More TV-related happenings

We at LLTGL are amazingly lucky to have so many supporters tirelessly getting organ donation out there through various media. Our utterly fab advocate Jessica Wales (19), who is waiting for a double-lung transplant, is currently a Sky1 celebrity after being featured on Noel's HQ in a bid to raise awareness of the need for more people to register as organ donors.

The show provided moving viewing, as Jess and her Dad demonstrated the impact on people and their families waiting for that all-important transplant. Andi Peters also highlighted the impact of the shortage of donors from black and minority ethnic communities, something we believe needs serious attention.

Thanks to Jess, Andi Peters and all the other people involved in the day (including Liz McLarnon from Atomic Kitten!) within 90 minutes 2000 people had clicked through to the NHS Organ Donor website. The show was so sucessful that the number of viewers ended up crashing the site and, sadly for us, the link to UK Transplant. Whilst we at LLTGL always prefer that TV shows, news broadcasts and articles give the direct website link to UK Transplant, we were pleased that the show got viewers thinking, talking and interested in organ donation -- something that we firmly believe needs to be done a lot more often.

Holly needs your vote to get organ donation on the telly!

One of our superstar supporters, Holly Shaw, is currently a contender for C4's Battlefront - a campaign with a difference.

The Battlefront site has pages for their favorite 19 campaigners and we want our Holz to be the 20th one picked for a star appearance on their TV series later in the year. Only the campaign with the largest number of votes will get through, so please get busy clicking!

Holly says:
"Did you know that 1000 people die every year because of the shortage of organ donors in the UK? In 2005 I went on the kidney transplant waiting list after a sudden illness caused kidney failure. I'm now kept alive by a dialysis machine which I’m attached to 3 times each week. For many others on the waiting list this isn't an option - for them an organ transplant is a matter of life and death. My campaign will raise awareness of organ donation and encourage more people to think, talk and do something about it. As a result, this campaign will save and transform lives, perhaps even my own. Waiting is tough! However I have seen the difference a transplant can make and this gives me hope for the future that I will be able to do the things I have dreamt of."
To keep up with Holly and her life on dialysis as she waits for her transplant, check out her excellent blog

If you could kindly pop on over to her campaign page http://battlefront.co.uk/campaign/the-gift-of-life/ and show your support with a vote and a little message about what organ donation means to you, that'd be awesome.

You have until 8th October to help get Holly and her campaign for organ donation on the telly!

love to all

*update- Holly's campaign is the most popular- let's keep it that way!

Back to business

We're all still buzzing here at LLTGL after our win on Thursday, but be assured that we're not immediately about to sit back feeling chuffed with ourselves ... Rather, the award has motivated us to keep on keeping on, and make further inroads into that shortage of donors we keep banging on about.

The beautiful Lisa Muscutt, who finally received a double-lung transplant after an incredible 6 false alarms, has been out and about recently helping us spread the word some more. She represented us at the Harefield Fun day, using her incredible story to promote the organ donor register via a LLTGL stand. She managed to galvanize a couple of friends, dressed in the obligatory fancy dress, to hand out as many leaflets as humanly possible and sell some of our trolley-coins. She was also lucky to meet the great Magdi Yacoub, the surgeon responsible for saving thousands of lives through the Harefield transplant programme.

People are always really interested in the organ donor register as it touches so many lives, from the tragic stories of people waiting for their transplant, to those lives that donation has transformed, and to the very special donors and their families. Having someone like Lisa tell their story helps remind people of the very human and personal side of organ donation, and it's amazing power.

Come and get involved

WINNERS!!!!!!!!

CAMPAIGNING TEAM OF THE YEAR!!!!!!!!!

Well, what can we say, other than: WAHOOOOO!!!!!!!

It was a complete shock (as can be seen from the video below!) as we were up against some charities that do incredible work such as Help the Aged, BLISS, and the Scouts. We thought we might be in with a chance for a"Highly Commended" mention, and as soon as that went to The Fatherhood Institute we were convinced that was the end of it for us.

To our delight and absolute surprise, the judges declared us the winner of the award, citing our work as "an outstanding campaign made up of many effective and innovative strands and approaches, achieving great success”!

Receiving this prestigious award makes us so proud and thankful for all of our supporters and volunteers, without whom we would not have acheived this great success. So, a mega-big-massive-huge thank you to everyone's efforts to raise the profile of organ donation

A full write-up and gossip can be found on Emily's and Oli's blog

In the meantime check the moment we won here:

Live Life Then Give Life - Charity Times Award Winners from Oli Lewington on Vimeo.

Note the cheesy grins!

Thanks to the rather lovely Duncan from The Football Foundation, we finally have some pictures we can show you!

The Live Life then Give Life Team!
(l-r: Jen, Emily, Emma, Oli, Hal)

Emma and Emily, founder members of the campaign and charity, wearing their proudest-ever faces holding our beautiful, shiny (and dangerous!) award!


ps. we're now on the community newswire, so fingers crossed that we can get us some more coverage of the organ donor register

pps. Emma has provided some photos from the night here on Facebook, which you can view even if you're not registered
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=35339&l=d8150&id=515551660

Charity Times Awards 2008- Wish us luck!

