The red rocket is on its way full of goodies for the kids at St George’s Hospital. Details of contents to come…
Author Archives: Claudia
New delivery to St Georges
A couple of weeks ago I did a quick delivery to St George’s Hospital! The Red Rocket was packed full of goodies and ready to go, I delivered…
2 kids electric ride on cars – Going to operations in a little electric car is far more fun and maybe less scary than on a wheelchair.
16 Night lights – little things are sometimes important
3 plug in electric portable heaters – bizarre but well needed
3 mini iPads – for the play specialist to carry around as a tool to help distract children when needed.
11 Whiteboards – for the kids’ rooms
The Rocket – full of goodies
Posted in Blog, Things We've Done. Tagged with Claudia, Electric cars, presents, St George's Hospital.
Claudia’s Christmas Market
On November 20th Claudia opened the house to about 80 friends who came along to support The Christian Blandford Fund, and do a spot of Christmas shopping.
Coco Cuscino brought along beautiful bespoke cushions, soft furnishings and gifts, Anahita displayed luscious smelling homemade beauty products and Phoenix had a table overflowing with gift wrap, cards, note books and much more. Upstairs Ben & Lucy from The Square Salon were busy with manicures and hairstyles, Miss Captain and Little Captain had rails full of fashionable clothing for ladies and children, Ochre had some gorgeous cashmere, silk and wool tops, pashmina’s and scarves whilst Stella & Dot brought a bit of sparkle to the event with some stunning jewellery. Cakes and nibbles were courtesy of Sara Hester from Tandem Catering and Top Table provided us with tea pots, cafetieres, milk jugs, cups, glasses, teaspoons and much more.
We raised a massive £2410 and more money is still coming in online. Thank you to everyone who supported this event.
Many people bought raffle tickets that helped towards the final total. We thought Christian should pick the lucky winners…
Posted in Blog, Christian's Story, Fund Raising. Tagged with Christian Blandford, Christmas, Claudia.
A Post from Claudia
We have just returned from a glorious two weeks at Villa Begur! After a rocky start with Christian not sleeping due to a bad cough I was pleased that we had taken some precautionary antibiotics with us and once they kicked in he was much better. Then we ended up in the local hospitals A&E – nothing serious but a bit of a bummer nonetheless and very unfair on Christian. However, after that all was perfect and we spent the rest of the holiday soaking up the sun (and wine!) and enjoying ourselves with the various different friends and family who came to join us. Even leaving wasn’t too bad since we will be heading back to the villa in another 4 weeks for the last week of the school hols. Pete has posted some photos from the holiday so you can see how the boys are growing – and how much hair Christian has now (and how little hair Pete has now!).
Both Peter and I wanted to thank some of you who really have done an amazing effort in the fundraising:
All of those who ran the 10km and raised money. There were some amazing achievements, Jo Winnick, for example, raised a staggering £5000 and ran the 10k in a very impressive time!
Monika Kurec who is an incredibly fit friend of mine. She did some mad long (incredibly long!) bike ride in Cape Town South Africa and raised a HUGE amount of money for Christian’s fund. Here is aan email that she sent upon completing it:
Well I made it! 4 hrs 4 mins (30 mins faster than expected!)
It was, by far, the most amazing experience of my life and I’m still on a high from it!
The 2 days before temperatures soared up to an incredible Autumnal 39 degrees C!! This just added to our list of things to worry about! eg.. What if my wheels fall off? Will I make it up those hills? When do I eat? I don’t want to die on those downhills! What if I need a wee? Will a baboon jump in front of me? (pretty likely) etc… Endless worries. As it turned out, beautiful clouds rolled in on the race day morning and temps dropped to a “cool” 26 degrees. We couldn’t have been any luckier. 36,000 people took part and I managed to complete the whole race without a puncture, without falling off, without sunburn but with the biggest smile and Adrenalin high I’ve experienced. I can’t recommend this event enough to everyone!
I can’t thank you all enough for all the support and sponsorship. I have raised £4393.59 so far, which is just amazing.
Thanks Monika! I don’t know when you found the time to train for this, and I know that the entire trip must have been very expensive for you. You really are one of the most selfless people I know.
Fi Lovett owner of Fifi Wilsons on Abbeville Road – Fi held two clothing sales with proceeds going towards Christians fund and she raised an incredible £1000. I am so grateful to all the hard work both she, and her manager Dawn, put in to the event. I know how busy they both are running two successful shops and am truly flattered that they wanted to help with Christian’s fund.
Posted in Blog, Christian's Story, Fund Raising. Tagged with Christian's Story, Claudia, Fund Raising, Sponsorship, The Second Round.
Update From Claudia
After 4 weeks and 1 day it looks like we are on our way out of here. We will be going home this afternoon! Over the last few days Christian’s health has really improved. His cough is clearing up, his temperature has settled and his bloods seem to be doing everything on their own – without the aid of any transfusions or drugs. He is still very weak, but he is up and about a bit and no longer spends all day asleep in bed. In fact he is in the playroom right now with his nanny having a great time. I can’t tell you how wonderful it feels to know that he is at long last pain free and drug free!
Once we get home we will have a couple of weeks to strengthen him up before he starts his radiotherapy on about 14th June. This will be daily, under a general anesthetic for three weeks. And then that’s it! Hopefully no more chemotherapy or radiotherapy ever again!
I really would like to thank all of our family and friends who have been an absolute tower of strength over the last month. The food parcels that have been delivered to us either at home or the hospital really have helped tremendously and have been much appreciated. As have all the visits to us here at the hospital too. The Marsden isn’t the most convenient of places to get to so a big thank you for that too! It can get quite depressing here after a while, and knowing that company was on its way (with food and wine!!) gave us something to look forward to.
Posted in Blog, Christian's Story. Tagged with Christian's Story, Claudia, The Royal Marsden, The Second Round.
Message From Claudia
7th January 2007
Claudia here! Peter has instructed me to write the latest update so please bare with me as I am under a lot of pressure to live up to the usual high standards! Christian was fine over New Year, if a bit tired and emotional (or was that me?!). His Hickman Line is working fine now, and after a couple of transfusions (platelet and blood) he was fit enough to go in for his chemo at the Royal Marsden on Tuesday January 2nd as an in patient for three days. This all went as normal and Christian was on pretty good form, until we went to leave on Thursday and he promptly threw up everywhere. I was worried they might want to keep us in, but he seemed fine after that so we were allowed to leave. He was sick again in the night, but since then the various anti-nausea drugs they gave us seem to have kicked in. For now he seems in good spirits and even wolfed down a massive plate of spaghetti with grated cheese followed by 2 yogurts for his tea – a proud mum moment so I asked Pete to take a photo of it!
As Pete mentioned in his e-mail he is arranging a 10K run on Sunday 4th March in Battersea. PLEASE do sign up for it – Even I am going to give it a go! All money raised goes towards the “St. George’s Charitable Foundation – Christian Blandford Paediatric Fund”. I can not tell you how much we (and other families) have benefited from the money that was raised in 2005 by all of you. The Pinkney Ward is now so much more comfortable! So, if like us you over indulged in too much food and wine over Christmas get your running kit on and start training!! Obviously no pressure, but you know our son is ill……………….
Posted in Blog, Christian's Story. Tagged with Christian's Story, Claudia, Food, pasta, The Second Round.
