Mummy Vs Work Charity of the Year Nominations

Thank you to everyone who has taken the chance to nominate a charity for our charity of the year. Below is all our nominations plus a little more information on each one.

I need yo either set up a poll on facebook or allow people to post a comment on here so everyone can vote for their favourite and the charity with the most votes by the end of March will be selected for us to support this year. How do you think we should set up the vote?

Please take the time to read a little about each charity as all of them are deserving enough to win:

Macmillan Cancer Support

They provide practical, medical and financial support and push for better cancer care.

One in three of us will get cancer and it’s the toughest thing most of us will ever face. If you’ve been diagnosed with cancer, or a loved one has, you’ll want a team of people in your corner supporting you every step of the way. This is where Macmillan Cancer Support are here to help.

Help Danny

This appeal has been set up to enable everyone to help raise the funds for Danny King to be able to travel to America for 3 months.

Danny has a brain Tumour that has increased in size. Due to where it is situated his consultants have decided that the best treatment going forward is Proton Therapy.

This treatment thankfully has been agreed and the funding has been granted so Danny and his parents will be going to America. The funding will include the Flight to America and the return along with basic accommodation and the expensive treatment. The proton therapy treatment will last for 3 months.

Fundraising for Findlay

Findlay (born April 2009) and his younger sister Iona (born June 2011) both have a very rare chromosome abnormality
called Trisomy 12q. Their condition means they have a lot of complex medical and care needs and their prognosis is unknown.
Due to their condition they need a lot of specialist equipment and adaptations to help them partake in basic daily activities that
people take for granted such as sitting, standing and bathing.

This equipment and other items such as specialist sensory equipment to help aid their development does not come
cheaply and much of it is not funded via the NHS and so we are doing fundraising to try and raise money to fund
the equipment and adaptations needed to make their lives easier and more accessible for them.

Lisa’s Stars

Lisa’s Stars was set up in the Autumn of 2010 to make a difference to those who are unfortunate enough to lose a child prematurely. Our Founder is a lady who has sadly experienced this and felt something was massively missing from the aftercare of those babies and their parents.

Lisa’s Stars initially started out as a way to support her local hospital, and her aim was to supply them with tiny blankets, hats and angelwraps so that any baby born too early would be kept warm and wrapped in love. Within 3 days of starting the group on facebook, Lisa’s Stars had a website, a forum to give support to families and nearly a thousand members, not to mention an army of ladies loving knitting and sewing a mountain of angel clothes.

FSID

The Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths is the UK’s leading baby charity aiming to prevent unexpected deaths in infancy and promote infant health. FSID fulfils these aims by:

• Funding research
• Supporting families whose babies have died suddenly and unexpectedly
• Disseminating information on infant health, baby care and sudden infant deaths to health professionals and the general public
• Working with professionals to improve investigations when a baby dies

Nightsafe

Nightsafe is a local homeless charity based in Blackburn providing holistic services to homeless young people aged 16 to 24 in the Blackburn and Darwen borough. Nightsafe has four projects offering a variety of housing options and services to young people. Since Nightsafe began in 1990 they have:-

• Helped 10,000 young people
• Given 30,000 nights off the street
• Provided 100,000 meals
• Had 400 dedicated volunteers

The Shelter provides young people aged 16 to 24 a safe place to stay with resettlement support to help them find more permanent accommodation.

Clic Sargent

Treatment normally starts immediately, is often given many miles from home and can last for up to three years. Being diagnosed with cancer is a frightening experience and the emotional, practical and financial implications of treatment are intensely challenging for the whole family.

CLIC Sargent is the UK’s leading cancer charity for children and young people, and their families. We provide clinical, practical, financial and emotional support to help them cope with cancer and get the most out of life. We are there from diagnosis onwards and aim to help the whole family deal with the impact of cancer and its treatment, life after treatment and, in some cases, bereavement.

Jamie Alexander Memorial Foundation

Jamie Robert Alexander, from Aviemore, born Tuesday October 5 2010, sadly passed away Sunday December 26 2010 and his parents, family and friends started Jamie’s Foundation is to help Poorly Baby’s and children at Yorkhill childrens
Hosptial Via Yorkhill childrens Foundation.

Marie Curie

Marie Curie Cancer Care is a UK charity dedicated to the care of people with terminal cancer and other illnesses. Over the financial year 2010/11, we reached a total of 31,799 patients.

Marie Curie Nurses
They are best known for their network of 2,000
Marie Curie Nurses, who work in the homes of terminally ill patients across the UK, providing practical care and support.

Over the year, their nurses provided 1.2 million hours of nursing to 23,406 patients, along with support for their families.

The Miscarriage Association

Miscarriage can be a very unhappy, frightening and lonely experience.
The Miscarriage Association acknowledges the distress associated with pregnancy loss
and strives to make a positive difference to those it affects.
Our background and aims
The Miscarriage Association was founded in 1982 by a group of people who had experienced miscarriage. They felt strongly that someone needed to provide the support and information which they had found lacking in their medical care, and so they set up a new charity.
Nearly thirty years later, the Miscarriage Association has grown and developed in many ways, but we still pursue those founding aims:
• offering support and information to anyone affected by the loss of a baby in pregnancy
• raising awareness of miscarriage and
• promoting good practice in medical care

Papyrus

PAPYRUS was founded in 1997 by Jean Kerr, a mother from Lancashire. She and a small group of parents who had each lost a child to suicide were convinced that that many young suicides are preventable.
From its beginnings, people have joined the charity which is now the UK-wide membership organisation dedicated to the prevention of young suicide.
PAPYRUS membership is open to all who share the belief that young suicide is often preventable

Cords4life

Cord4Life are trying to raise money so they can.

• Raise awareness of cord blood / stem cell donation and how they can help save the lives of people suffering many life threatening conditions.
• Provide information about organisations that have cord blood banks / programmes
• Financially support cord blood / stem cell research and treatment
  Raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of the cancers that affect children
• Reach out and support families being treated with cancer
• Share real life stories about children who have been affected by cancer

Upon Butterfly Wings

Founded in October 2011 – in memory of baby Bobby Franks (03.07.09) and his Friends – Upon Butterfly Wings is a voluntary not-for-profit UK organisation, which provides support to parents whose babies have sadly died either in early miscarriage, premature birth and stillbirth or during the neonatal period.

Luton and Dunstable NICU Appeal

Over 900 premature and sick babies were treated in their NICU last year.
NICU was originally built for 20 cots.

However with an increasing demand we had to squeeze extra cots into the same space. Despite the increase, the team still had to turn away 20 requests for a cot every month as the Unit was completely full.

So the L&D added an extension onto the existing unit until the new NICU is completed. The extension has given an extra 6 cots.

However to a dramatic increase in the birth rate and advances in neonatal care, They still need more cots to ensure they can treat more babies and save even more precious lives.

The L&D is committed to building a new £7 million Unit to care for the premature and sick babies born across Luton, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and beyond.
The new Unit will house up to 46 cots, which will dramatically increase our capacity. It will also have some essential overnight accommodation for parents where they can be supported in preparing to care for their baby before they go home and better facilities for families.

The chosen charity will have us supporting them through the blog and social media for the remainder of 2013 plus our fundraiser later in the year will help raise some much needed funds. So please help us to help others this year.