LLTGL are extremely excited and proud to have been shortlisted for a Charity Times Award 2008 in the category "Campaign Team of the Year". This is awarded to a campaigning team on the basis of innovation and results that achieve, or exceed, the aims of a campaign or campaigns during 2006/7.

The awards ceremony is held tomorrow at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London, and will be a really great opportunity for us to learn about other small charities and the ideas they have for taking their messages forward. It is also going to be great for all of the Trustees to meet in the same room, something we haven't ever done!

Why we do what we do....

Recent events have reminded us quite starkly why we do what we do, and how much we value all of your support in pushing for more organ transplants.

Last Thursday was the first anniversary of the death of Robyn Tainty, who was working on her Masters whilst battling Cystic Fibrosis and waiting for a double-lung transplant. Robyn was an incredibly passionate supporter of our campaign and managed to do a lot for us depsite her battle with ill-health, including talking to the media for us, speaking at the House of Lords and appearing on GMTV on behalf of The Transplant Trust (formerly Transplants in Mind) as their poster girl for National Transplant Week 2007. She is missed by a great many people and we are thinking of her family and friends.

Secondly, this article appeared in Chat magazine at the end of August, chronicling the story of how the shortage of organ donors has affected the Prior family, who have been incredible supporters of LLTGL over the years. Karen and Colin's son Lewis was born with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome in 2001 and was placed on the super-urgent heart transplant waiting list in December 2003. Sadly, on Tuesday April 6th 2004 Lewis ran out of time and he passed away aged just two and half years old.

The needless deaths of those waiting for transplants continue to spur us on to campaign for organ donation and transplantation and remind us how important all of our supporters are in achieving our goals. If you would like to get involved in helping us in any way big or small, please give us a shout by emailing us or heading over to our brand-new forum

New forum for campaigning ideas

Hope everyone is having a lovely Tuesday!

LLTGL are now hosting a forum for everyone affected by transplantation as a way of uniting us together to try and increase the number of transplants and spread the word about the awesome power that organ donation has.

We feel that although there are loads of brilliant organizations and individuals doing their own work to advance the cause of organ donation, it would be really useful to network with others doing similar things and share ideas, events and plans. By uniting us all together, we feel that we can make much stronger inroads into the shortage of donors.

If you could drop in and introduce yourself, that'd be totally awesome!

http://www.intoto.org.uk/forum/

love love

Donor remembrance, tree-planting service and DOH visit

Last weekend, LLTGL were invited to a very special service of remembrance by the Britsh Organ Donor (BODY), an organization that celebrates the cherished gifts made by organ donors and their families. LLTGL were very honoured indeed to have a tree dedicated to us following the ceremony in recognition of the work we do.

You can read about Emily and Oli's moving accounts of the day here:
Oli's account
Em's account

Emily and Oli also attended a lecture at the DOH last week, where they got the chance to push the agenda on organ donation. Emily, Oli and a friend went along to talk about their personal experiences of the difference that transplants make. The event was really important for us as it gave us a chance not only to use our personal experiences as a way of emphasizing to policy makers why organ donation is important, but we also got the opportunity to speak with Chris Rudge, who is the new "Transplant Tsar" in charge of implementing the recommendations of the Organ Donor Taskforce report published last September.

The Great British Duck Race!

Many thanks to all who sponsored a duck for us at the Great British Duck Race, held at Hampton Court Palace on the 31st August!

Duck Day was a huge success for all of the 44 registered charities involved in the event, with 165,000 ducks raced in total -- a World Record! Despite the rain, almost 3,000 people attended the day to cheer on their ducks.

For a small charity such as ourselves, you bought an impressive 101 ducks :)
From each of these sales, a minimum of £1 came to LLTGL and a few lovely people popped in a bit more for us. You lot also raised a further £202 for the three nominated charities - WaterAid, The Down's Syndrome Association and NSPCC.

In case you are dying to know who the winner of the £10,000 booty is.....
Duck number: 60595
The Other winning duck numbers are:
196101; 69015; 203768; 214722; 189223; 235043; 198514; 203156; 68622; 94472; 44857; 189809; 189340; 209787; 205303; 48459; 204000; 173837; 72270; 50496; 80798; 68255; 209980; 62911; 57581; 75229; 198558; 173312; 229737; 189808

If you win a prize, please let us all know!

For pictures and more info on the day, keep your eye on the official site at: http://www.thegreatbritishduckrace.co.uk/

Love,

Welcome to the all new LiveLifethenGiveLife blog!!

Here at LLTGL, we've decided that all you lovely people need to be kept more up-to-date on our transplant awareness and fundraising activities. So, we've started a new blog to enable us to bring you regular news, stories, features and comments about everything to do with our charity activities.

We'd love to hear your comments, views and opinions; and if there is anything we can do to help support you raise awareness about issues surrounding organ donation and transplantation feel free to contact us via our website
www.livelifethengivelife.co.uk

Lots of love,

The Live Life then Give Life team x