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.
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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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.
Who would have thought any good could ever come from a mid-life crisis?? Turning 40 years can make people do the strangest of things – we have a bought a lot of lycra and decided to cycle from London to Paris – for one weekend only “Blondes on Bikes” go on tour!
The “Blondes on Bikes” team is a small collection of 40ish year old mums with a total of 10 children between us. We all live Wandsworth, so our local hospital is St Georges. It is no surprise that St Georges provides a full range of General Paediatric Medicine inpatient and outpatient services. There are five children’s wards including eight Paediatric Intensive Care Unit beds for critically ill children. The BoB team feels lucky that it has not had to use any of these services, but being in the heart of “nappy valley” there are plenty of families that have and the wonderful resources available are stretched to their limit.
The Take That tickets raised an amazing £1300. Even better, Mark Owen and his lovely wife, Emma, donated a second set of tickets for the people who came second in the auction and offered £1350 for another set. This brings the total raised by the blondes on bikes to over an incredible £7000. Thank you so much!
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!
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’s mum, Claudia has decided to run 10km to raise money for the Christian Blandford Fund, she writes…
Hi, thanks for visiting my page. For those of you who know me, I am not a runner. I may attempt to jog a little bit but I am rubbish – I don’t “do” speed, I constantly need to pee, and I always sprain my ankle. Not the right ingredients really to attempt a 10k! However, I am raising money for The Christian Blandford Fund. Christian is my son and he has been through cancer twice. As a family we have spent a huge amount of time in hospitals where we could see that they were crying out for basic things such as sofa beds for parents, curtains, high chairs, toys, electronic games etc. We managed to raise enough money to buy these things, and much more, but we need to continue to raise funds – sofa beds break, curtains rip, toys don’t last forever. Please help me to be able to continue to help the lives of sick children and their families in hospitals.
Through Virgin Money Giving, you can sponsor me and donations will be quickly processed and passed to charities. Virgin Money Giving is a not for profit organisation and will claim gift aid on a charity’s behalf where the donor is eligible for this. I really appreciate all your support and thank you for any donations.
Villa Rental in Begur, Spain
