Celebrating three years as a registered charity.

Three years ago today, LLTGL became an official registered charity. We have come so far in those three years and in some ways it seems a long time ago, in others, it seems only yesterday. Back in 2008 - our first year as a charity - some of our most memorable moments include our wonderful Jess spreading the word across the country by appearing on Noel's HQ, Nelly, our London advocate at the time, organising her own segment of the world's biggest walk, which Oli and Emily joined her and her family in completing (you can see the video here). That year we also had our very first advocate and trustee away day, and Holly's Battlefront project commenced; a project that would conclude in 2009 with a personal message of congratulations from the PM on the Downing St website! The biggest highlight that year was of course being named "Campaigning Team of the Year" at the Charity Times Awards - we were stunned but extremely proud!

2009 was another very busy year, with Holly's Donor Day capturing the hearts and minds of people all over the country. Team Jac braved gail force winds and icey rain to do the coastal walk and raise over £20,000 for LLTGL in May of that year, and the ever-inspiring Team Ethan joined the fight to raise funds and awareness, which they continue to do to this day, despite their gorgeous little boy loosing his fight just one month after his transplant. When the film My Sister's Keeper came out, Advocate Andrea Evans encouraged people to write to their local cinemas asking them to display donor leaflets in the foyer during the peroid that the film was shown. Andrea also managed to star in the Vodaphone "who would you donate your time to?" advert, getting Organ Donation a wonderful plug on TV! Emily featured in a short awareness film as well that year, entitled "I'd Give You One" after the cheeky LLTGL slogan T-shirt.

Our wonderful Jess was by then extremely ill and in September 2009, a twitter campaign entitled "Save Jess" was launched, which quickly gained attention of news channels and celebrities from across the UK. Following this, Save Jess-tival was swiftly created and took place in October, with the beautiful Natalie Imbruglia spearheading the event, and Jess taking her place as the inspirational and very special guest.

2010 started very sadly, when we lost our lovely Jess on January 12th. All at LLTGL were shaken by this hugely sad loss, but we knew we had to motivate ourselves to continue the fight that Jess had dedicated so much of her time and energy on. That year LLTGL Trustees attended several key talks and conferences, including the BTS conference, and the ETCO conference, where Emily addressed over 500 delegates from all over the globe. Yet more wonderful fundraising events took place, including Ts in the Park who selected LLTGL as the charity to benefit from their event that year. That Christmas, our Tor's Xmas Wish twitter campaign got attention from a variety of celebrities including Philip Schofield, Sarah Brown, and Peter Jones.

As well as these key events, LLTGL continues to regularly run media campaigns, support transplant patients, run educational talks and presentations, give talks as guest speakers at a variety of events, distribute Robyn's Rainbows, and many other things on a day to day basis.

None of the work we have done over the last 3 years would have been possible without the help and support of so many people. From past Trustees who have helped us achieve so much, to volunteers who give up their time and energy to support us in what we do - our charity is strong because of you.

We are excited and optimistic about the next three years, and hoping that they will be even bigger, even brighter, and even more successful.

With love and thanks to all our wonderful supporters,

The LLTGL Trustees

x

Fantastic Fundraisers: Team Jess

We've had some incredible fundraising efforts going on this week, here's the first one that took place on Sunday 5th September.

Trustees Emily and Holly who were part of Team Jess

You may remember this blog which highlighted the achievements of our lovely Advocate Jessica Wales, who managed to walk a fith of the Adidas Challenge 5k to raise money for LLTGL and for Kings College Hospital. We were all so proud of her, and she was optimistic and hopeful that she would be able to do the entire course this year, with her new lungs.

Sadly, our lovely Jess passed away in January this year following severe complications which her body was not strong enough to cope with, having waited and fought for over 4 years.

This September, a group of Jess' friends, along with her wonderful mum Jackie, took on the Adidas Challenge in Jess' memory. The team were dressed in bright pink, and it was an emotional day for all involved, and there were tears and hugs all round across the finish line; tears of pride for the achievement, and tears of sadness at the fact Jess should have been there.

