go to Alder Hey and just be around to meet families.
Have a wonderful Christmas and New Year.
Val Frew
A very proud volunteer of CHA
by Val | Dec 18, 2011 | Val's blog
Last week I worked today at Ormskirk market, what a disaster couldn’t believe how empty it was and weather awful. 8 1/2 hrs today with travelling time.
Sunday 18th December 2011
I am doing hook a duck at local school 5 hrs.
Monday 19th December 2011
2 x pick ups in Liverpool as people want stuff out of their homes before Christmas – this is for our next shop. Around about 1 1/2hrs.
Tuesday 20th December 2011
I want to go and print stuff off that we need to put into bags that Gill Mc would find useful for in patients and day patients. Gill wants me to make up 2 slightly different bags with things in she thinks families might find useful and info on CHA. I will need to down loads pdf from cha web and I will input note pads for next to your phone and pens they will be done in our carrier bags. I will have Tommy and Tina colouring in pictures put in and I need to do a check of what newsletters we need printing again for clinic make sure they are up to date and plenty of them ready for our re launch in Jan. (Still awaiting confirmation from Ian ok for this to go ahead on date we discussed). I hope to be able to print these off from Alder Hey if not I might need to pop into my office and do them from there if systems will allow. Maybe I could take my laptop and connect to a printer will check this out. This maybe around 3-4 hrs.
Wednesday 21st December 2011
Mchouse doing preparation work for an evening meal. We the volunteers are cooking an evening meal for families who will be staying at Mchouse. I will also help with bedroom cleaning and ironing. Estimate 5hrs.
Thursday 22nd December 2011
I hope to be doing my ward buddy with Laura on K2.
That’s it for this week.
Happy Christmas
Val Frew
A very proud volunteer of CHA
by Val | Dec 17, 2011 | News
Val Frew, chair of the Alder Hey branch is currently on a 3 month secondment from work. During this time she is directing all her effort and energy to supporting the CHA. Read what she’s been up to in her first 7 weeks on her blog at heartchild.info/web/category/vals-blog.
by Val | Dec 12, 2011 | Val's blog
Just a reminder I am on hols this week. I still have a few things to do this week that were already in my diary so I will be doing them.
Monday 12th December 2011
Tonight I have prize bingo.
Saturday 17th December 2011
Awaiting confirmation if we have a book stall in Ormskirk, if so I will do that Sunday – we have been invited to a school in my area to do hook a duck were I will be doing that as well this week.
See you all soon.
Val Frew
A very proud volunteer of CHA
Update: just to let you know I have had confirmation we do have a market stall on Sat at Ormskirk so I will be doing that on Sat this week.
by Val | Dec 10, 2011 | News
For ten families their Christmas started early with a magical trip to Disneyland Paris, thanks to the Children’s Heart Association. On a cold and wet Friday morning the families met at Liverpool’s John Lennon airport to be treated like royalty thanks to Val and the staff at the airport who had arranged a private lounge and priority boarding. The short flight to Paris was met with lots of excitement by the younger members of the party with one little boy shouting “Mickey Mouse come out come out wherever you are” as soon as the plane touched down on the tarmac.
Whisked away to the Sequoia Lodge Hotel with no time for unpacking, most families spent the remainder of the day exploring the Magic Kingdom, having tears on the way back to the hotel from children worried that it was the only time they would be getting in the park.
Day 2 got off to a terrific start with families meeting for a character breakfast at Café Mickey where a non-stop parade of characters came to the table for a meet and greet, much to the excitement of all the children. The highlight for many was the Saturday evening finale in the Magic Kingdom. Hundreds of people lined the parade route to watch the magic procession of coloured floats filled with favourite Disney characters, fulfilling all children’s dreams of being waved at personally by their favourite character.
As ever all good things have to come to an end. Day 3 saw tired and weary children and adults alike pile onto a coach back to the airport. Amidst the chatter about who saw what and searching though bags of toys to show each other what souvenirs they were taking home, one lucky boy got to go home with the memory that he saw Mickey Mouse on his birthday, a memory Tony Walsh will treasure forever.
by Val | Dec 5, 2011 | Val's blog
Hope you are all well.
