I Hope You Know

Exactly a year ago, Sarah Springett, lead singer of The Floe, gave her boyfriend Paul the once-in-a-lifetime gift of a kidney. In honour of the first anniversary of Paul's transplant, The Floe have launched a campaign to raise awareness of organ donation with the release of their first single, "I Hope You Know"

All proceeds from the single will be donated to The Transplant Trust and all people who buy or download the single will be encouraged to sign the organ donor register. We think this a fantastic way to mark Paul's transplant anniversary, so please forward this on to everyone you know!

To hear Sarah talking about why the single is so important, as well as to listen to some snippets of the song you can check out this video from The Floe:



To read more about the band and find out where they're playing next, you can visit them at their website, www.thefloe.com/

LLTGL on the Secret Millionaire!

Finally, we've managed to acquire a clip of our Welsh advocate Andrea Evan's star turn on a Vodafone Ad in between The Secret Millionaire! You can spot her 5 clips in!





Andy, who does a lot of work for St John's Ambulance, received an email asking her to go along to Cardiff Bay to promote the first aid charity. As one of her colleagues had already done a segment asking people to donate themselves to St John's Andy jumped at the chance to mention us! Although she was nervous about how she was going to get onto the giant box, after plenty of giggles she climbed up and said why she would (and does!) donate herself to us!


Andy says: "The filming was pretty fun, however I had to repeat myself- and each time I did it slightly differently, which meant that it took longer to film. Thankfully the sun was shining and it was a lovely day!"


Well done Andy, and huge thanks for all you do for LLTGL!!

Raise money for us with eBay!

What a difference a click makes! You can now raise funds for Live Life then Give Life by selling your stuff through eBay!!

The best part about this is that everyone wins!

• We get between 10-100% of your final selling price. If you select Gift Aid, the taxman will add 28% to your donation!
• Your listing stands out from the crowd with a charity ribbon. You can also find new buyers, increase your customer loyalty and watch your bids and sales grow
• Best of all, eBay will credit back your basic insertion and final value fees, equal to the percentage you donate

This is a quick and easy way to raise funds for us - here's how it works, the 1-2-3 of selling for Live Life then Give Life:

Once you’re ready to sell your item, go to the Sell hub and select ‘Advanced Sell’.

As you’re filling out the details, look out for the charity box just below where you set your price. Select Live Life then Give Life (id 33095) to support and the percentage (10%-100%) of your final selling price that you'd like to donate. The minimum donation is only £1 per listing.

A week after your item sells, MissionFish (eBay's charity partner) will automatically collect the donation from you. You can also manage your donations through the 'My Donations' section of My eBay, under the My Account tab. Any fee credits will appear on your next invoice.

We currently don't have anyone selling for us, why don't you be the first?

Huge thanks to our lovely advocate Louise Lawrence for spurring on to get this sorted!

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step...

...and with two people.

Emily here, writing a slightly different LLTGL blog, because we are coming to the end of an era. Well, hopefully only temporarily!

Our fabulous Emma is going off on Maternity leave, which means she is stepping down from the LLTGL Trustee Board for the time being.

It is impossible to put into words the contribution Emma has made to LLTGL up to this point, suffice to say that without her, it wouldn't exist. When we dreamt up the idea of "a little T-shirt campaign" back in 2005 I don't think we ever dreamed we would become a fully fledged, highly successful and rapidly growing Charity!

Emma has invested her heart and soul into LLTGL since its conception, and we will all miss her hugely. She has of course, reminded us that she won't be far away and will hopefully be back once her new arrival is here and the family is fully settled.

Em, we would like to take this opportunity to thank you for everything that you have done so far, for all your hard work and dedication, and from me personally, for your love and support throughout the darkest times.

We wish you all the luck in the world and look forward to having you back - don't think you get away that easily!

We will keep our supporters updated with baby news! Please feel free to take the opportunity to leave messages of thanks and good luck for Emma here.

Best of luck Em - we love you!

Emily and all of us at LLTGL xx

Celebrating a 10th heart/lung transplant anniversary

We always love to hear stories about people who are doing so well after transplant, and especially so when that is a heart/lung transplant!

The lovely Jacqui Mansell, who has always been an incredible supporter of ours, received her transplant 10 years ago and chose to celebrate it with staff at the Frimley Park Hospital’s Knight Centre, who cared for her both before and after her transplant.

Jacqui, aged 62 from Woking, was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis in her late 40s, and listed for a transplant in 1998. She received a heart/lung transplant in September 1999 and her own heart was passed on to another person who could benefit.

Jacqui says: “I can’t tell you how nice it is being able to do things like going to the theatre and restaurants without ducking out because I had a coughing fit. I love bird watching but before the operation I couldn’t even go and enjoy the dawn chorus because my coughing spooked them! ....Now I love walking, gardening and going to the gym but mostly it’s just so special to have a normal life.”

Congratulations Jacqui!

And what a night it was!

After merely 2 weeks of frantic planning and preparations, Save Jess-tival took place on Friday 16th October and was a truly fantastic night.

First and foremost, we would like to thank all those wonderful volunteers who worked so hard up to and on the day to make Save Jess-tival possible; it would not have happened without them.

The acts were all superb; new talent Susanna Cork opened the show (this girl is going to be big, watch out for her!) followed by the fabulous comedian Ed Byrne who had the crowds howling with laughter.

Mr Robin K, another new act, did a fantastic job with his very funny self-penned songs and then came our headline act, Natalie Imbruglia. In between songs, she urged the crowds to take the proactive step of signing the organ donation, a plea met with huge applause.

Canadian funny man Glenn Wool entertained next, followed by the closing act the Yeah Yous; a fresh and upbeat new band who had everyone up on their feet and clapping along!

We were thrilled that Jess and her family were able to attend the event, and who better to finish the evening than Jess herself, who wrote a few lines thanking everyone which were then read out on stage. At the end of the speech, Jess wrote "my dream is that one day no one will die whilst waiting for a transplant. Tonight is one step closer to that dream."

Inspired? Click here to donate in aid of the Save Jess campaign and click here to sign the Organ Donor Register.

NHSBT's new hard-hitting campaign

NHSBT have today launched a brand new hard-hitting campaign to try to close the gap between those who say they would accept an organ if they needed one, and those who have signed the Organ Donor Register to say they would give one.

You can view the new campaign by clicking here to visit the website. The new TV ad will be screened tonight for the first time, but you can watch it here.

What do you think? We'd love to hear people's reactions.