Jess' family and friends aim to continue Jess' work for LLTGL in her memory. It is a testament to Jess' incredible hard work, determination, and passionate spirit that she continues to save lives, even after she has gone.

They have raised over £800 through combined Justgiving pages and offline donations so far but you can still sponsor Team Jess at http://www.justgiving.com/teamjess.
Jessica Wales: Gone but never forgotten, and missed every day.

Our Jess.

It is with great sadness that we have to inform you of the death of Jessica Wales only weeks after receiving the double lung transplant that she had waited for over four years to receive.

During this period, she showed great courage and determination, inspiring people across the country through her relentless campaigning and upbeat attitude. Jess was not only a valued Live Life then Give Life Advocate but also a great friend to many and we offer her family our sincere condolences at this sad time.

We will continue to campaign for all those who wait for an organ transplant and, whilst not every outcome will be what we would wish, we hope that one day all those who need a transplant will get it when they are fittest and it is most likely to have a good long-term outcome.

We will be releasing an official statement in due course and request that the privacy of Jess’s family is respected at this time.

A break from our break due to amazing news!

Our gorgeous Advocate Jessica Wales has been very very poorly recently and sadly spent Christmas day in hospital. We've all been extremely worried about her but incredibly, at the 11th hour, that call has finally come and Jess went down for transplant in the early hours of the morning.

Updates will be posted on the Facebook support group "Jessica Wales Rocks My Socks" but any major changes will be reported on here.

Jess was a very poorly girl and the first few days are critical, so please keep her and her family in your thoughts. We are also thinking of some very special people right now; the person who signed the Organ Donor Register and their generous family who decided to say "yes" and offer that gift of hope to Jess.

www.HelpJessBreathe.org

Holly, of Channel 4's Battlefront fame, just emailed us last week with details of a very interesting bit of help she received from the founder of Bebo, Michael Birch!

Holly met Micheal through her mentor, Oli Barrett, during the filming for Battlefront down in London and after emailing him about the Save Jess campaign, he emailed back with details of a viral website to use on facebook and other social networking sites.

The site, http://www.helpjessbreathe.org/ was set up to help people spread the word, so head on over!

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.

SaveJess-tival: Updates coming soon, promise!

We'll have pictures and a full write-up of the awesome night that was the SaveJess-tival extravanagza last Friday very very soon, we promise!

In the meantime, we'd just like to give a shout-out to all of those who helped out in whatever way they could: Spreading the news on the blogs and twitter, offering raffle prizes, putting us in touch with friends of friends who could help, manning the doors on the night and all those teeny tiny million and one things that needed to be done to make it a spectacular night.

Thanks, from the bottom of our hearts, from all of us on the SaveJess-tival organising team!!!

A heartbreaking reminder....

Whilst we were all hugely excited and caught up in the preparations for Save Jess-tival Friday the 16th was also tinged with heartbreaking sadness, for it was also the day of Ollie Faulkner's funeral.

Ollie, a gorgeous and vivacious little boy, was born with complex kidney problems in 2000 and had been waiting for a kidney transplant for over a year. Despite his complex medical issues, he and his family faced the wait for transplant with incredible courage. We were devastated to hear that his call never came in time.

Ollie and his family are in our thoughts, a reminder of why we put Save Jess-tival on in the first place: For all of those who have lost their lives waiting for transplants, those who are still waiting and for donors who have transformed so many people's lives.

The full line-up!

A star-studded night of music and laughter in London to raise funds for the Organ Donation Charity Live Life Then Give Life.

Presenting.....

Natalie Imbruglia

Since her 1997 single ‘Torn’ propelled her from the popular Australian soap Neighbours to a successful international singing career, Natalie Imbruglia has sold over 12 million hit albums worldwide. Natalie’s latest work reflects the tutelage of a string of prestigious artists, writers and producers such as Chris Martin, Brian Eno, Ben Hillier (Blur, Depeche Mode, The Horrors) and Dave McCracken (Beyonce, Ian Brown). As a result, her latest sounds are raw, sassy, sexy, humorous, elegant and also deeply personal. Natalie is also a successful actress, model and a devoted charity campaigner.