I will start with our Euro Disney trip at the weekend. It was fantastic except for the cold and rain. We flew out Friday morning and it was good everyone showed up either early or right on time. We were met at the airport by an operations manager and were shown where to check in . After that we were shown to our room in the airport I had booked.
It was great for all of us to be together so we could meet each other and discuss a few plans for weekend. Security came to our room and went through security briefing and explained to the kids what to expect if the alarm when off during security scanning. We had photo’s taken and the staff loved seeing the kids. They made us very welcome and stayed with us right until we were on board, 1 manager even got on with us and made sure we were all happy. Did I mention the VIP boarding they gave us too? Kids were delighted with the fact that they and their family’s got to board before all other passengers and could choose their seats. The front of the aeroplane was filled with us.
When there we had breakfast together and evening meal on Sat together. We said hello to one another if we saw each other out and about and some of us met in the bar in the evening for a drink and chat and a catch up. (some of the families are a bad influence on me I was to be found in the bar each night and sometime till 12.45), but it was lovely.
Weather as expected was very wet and cold but we just had to wrap up and grin and bear it. Kids loved the characters and we had a character breakfast. They loved the rides as did I. The bonus on taking such a big group away was that if anyone was in the queue before me if I was on my own I would queue jump because after all I was with that family. Also I got to see a show from a good vantage point as a family with child in wheelchair shouted me when they saw me so I just went and sat by them and didn’t get moved, but there were spaced if anyone needed them in disabled spec or I would have moved,.
The feedback was great and I have asked family’s to share there experience with us and photo’s. Michele I have asked them to send direct to you by end of this week. can you set up a folder to keep them in and then I can see feedback in writing and pics. Then we will need to get pics on web and a newsletter done.
We finally got home around 12.30am as delays on plane due to thunder storms here in Liverpool and hailstones. So planes could not fly back to Liverpool for a while then we needed to get a crew as the others had no flying hours left. I think when we see the feedback we will all agree that the trip was well worth doing and families who had not met before met and bonded and shared there story’s and experiences. Our aim was to get family’s together, have a great time and bond. I definitely feel this was achieved and I know I have made some new friends this weekend.
Today should be the start of my official holidays from work however I have so much to do this week that if ok with everyone I will postpone till next week. Any objections please let me know.
Monday 5th December 2011
Today I had to go to storage and tidy up in there as last Thursday when we finished shop I just had to more or less throw stuff back in as I also had a branch meeting at Alder Hey I needed to do Thursday night. We made about £550 in shop. not bad considering it wasn’t a full week and last wed I had to drive there via Runcorn bridge as tunnels were closed so didn’t open till 10am and closed at 2.45 as didn’t want to get stuck in traffic. on wed if it had not been for my secondment shop would not have been open as my helpers don’t drive and no trains either so they would not have been able to get there. Today I also done pick up’s from 3 peoples houses.
Tomorrow I will have a day off. ( meeting I was going to in Birmingham has been cancelled till Feb).
Wednesday 7th December 2011
I have a meeting at Alder hey at Mchouse and a few charities meet at this meeting. Rep’s from Mchouse, Imagine appeal,Chics and wrvs meet. This is the first meeting this year I will be able to attend as usually I take a days holiday from work but with my nan needing so many hospital appointments this year I have been using my days holidays to take her so didn’t have enough left to go to the other meetings this year, as a direct result of my secondment I will be able to attend, after this I will stay at Mchouse and help around there for a few hours.
Thursday 8th December 2011
I need to do preparation work for our grotto on sat and I need to wrap presents from Santa and do a little bit of decorating. I also need to get prizes ready for our hook a duck and tombola stalls.
Friday 9th December 2011
I need to bake some cakes for sat and I need to go shopping for bingo prizes as prize bingo next Monday. I will still do that even though on hols as don’t want to let our supporters down
Saturday 10th December 2011
I have our Christmas grotto in Whiston. I can do this as a direct result of secondment as if I wasn’t on secondment I would be in work as my Saturday in.
Sunday 11th December 2011
I have our Christmas party in Alder hey.
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So as you can see another busy week for me, not that I mind, I enjoy doing this.
I have had an email from Alder Hey and they are going to look at me being a buddy on K2 with Lorna – let you know when that starts, and what it entails.
Val Frew
A very proud volunteer of CHA
