Category Archives: Things We’ve Done

Mini Teslas for Hospitals in the UK

March 5, 2024 by Peter · Leave a comment

Back in 2019, some Tesla owners in the UK received Mini Teslas as part of a referral program from Tesla. Some owners generously decided to donate those cars to local hospitals. The community of Tesla owners, led by Tesla Owners UK, got together to raise money for more cars. Even Elon Musk got involved with a donation from the Elon foundation and Radio Flyer who produce the cars gave a generous dicount. As the money from the group came in, the Christian Blandford Fund offered to help in order to collect and the manage the funds and claim gift aid on the donations. Will Fealey, the president of Tesla owners UK, joined the CBF as a trustee.

Since then every single children’s hospital in the UK has been offered one  and most have accepted. They are now being used all around the country. ITV ran a story about it this week about one of the many hospitals who are using them…

 

Deryn Harvey from Tesla owners UK has managed the program with impressive efficiency, not only providing the cars but looking after them as they need work over the years.

To quote Deryn – “TOUK have our own repair/refurb facility. Some of the originals are developing faults and Pete Smoothy and Nick Goldring take them into our very own “repair workshop.” Where a hospital has one which is very well used we use the parts and supply a brand new one to the hospital. Here are some ready to go out again.”


The Christian Blandford Fund are delighted to have been able to help and play a small part in this incredible project. We’d like to thank Tesla Owners UK, particularly Will, Deryn, Pete and Nick for not only making this happen but for maintaining the project during the many inevitable ups and downs.

We’d also like to thank all those who donated over the years and RadioFlyer, Elon Musk, and all the incredible NHS staff who helped get the cars onto the wards so they could help make a difference.

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Father Christmas at St George’s 2023

December 22, 2023 by Peter · Leave a comment

We had an amazing day at St George’s Hospital handing out presents to the children who are unlucky enough to be in hospital this time of year.

You can see all the photos here  and patients and familes can download hi res versions for printing and sharing.

Thank you so much to Tracey and her team of play specialists who helped us prepare and to Janine and Hayley who came around the wards with us. As usual our wonderful trustees Darren and Amy chose and wrapped the presents and this year Darren stepped in as the photographer and as you can see did a fabulous job.

As usual I was blown away by the energy, dilligence and love from all of the staff at St George’s. Thank you for all the effort you put in, often under difficult circumstances.

Merry Christmas from all of us at The Christian Blandford Fund.

Posted in Blog, Things We've Done.

Father Christmas at St George’s 2022

December 23, 2022 by Peter · Leave a comment

It was wonderful being back at St George’s for a father Christmas visit after 2 years away!

Father Christmas at St George's

www.christianblandford.com

 

We have put the photos up for friends and families of the patients to download here

Thank you to our trusty trustees Darren and Amy  and their families for wrapping all the presents. Thank you to lovely Annie Stevens for stepping in as the photographer at the last minute, you did a great job! Thank you to the play specialists at St George’s for making it happen, particularly Hazel who was incredible all day.

Finally and mostly, thank you to all the staff at St George’s for the work you do and the energy you put into your day. I am always amazed, touched and humbled by the passion I see from every member of staff. You are all overworked, you are all under appreciated and you are all incredible. The love and compassion you have for your patients is a pleasure to witness.

Merry Christmas and lots of love from everybody at The Christian Blandford Fund.

Posted in Blog, Christian's Story, Things We've Done. Tagged with , , , .

Some exciting news from The Christian Blandford Fund

October 7, 2021 by Peter · Leave a comment

It’s been a busy few months at The CBF. We have been finalising a very exciting project that we have been working on for the last 2 years.

The fabulous news is that we effectuated a new Clinical Psychologist for the teenagers and young adults at The Royal Marsden Hospital .

The psychology team at the hospital provide support for the TYA’s and have seen a huge increase in referrals in the last year, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.  They were seriously overstretched and did not have the capacity to offer the psychological support that the unfortunate teenagers seriously needed during cancer treatment.

The new member of staff will be part of the outreach program so will help teenagers and young adults at other hospitals in the South East including St George’s.

