More media craziness!

With the revelation that there are now 16 million people who have registered their wishes to be an organ donor, things here at LLTGL have been a non-stop whirl of press!

First up, our fab chair Oli spent a busy morning doing press in the Milton Keynes area, on BBC3 Counties' Morning:MK show, HeartFM and Anglia news here


Our super South-East advocate Lou Lawrence, who recently received a sparkly pair of new lungs after a long battle with pulmonary fibrosis, got some exclusive coverage in the Mirror with a moving story about her difficulties facing a transplant as a formerly vibrant young woman


Finally, you can read all about the difference our North-West advocate Holly's transplant has made to her life with a moving retelling of her story on page 44 of the Sun. Holly continues to work hard on the Battlefront campaign, and we're really excited to see her efforts to promote organ donation and transplantation rewarded with an appearance in one of the most widely read newspapers in the land!

All in all, this week has been a great one for coverage about organ donation, and we hope that because 1,000 people continue to die every year waiting for a transplant (shockingly, that is three people every day) the media craziness this week results in more people saying that magical "Yes" to organ donation.

***more stop press***
Hmm... maybe I need to write on this blog more often.... Again, as I write this, our South-East fab-vocate Nelly has just been called to Hammersmith to receive her long awaited kidney transplant! Being from an Asian background, Nelly has been waiting a super-long time for a kidney (6+ years) so we're totally over the moon!! Watch this space for updates!!!

Ethan's Team run for LLTGL

This is Ethan. Isn't he cute?

Ethan is 13 months old and has lived in hospital all his life. As in literally, bar one day, hospital has been the only place he has known.

Ethan was born with his intestines outside the body and following an attempt to reinsert them, Ethan needed to start TPN, an introvenous form of feeding. Ethan now urgently needs a small bowel and liver transplant.

It's hard to imagine having a gorgeous little boy like Ethan and not even being able to take him home. Ethan's lovely family want to do something for LLTGL and so his dad Stuart and two friends will be running the Great Manchester Run on 17th May. You can sponsor them by clicking here: http://www.justgiving.com/ethancollins

Thank you to the Collins family for supporting us at what must be such a worrying time for them, and all of us at LLTGL are keeping our fingers crossed that that call comes very very soon.

x

All change here at LLTGL!

It's been a busy few weeks at LLTGL, what with preparation for the Valentines Cake Bake (with some extra special, super-secret prizes) hunting for fundraising ideas to keep us in business for the next year and being all excited about Holly's ongoing Battlefront activity. On top of all of that, we have some news that we'd like to share with all of our supporters and followers about some of the changes going on behind the scenes.

First, following an exceptional tenure as chair of LLTGL, Emma Harris has sadly stepped down as our leader. Emma started off the LLTGL campaign all the way back in 2006 along with Emily, who at the time was in desperate need of a lung transplant. Emma has presided over the growth of our charity from these humble beginnings, and went on to spearhead both our recognition as an offical charity in March 2008 and our fabulous win at the Charity Times Awards in September that same year. We are really sad to lose her guiding light, but are over the moon that she'll be staying on as a trustee of the charity.

Taking over the reins is the rather smashing Oli Lewington, who came on board the Live Life Then Give Life campaign in 2007 as the production manager of our sell-out comedy show Laughter for Life with Bill Bailey and Dara O'Briain, depsite being on 24-hour oxygen and listed for a double-lung transplant. We at LLTGL are excited to have Oli's leadership as we know that he'll continue to lead the charity onwards and upwards in its quest to help save and improve the lives of all those waiting for or lucky enough to have received a transplant.

As well as all these changes, we are also quite excited to announce that we have two new trustees joining us following the departure of original trustees Hal and Anders, who joined LLTGL along with Jen in summer 2007 and helped drive the campaign towards charity recognition and beyond.

Taking up the LLTGL challenge are Matt Coyne, marketing guru and close friend of Robyn (who was the inspiration behind Robyn's Rainbows) and Hannah 'Pops' Barham who spearheaded the "My Friend Oli" campaign at Durham University along with chancellor Bill Bryson. We feel special to have them both on board and think they'll help take our charity in lots of new and exciting directions

x

Get your aprons on....

...and come and join the huge number of people who have already confirmed with us that they will be holding a Cake Bake!

We've had emails from all sorts of people all over the UK, who are already getting prepared and putting out the word to encourage friends, family and work colleagues to get involved.

Imagine our delight when the hard-working team at Pick Me Up! Magazine emailed us to tell us that they will be whipping out their rolling pins and hosting their own fundraising cake bake for us! Is your workplace getting involved? Let us know so we can shout about it!

