Clapham Common 10km – Dee Gibson and Emma Darling running and raising sponsorship for the Christian Blandford Fund.
Category Archives: Blog
Chris and Simone
March 08 – Chris Elsmore and his lovely girlfriend, Simone are having their 40th birthday’s this year and have very kindly suggested that friends donate to the Christian Blandford fund in lieu of giving presents.
George Kirkwood
February 08 – George Kirkwood chose the Christian Blandford Fund as the recipient of a generous donation from the Kirwood family trust, for the second time.
Amy and Matthew Hancox
Matthew Hancox’s daughter, Anna has also been treated for a kidney tumur and has spent plenty of time at St George’s. Matthew and a team of 20 runners from ING are running the London Marathon this year. They are pooling all the money raised and ING are matching all donations. The money will be split between four charities, one of which is The Christian Blandford Fund. Matthew’s wife Amy is also running the London Marathon and raising money for the Christian Blandford Fund, her justgiving page is here.
Happy New Year
Claudia took Christian into the Marsden for his 3 monthly check up today. He had a chest x-ray, a leg x-ray, and an abdominal ultrasound. The chest and tummy are fine and we should get the result of the leg x-ray in a couple of days. The leg x-ray was done at the last moment, more as a marker than because there is any sign of a problem
Christian has been on good form recently, he is enjoying school and had a great Christmas.
I have recently heard from Sean Bonnington from St George’s with some good news, the details are here and here. We are obviously over the moon that the funds raised have been so effective and are very grateful for all of you who so kindly donated, ran, or in many cases, did both. If anybody is considering a sponsored event I would appreciate it if you would consider the Christian Blandford fund at St George’s as a beneficiary, please contact me for details.
By the way Christian goes to the Royal Marsden in Sutton, not the one in Chelsea which was so sadly damaged by fire this week.
Happy New Year!
Peter Blandford’s photo
Great news and new day at school
28th September 2007
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.
Posted in Blog, Christian's Story. Tagged with Christian's Story, Eaton House the Manor, tests, The Second Round.
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.
Fi Lovett
July 07 – Fi Lovett owner of Fifi Wilson on Abbeville Road – Fi held two clothing sales with proceeds going towards Christians fund and she raised an incredible £1000. We are very grateful to all the hard work both she, and her manager Dawn, put in to the event. We know how busy they both are running two successful shops and am truly flattered that they wanted to help with Christian’s fund.
Last of the Radiotherapy
Thursday 5th July 2007
Christian had the last session of radiotherapy yesterday and had his Hickman line removed this morning. he has coped remarkably well and even managed to get to his nursery sports day earlier this week. We are now all looking forward to a couple of weeks in Spain at the end of July.
In case you didn’t see it here is an amusing film we made last weekend…
Posted in Blog, Christian's Story. Tagged with Christian's Story, Monkey, Radiotherapy, The Second Round, Video, zoo.
First Radiotherapy
Christian has had his first radiotherapy today. He was not particularly impressed with the room full of Doctors and equipment and was a bit upset but, hopefully, he’ll get used to it over the next three weeks. Unfortunately he doesn’t like the effect of the general anesthetic and so cries when he sees the white syringe. He did, however, recover very quickly and a couple of minutes after he awoke he was tucking into a jam doughnut.
He has had a tummy ache at night for the last couple of weeks which has been waking him (and us!) up. At first we assumed it was still pain from the chemotherapy but he had some tests yesterday and he has a urinary infection. He’s on oral antibiotics so that should clear it up pretty quickly but we are still waiting to hear back from the lab to confirm which bacteria is growing on his urine sample. Once identified they will either stick with the oral antibiotic he is on, or change it. There was talk too of sending him for an abdominal ultrasound tomorrow.
I am trying to collect the last of the sponsorship money. If you were kind enough to pledge and haven’t got around to paying please pay onlinehere. Similarly, if you ran the race and are still owed money from sponsors please send them the link and encourage them to pay online. Thank you all again for the amazing support, I have been assured by Sean Bonnington that the money raised will be vital to getting the “kids on 5″ project off the ground.
Posted in Blog, Christian's Story. Tagged with Christian's Story, Radiotherapy, Sponsorship, The Second Round.