This is not something that The CBF would normally support as we try to avoid financing projects which we feel should be paid for by the NHS. We tend to focus on the extras that are not covered by central government funds. Claudia was the main driver for this project and persuaded the rest of the trustees that, although it is expensive, it very much fits our mandate to improve lives of children and their families during prolonged stays in hospital.

We are delighted that this new resource is now in place and would not have happened without our financial help.

Our contribution of £45,752 will pay for the psychologist for a year. After this time we hope and expect their value to have been demonstrated and the psychologist to be retained through hospital funds.

We have also started to prepare for Claudia’s terrific biennial Christmas Fair!

Today we received our first donation for the raffle – a stunning print of The Stag Theatre in Sevenoaks by the artist Susie West.

Susie is an artist who is painting her way around Britain’s cities, towns and villages.  Please do have a look at her website https://www.artistsusiewest.com/ or follow her on Instagram “artistsusiewest”

If you have a local shop and would like to be involved please contact Claudia for further details. Here are a few pictures from the last event.

Posted in Blog, Fund Raising, Things We've Done.

Merry Christmas from the Christian Blandford Fund

December 28, 2020 by Peter · 1 Comment

This year's Father Christmas visit had to be virtual, with some somewhat unexpected results! We hope you enjoy this short video

It was all worth it when we received this lovely message the following day 

I'm just writing to say a heartfelt thank you.  My son has been in and out of St George's since the end of November and I've just picked him up for home leave for Christmas.  He was genuinely so thrilled to get his present from you this morning, and I was so touched as his Mum too.
 
Thank you so much and wishing you the merriest of Christmases.
 
 
We are very happy that this December we have been able to help out Poole Hospital who, as well as standard requests such as new beds for visiting parents, had an unusual request...
 
 
We would love ceramic mugs with lids for parents to use for hot drinks.   We struggle to buy them as they are not seen as essential but help greatly in reducing spill risks and the possibility  of scalds. These needs  100 plus mugs,  This would be top of our list. I am currently trying to source theses for a cost but am struggling to find anything. I have been able to find bamboo mugs but these can transfer heat easily and not all are dishwasher safe.
 
 
Fortunately we found just the thing...


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Santa 2019!

December 23, 2019 by Peter · Leave a comment
We had another wonderful day at St George’s handing out presents to some lovely children who are unlucky enough to be spending this time of year in hospital. It was particularly good to borrow the toy Tesla car for Jessica the elf to drive around the wards as we handed out presents. This is one of many cars donated by The Tesla Owners Group, in partnership with the Christian Blandford Fund to hospitals throughout the country. The staff at St George’s were all wonderful, a special thanks to Justine and her amazing team of play specialists who helped to organise the presents and accompanied us on the rounds, smiling and happy even when one of them had a toe run over by a Tesla driving elf (sorry Genevieve!). You can see a small selection of the photos below but the rest you can see here Click here for the full collection of photographs - free downloads for families and friends of patients Thank you to the talented photographer, Samantha Connoly Boles, who gave up her time and abilities for free to take these photos. You can see more of her work here. A special thank you to our trustees Darren Bowler and Amy Hancox who wrapped all the presents ready for Santa and to Susannah Boughtflower from Susannah's People for the fabulous beard.
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Ella Gracie’s Garden Project

January 15, 2019 by Peter · Leave a comment

We were so pleased to be able to support The Royal Marsden by donating towards Ella Gracie’s Garden Project. This new garden for the children’s ward provides some much needed outside space for the kids and their families. The first picture shows the space as it was originally!

Posted in Blog, Things We've Done.

Father Christmas at St George’s Hospital (and Pembury Hospital) 2018

December 19, 2018 by Peter · Leave a comment

Yesterday we had another amazing day handing out presents at St George's. Christian and Jessica were fantastic elves helping me as Santa. The CBF trustees, Darren and Amy did a great job of wrapping presents and Neil and the St George's play specialists were a great help on the rounds. As usual it was a day filled with both laughter and tears. We are reminded how lucky we are that Christian has made such a great recovery and we are touched that he has become a beacon of hope for many families who are going through an incredibly difficult time.

Thank you to Matt Binnie who provided his photographic skills and equipment for free. You can see a selection above, the rest are here where friends and families of the patients can get downloads for free. Click on the cloud to download individual photos.