Want to contribute but can't sort your own cake sale? You can sponsor a cake bake by clicking here.

Thank you so much to all of you who have got in touch so far - every penny you raise will help us continue with our work: it will help us raise more awareness and save more lives.

The Great Valentines Cake Bake!

We at LLTGL need to raise us some pennies so we can continue to work hard to raise awareness about organ donation and transplants and to help make sure that people waiting on that precious gift like Nelly and Charlotte's dad can get the transplants they so desperately need.

So.... How about doing something different this year? How about using Valentines Day to do a good deed and make a difference?

Love it or hate it, Valentines has crept up on us and soon we’ll be surrounded with overpriced bouquets of roses and boxes of chocolates begging to be bought. Instead, use this Valentines Day to help us help all those waiting for a transplant by brightening up Friday 13th February - with a red themed cake sale!

By selling your baked goodies in aid of LLTGL you can help us help the thousands of people out there desperately waiting for a transplant that could save their lives. You can even raise money online by visiting www.justgiving.com/livelifegivelife

Send us your photos from your workplace, school or university to win a prize for the most wild, wacky or creative cake!

To find out more about what we do go to www.livelifethengivelife.co.uk

For more information on the Great Valentines Cake Bake email emily@livelifethengivelife. co. uk or matt @ livelifethengivelife. co. uk, or to start up a fundraising page for us, visit http://www.justgiving.com/livelifegivelife

thanks muchly,

We *heart* Tesco magazine

Our friend Bethany is now the face of Tesco's campaign for more organ donors!

The campign is a very positive look at organ donation through several articles featuring several people we know who have been affected by organ donation and transplantation, including our friends Victoria Tremlett, who is waiting for double-lungs, and Ray Pearson who works for The Transplant Trust

We are so pleased that a big supermarket has taken this on as it is a great way of spreading the message far and wide about the life-saving power of organ donation. We were also really chuffed as they put across so eloquently the importance of telling your family of your wishes as well as signing the register itself.

Love to all

*stop press*

As we were writing this blog, Bethany was in Theatre receiving her new Liver! The first few days are critical so we are all keeping Bethany in our thoughts...as well as the incredible family who have given this beautiful little girl the gift of life.

"Seven Pounds"

No... not the amount of weight I need to lose after my Christmas eats, but a new film out in the UK now directed by Gabriele Muccino and starring crowd-pleaser Will Smith

Although the film is not explicity about organ donation, it has several organ donation stories contained within it and we at LLTGL think it could be a perfect opportunity for our supporters to spread the message about organ donation further.

Things you could do include handing out organ donor leaflets to people leaving showings of the film, asking cinemas to place donor card leaflets at the Box Office or even writing to your local paper telling them about how the messages within the film have affected you or even if they accurately portray the facts of organ donation and transplantation

Christmas campaign round-up

How very exciting! Our 2008 Christmas campaign this year was a really great success thanks to all who let us share their stories, and we managed to achieve both local and national coverage in a variety of formats.

Happily, we got lots of stories on regional radio stations up and down the country. Our lovely East Anglian Advocate Audrey was on BBC Radio Suffolk, our wonderful South East Advocate Jessica Wales also did lots of interviews, as did Karen Prior in Shropshire and our chair Emma in Wiltshire.

We already mentioned that Carol Beckett appeared in a full page feature in Good Housekeeping, but Carol also got a mention multiple times in the Manchester Evening News here and here.

The wonderful Bethany also got national coverage for organ donation and transplantation by a star appearance in Woman's Own in December (click below to read)

The story of the lovely Emily Gentry, who received her second heart transplant in November, was featured in her local paper just before Christmas.

One of our good friends Holly C managed to get her story of receiving a kidney from her amazing friend all over the shop, including an article in the Sun (a scanned copy of which is on her blog) as well as the London Evening Standard.

Finally, the heartbreaking story of advocate Nyila and her husband Zulf, who sadly lost their son Ubaid to the shortage of donors, was featured in the Birmingham Mail. We thought about them lots over the holiday period, and hope that thanks to all of our supporters who continue to share their stories with us that we can continue to prevent such needless loss of life.

Lots of love,

What a difference a year makes.

This time last year, Jac thought she may well have celebrated her last Christmas. She was waiting for a double lung transplant and her health was declining at a rapid pace.

Jac has just written a blog post called "a year in pictures" which highlights beautifully just what a transformation Transplantation can bring. You can read it (and view the lovely photos!) by clicking here.

We hope with all our hearts to read of many more stories like this next year.

Thank you Jac for sharing your journey.

Wishing you all a happy and healthy 2009.

x