We have had a great day handing out presents to the Children who are unfortunate enough to be at St George’s over Christmas. Christian was a fab Elf and we had lots of help from the wonderful staff at the hospital. Henry stepped in as official photographer and took some photos which are here. I have included a hi-res copy which parents can use for personal use as they wish, just press the download button on the photo you want.
As usual, we have bought a load of lovely presents for the children who are unfortunate enough to be staying at St George’s over Christmas. The Bowlers and the Hancox’s have been busy wrapping and the Elves has been limbering up and are ready to help Santa. There are more photos on ourFacebook page.
As you can see the Christian the Elf is keeping very healthy, he has been dancing less lately but has been getting into piano
Sam is Christian’s Aunty and is running a half Marathon at Bournemouth marathon festival for the Christian Blandford Fund.
Here she is with Christian the day after he was born. Like all the members of our large family, Sam was very supportive through Christian’s illness and we are very grateful that on top of that she is putting herself through a rigorous training schedule and 21km of pain for our charity!
Please support her below.
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If you can not see Virgin Money Giving page, here is a link to it
It is becoming an annual event, The Bowler and Hancox Families wrap up the presents and Peter, Henry and Christian pop over to St George’s as Santa and his two helpers. Today was very special with some really lovely children who seemed very happy with the visit. We hope they all get back to the comfort of their homes soon.
The photos are all here, we have made it so the photos are all downloadable in hi-res for the parents of the children that Santa saw.
I was very kindly given this bottle of Champagne by a friend before Christian was first diagnosed with cancer. When Christian got ill, the bottle sat in the cellar as we waited for something to celebrate.
We decided that when he reached 5 years in remission, which is when you’re given the all clear, we would open it and enjoy it. That plan was obviously delayed when the cancer relapsed and I must admit that I wondered if the Champagne would ever get drunk.
A couple of years ago, our house was broken into and the burglars went off with most of my photographic equipment, some of Claudia’s jewelry and a few of bottles of wine, including this one.
If I was a superstitious person I may have suspected the bottle was unlucky, but I would have been quite wrong.
It was listed in the police report along with everything else that was taken. A couple of weeks later one of the police officers who had read the report was searching a suspects flat in South East London on a completely different inquiry. When he open the fridge he noticed a bottle of 1990 Bollinger and quickly worked out it probably wasn’t theirs. The suspects’ finger prints matched ones taken from our property and the guys were charged and proven guilty a few months later.
Unfortunately most of our goods were never returned but this bottle of champagne came back to us.
This September, Christian reached his 5 years in remission, something he had a one in 20 chance of achieving and we finally popped open the bottle.
I must say, it was delicious.
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Thank you very much to the (slightly crazy) Val Brand who jumped out of a plane for the Christian Blandford Fund. She raised over £750 which is an amazing achievement.
Here she is…
September 2012
Thank you to Ava and Ellis McNally who made some lovely bracelets to sell at school and raised nearly £100 for the Christian Blandford fund. They were great bracelets and you are lovely girls!
Darren Bowler, one of our trustees was once known as “the fat controller”. Amazingly, he is doing an incredible iron man event in Switzerland in a couple of weeks. It involves a 3.8k swim (in the lake with 2500 others) , 180km cycle (through the Alps) and finally he has to run a full marathon. He is doing this quite ridiculous event (which sounds to me like 12 hours of utter pain) all to Aid the Christian Blandford Fund.
Here he is with another Trustee Amy and Rachel from St George’s
This is what Darren writes…
I’ve bored most of you before about my triathlons but this time the mid life lycra crisis has spiraled out of control !!! . On July 15th I’m attempting IRONMAN ZURICH . That’s a ridonkulus 3.8k swim (in the lake with 2500 other idiots!) , 180km cycle (apparently there are a few hills..ie the alps !) followed by the small matter of a marathon . My target is to complete it in 14 hours .
The good news is that I’m not asking for your hard earned cash to donate to some big charity where you are never really sure how/where your money is spent ….because I’m actually going to be spending the money myself ! . No not on a new spanking carbon bike . I am one of the trustees of the Christian Blandford fund and my focus has been spending the cash we have raised . The aim of the Christian Blandford fund is to improve the comfort of children and their families, particularly those affected by cancer, during prolonged stays in local NHS hospitals .
Over the last couple of years we have been able to make a real difference . A couple of months ago we saw the opening of a paediatric patients playground at St Georges hospital Tooting . The CBF contributed 30k to the cost of providing a real oasis for kids during their say in hospital . We have funded parents lounge , ultrasound machines to reduce the pain of frequent injections for kids , new sofabeds for parents who spend weeks…even months in hospital with there kids ,laptops and kindles for the kids to use ….the list goes on and on so please check out the site for all the details .
Please support me in my fundraising safe in the knowledge that every penny donated (we have NO costs) will be spent wisely and will make a real difference to kids and there parents during prolonged hospital visits .
Cheers,
Darren
The Virgin Money Giving page is here
Darren completed this grueling event in 14 hours ours, here is what he writes…
I just wanted to say a big thanks to each and every one of you for your support for my Ironman attempt on Sunday .
My day started at 7am with a gentle hour and a half swim . Then it got difficult ! …. The 7 1/2 hours on the bike was a
real slog . Hampered by rain ,wind and even hail, it was fair to say morale was fairly low at times . 180km later I was desperate
to get off the bike…. even if it did mean starting a marathon . I managed just over 2 hours for the first half but then ran out
of steam and finished the run in 4:45 . My target for completing the Ironman was 14 hours …..I finished in 14 hours and 40 seconds ! .
Your support and generosity helped keep me going on the day and thanks again from all of us at the Christian Blandford fund . So far
a staggering £12,500 has been raised . Mark my word every penny will be wisely spent ! .
All the very best Darren
Please feel free to give Darren encouragement with Facebook Comments here and like this page on facebook.
The Christian Blandford Fund made a significant contribution toward this amazing new garden at St George’s. It is a wonderful private space for children to get away from the wards. Mark Owen was very kind to come and open it. He was fantastic, signing loads of autographs, posing for photos, visiting the wards, and presenting the hospital with a £20,000 from The Take That Foundation. The photos are here.
There is a lovely write up from the wonderful people at post pals who loved Christian’s dancing video.
Here is what they write…
When Christian joined Post Pals he was a very poorly little boy fighting cancer for the second time, after finishing gruelling treatment for kidney cancer and enjoying a brief remission, the cancer returned. Christian was given a poor chance of making it even with all the treatment- weeks of radiation, months of gruelling chemotherapy and even a stem cell transplant. One of my all time favourite Post Pal pictures is of him with a little super hero kit a volunteer had sent, amazing how a bit of fabric, a paper mask and a sticker can transport a child into their imagination.
The reason I’m posting about Christian is we are sadly all too often sharing devastating news, but not today. Instead here is a video made by superhero Christian himself, dancing to Michael Jackson and duetting with himself!
Once you’ve watched the video check out the amazing charity the family set up, they realised a lot of people support the main children’s or cancer hospitals yet the local hospitals which children spend a lot of time in with infections or for transfusions rarely get support. They decided instead of fundraising for huge items they instead would do the little things others don’t think of, like buying decent curtains for the children’s ward so the kids no longer wake up at sunrise in the summer – a truly wonderful charity working away quietly at improving families quality of life. You can see their website here.
It’s been a while since we’ve had a video of Christian’s dancing, this is something he put together all on his own, even the editing…
Villa Rental in Begur, Spain