For the first time we also handed out presents in a different hospital, our local NHS hospital in Kent, Pembury. As my sledge is having an MOT we had to bring in some external Santa help! Here is a message from Claudia

"The Pembury Father Christmas  trip would not have been possible without the generosity of Granville School staff, parents and pupils who generously bought and wrapped all the gifts.  We would also like to thank Dionne Lessner who gave up her time to help Claudia on the day, Susannah Boughtflower (from Susannah’s People and The Kids Entertainers Network) who found us the most brilliant Father Christmas and who waived her fee & Damien Warren Smith who was a fantastic Father Christmas and who charmed not only the children but their parents and the Dr’s and nurses and play specialists."

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One of the more unusual items we have purchased…

September 5, 2018 by Peter · 1 Comment
One of the benefits the Christian Blandford Fund has is that its small size makes it very efficient so we can approve purchases that meet our criteria very quickly. The wonderful play specialists at St George's had an interesting request, a mini MRI scanner. Children being treated often find MRI machines scary and, as they need to lie very still, their fear can not only be distressing for them but can lead to unusable images. This is how Justine, the play specialist put it... This piece of equipment would absolutely prove so invaluable in preparing children/young people for scans and it would also help to reduce the number of patients who go for the scan under a G.A through fear of the actual machine. Showing patients exactly what it looks like (rather than a photograph), how it works and the noise it makes can definitely help to reduce fears, anxieties and misconceptions which will enable fewer G.A’s, risks and waiting times for the patient/parent carer. This is such exciting news for us and we have waited so long for a revolutionary idea like this! I wondered if I could make a wish for the MAGNETOM from you, I completely appreciate that it is very expensive, but the value it would bring to Play In Hospital at St George’s would be second to none, state of the art and help to bring us up to modern day healthcare standards! Which I strive to achieve at all times. We were able to approve the cost of it quickly and I am happy to say that it is now being used on the ward at St Georges. This is from a recent e-mail from Justine.

Please see pictures below of our lovely Olivia with my Play Specialist Hayley, learning all about having an MRI scan using the Mini-Magnetom MRI scanner model, which the wonderful Christian Blandford Charity purchased for us to help to teach our patients about having a blood test. As you can see, Olivia really benefitted from the experience and had a wonderful time learning about having an MRI scan. Olivia is a patient on Pinckney ward and has recently had her head henna’d which she absolutely loves. 

Lovely Olivia with toy MRI machine Lovely Olivia with toy MRI machine We are delighted that the scanner is being used and is making a difference and we wish Olivia all our love and best wishes.
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Our collaboration with The Tesla Owners Group UK and Elon Musk!

August 14, 2018 by Peter · Leave a comment
Tesla owners donate mini Tesla's to hospitals It started off with one or two Tesla owners donating mini Teslas that they received from a referral scheme. Mark Goodier, you may remember, donated his for us to auction and raise funds for our charity. Other owners approached children's hospitals to see if they would like them, yet more owners pledged money to buy more. Will Fealey, the president of the Tesla Owners UK group had the bright idea of asking Elon Musk for support and Elon agreed to help! There are more details in this news story. The Christian Blandford Fund have offered to help in collecting the money, claiming the gift aid, and assisting in the administration as much as we can. It fits perfectly in our mandate, to help improve the lives of children and their families, particularly those affected by cancer, during prolonged stays in NHS hospitals. We have bought a couple of little electric cars for St George's in the past and thoroughly agree that going to an op in an Electric mini Tesla is much more fun (and less scary) than going in a wheel chair. We are also delighted that Will Fealey has joined our charity as a trustee and we look forward to helping Will and the generous Tesla owners who have donated help as many children as they can. You can read Will's post on the Tesla Owners UK site if you would like to recommend a hospital or hospice who would benefit from a Radio Flyer mini Tesla you can do so here. Amazon Smile Don't forget that we have joined Amazon Smile. If you use this link before you shop at Amazon, they will make a donation of 1.5% of your expenditure for no extra cost to you! Please click on this link to set The Christian Blandford Fund as your charity of choice. Thank you again! Amazon Smile
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