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
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…
Christian was in Mauritius last week and took part in a fashion show to launch Jean Paul Gaultier’s latest collection! Lots of other children who stayed at The Residence also took part. I have put the photos here and also on photobox here where you can order prints (password christianblandfordfund).
Please share this site on facebook and other social networking sites.
Donations from parents welcome! 😉
Peter put on a Father Christmas outfit and went to St George’s to hand out presents with his two little helpers Henry and Christian.
There are more photos here. Some parents wanted copies of the photos, they can be ordered directly from photobox. If you have not used them before send me an e-mail at peter@theblandfords.com and I’ll send you an offer code for 50 free prints. A big thank you to Hugh Miller, the very talented photographer who took the photos for us and donated his time and expertise.
It was a lot of fun, made easy by the very organised play specialists at St George’s. Thank you also to Darren, Corrine, Emily and Amy for collecting wrapping and delivering the presents to the Hospital, they truly did all the hard work!
The presents were all paid for from The Christian Blandford Fund and we are very grateful to the enormous support that we receive from the friends that support us.
It was great to see Maz, one of the very skillful nurses at St George’s using the portable ultra sound machine that we supplied. At over £20,000 it is not in the NHS budget but makes inserting needles into children’s veins a much less traumatic and painful experience. Something we felt strongly was worth our investment!
So we can continue this kind of work, please consider us if you are raising money for a charity event or are about to make a festive charity donation. Thank and Merry christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year!
Christian loves going to Stagecoach in Hildenborough
I have taken some photos of their shows and thought that some of the other parents might be interested in prints so have put them on photobox.
If you have never used photobox contact me and I will get you an offer code for 50 free prints.
There is no obligation, but if you order prints and wish to make a donation to the Christian Blandford fund, we would be very grateful
Thank you!
Peter and Claudia Blandford
password – theblandfords
July 2010 click here for photobox Album
password theblandfords
November 2010 demo click here for photos
Password theblandford
25th November
I’m sure you all agree that The Sevenoaks Chronicle is the hub of global news and events.
21st November
First newspapers, now television! Anybody local keep an eye on the Sevenoaks Chronicle next week too.
17th November
I’m sure you all read the Daily Express and have therefore already seen this, but for those that haven’t they ran a story on the Stagecoach awards and Christian’s prize.
The newspaper had a lovely photo of Christian in it too. Here is the PDF of it.
Christian enjoys going to stagecoach where he practices dancing, singing and acting. When they found out about his illness, Wendy and Keith who run the Tonbridge school asked if they could put him forward for a national Stagecoach Award. If you are interested here is the letter that Keith wrote.
Christian, Claudia, Peter and Christian’s nanny (Pete’s mum, June) went to the Houses of Parliament where Christian was named the winner of the Bravery prize. Needless to say we were over the moon!
Click here for more photos of the event.
Christian, Henry and I decided to have some fun promoting the Christian Blandford Fund
Villa Rental in Begur, Spain
