Employee of the month?

Lots of CF Trust employees do their bit outside of work hours to help raise funds for our vital research. Andrew Moran from Donations Support (He's the one on the far right in the photo above) told us a bit about what he is doing for the CF Trust this April.


My name is Andrew; I work on the Donations Support Team here at the Cystic Fibrosis Trust. For the last four years I’ve worked with my colleagues sending out what I would imagine to be thousands of thank you letters to all our lovely fundraisers and supporters. It’s a very rewarding job and I’ve always enjoyed working on the team.

My not-so-secret passion outside of work has always been live music. I started learning drums at school and since then I’ve been lucky enough to play all over Europe in various bands.

Recently I was given the opportunity to combine my two great interests by playing a gig in aid of the Trust. My current band Not Cool have been kindly asked by charity gig promoters Positive Action to play one of their fundraisers on April 3rd, nominating The Cystic Fibrosis Trust as their charity of choice for this particular concert

Over the last year Positive Action has raised hundreds of pounds for charities like Shelter and U-Turn. They recently held a very successful benefit concert for those affected by the earthquake in Haiti.

We’ll be joined by our friends Chapter Sweetheart on the night, and we are actually releasing a limited edition CD just for the gig featuring a couple of tracks by both bands. The venue will be the Victoria pub in Mile End, the premier music venue in that area, and all of the proceeds taken on the door (a cheap as chips £3 will get you) go to the Trust.

I’ll be honest – As you can imagine from our name my band is a bit noisy and may not be to everyone’s taste. But if you’d like a great Saturday night out at a good live music venue with a friendly atmosphere, and fancy raising some money for the Trust in the process, then please come along. Remember to come and say hello, it would be great to ‘place a face’ to some of the wonderful letters I get to read!

www.myspace.com/notcoolisaband
www.myspace.com/chaptersweetheart
http://www.myspace.com/thevictoriae3

Fancy abseiling for the CF Trust?

We have three different abseils happening in the UK this spring and we'd love you to join us for one of them - it's a great adrenaline rush and a fantastic challenge.

Invest NI, Belfast, 13 March - 160ft abseil down this most impressive building

Manchester United FC, 28 March - 140ft free air abseil from the roof of the North Stand

Celtic Football Club, 2 & 3 April - 100ft free air abseil from the South Stand

If you're interested visit www.cftrust.org.uk for more details or contact our Events Team on 0300 373 1100 or events@cftrust.org.uk

Does my bum look big in this?!

In more unusual fundraising news 16 year old Kristian Long organised a Sumo Wrestling Competition for his teachers. The students of Plume School, Maldon Essex had to pay to watch the teaching staff compete against each other and the event raised over £240 for the CF Trust. Well done Kristian...and the teachers for taking part in less than flattering outfits!

Max and his mankini

We had to blog about one of our very special fundraisers - 16 year old Max Richardson who spent Sunday walking up Southend High Street in a very fetching lime green mankini to raise money for us. Well done Max!

http://www.justgiving.com/maxmankini

Oxygen on flights

Many of you will be turning your mind to planning your summer holiday, in an attempt to get away from this winter gloom. We often see the topic of troublesome travel insurance discussed, with those with CF often dreading the prospect of hours on the phone to travel insurance companies facing hefty premiums and multiple refusals; but have you thought about whether you’re going to need supplementary oxygen when jetting off to sunnier climes?

A proportion of people with Cystic Fibrosis need supplementary oxygen when flying, due to the oxygen levels in the cabin dropping at high altitude. Charges for what is an essential for many, vary greatly, with some airlines such as BA, Cathay Pacific, Emirates, Thomson and Virgin all supplying free oxygen on the advice of a doctor; but others enforcing hefty charges of up to £500 per trip. A quarter of all airlines recently contacted by PHA-UK * do not supply supplementary oxygen at all.

Having done a spot of our own ‘secret shopper research’ we were disappointed not just with the costs some airlines enforce, but at the attitudes of airline employees when trying to arrange the oxygen. Extended periods of time were spent on hold, and some airlines claimed to simply ‘not know’ what to do about getting supplementary oxygen on a flight!

Together with the PHA-UK and the British Lung Foundation, we are working to change this situation. To help, please sign this petition.

*PHA-UK stands for Pulmonary Hypertension Association-UK

4 Peaks 4 Bikes 4 People

A team of four people from Basingstoke Bluefins Swimming Club are taking part in a charity bike ride and climb for the CF Trust and Bluefins Club. Andrew Cackett, Gareth Waller, Oliver McSoley and Gregory Thomas plan to conquer the four highest peaks in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland and hope to raise £10,000.

They begin their challenge on 10th August in Basingstoke and estimate the challenge will take between 10-14 days. They cycle to Snowdon and will complete their first climb (3560ft) before crossing to Northern Ireland to climb Slieve Donard. From there they will cycle to Scotland to climb the highest of the four peaks, Ben Nevis at 4480ft. The final climb is England's highest Scafell Pike before cycling home. In total the ride should cover an approx 1250 miles and a total climb of 4,256 metres.

For more info go to http://www.mycharitypage.com/cackett or www.4peaks4bikes.co.uk

Join Team CF this January!

Whether you've over-indulged this festive season or are always fit as a flea, join Team CF and Make a Difference!

We have the world's biggest and best running events here in the UK and, with your help, we'd like to make sure that in 2010, we have our biggest and best running team...

Over 35,000 people will take to the streets on 16 May for the fantastic Great Manchester Run 10k.

Entries open at 8.30am on Thursday 7 January and will fill in literally 3 or 4 days - the last 10,000 applications will go into a ballot this year so get your place confirmed early.

The Great North Run half-marathon on 19 September will see 54,000 runners head into South Shields.

The ballot for entries opens at 8.30am this Saturday, 9 January until 8 February so please apply now. Up to 8 January you can also enter the Daily Mirrors draw for a place too.

Please use your place to run with us and help to see off CF!