Ed Byrne
As an observational stand-up Ed Byrne is unrivalled, turning colouful anecdotes into eloquent wit with aplomb. A Mock the Week favourite, Ed’s sparkling style has led to huge international acclaim, barnstorming performances and regular TV and radio appearances in the UK and the US.



Glen Wool

Vancouver native Glenn is a cool, laid back performer who has been a headline act on the UK circuit and at festivals worldwide for several years. His material is surprisingly political and hard hitting for a man who gives the impression that he couldn’t care less about anything. Never afraid to spring a surprise or two, he adapts beautifully to an audience and has all the comedy tools at his fingertips.




The Yeah Yous:
With the release of the stunning 15 Minutes and Getting Up With You, The Yeah You's are off to a flying start. They are currently Album of the Week on Radio 2 with their debut offering LOOKING THROUGH YOU and attracting support from the likes of Chris Moyles who described their music as "So good it's Robbie William's Sing When You're Winning territory....'". Mojo music mag even described their debut album as "like a Greatest Hits" package. Signed to Universal Island records, the duo Mike Kintish and Nick Ingram, who met when former actor Nick auditioned for Mike's play, are set for big things over the next year with their upbeat melodic "you'll need a trained pyschotherapist to get these tunes out of your mind" pop

Mr Robin K:
Mr Robin K is practically one of the newest faces in comedy. After years of watching stand ups, writing songs and thinking to himself "If only I could combine a way to do both these things and make money from it" Robin K feels that he might just have discovered the answer. Formally a singer/songwriter trying to make it big on MySpace with teen angst filled piano ballads about love, he has now turned his clever lyrical delivery, diverse musical style and razor sharp wit (if not cut throat it is certainly like a five day old Bic) to the art of musical comedy. Heralded as "A Tim Minchin in the making" (minus the big hair and eyeliner) Robin K is making his debut performance tonight, on his 25th birthday no less and hopes that this is the start of something special.

Singer/Songwriter Susanna Cork is hotly tipped as one of the UK’s rising stars. With her incredible vocal talent and ability to give life to a lyric, it’s plain to see why Cameron Mackintosh chose Susanna to play the role of Fantine in the West End’s Les Miserables.

Susanna has always enjoyed singing the melodies and lyrics of the worlds greatest songwriters, but her ultimate goal has always been to use ‘that voice’ on her own songs, drawing from her own emotions.

Now, 2 years spent developing her own original sound, Susanna is busy recording her debut album and signed to 24/7 Management. How does the album sound? Like Susanna’s voice – very honest. Susanna will soon be out ‘on the road’ performing her latest songs. Please drop by her myspace site at www.myspace.com/susannacork to check out future gig dates - free downloads coming soon.

Tickets are on sale here http://tinyurl.com/yk5w6yf
@ The Village Underground, Shoreditch. To view map click here: http://tinyurl.com/yke52mg

Can't get there but want to support it? You can donate to the cause at http://www.justgiving.com/savejess-tival

See you down the front!

SaveJess-tival news!

One of our super-star volunteers Tor was on BBC Breakfast this morning bigging up the Save Jess-tival!



We are hugely excited that the gorgeous Natalie Imbruglia is headlining our festival, along with Canadian comedian Glen Wool, Mock the Week favorite Ed Byrne and the Yeah You's!

We can't wait!

Tickets for Save Jess-tival are now on sale!

It's official!

Tickets for our Save Jess-tival are on sale NOW!

Click here to buy and hurry, they're going fast!

Hope to see you there -thanks for your support!

x

Announcing: Save Jess-tival!!

We are very very excited to announce our upcoming ‘Save Jess-tival', a fantastic night of music and comedy to honour our wonderful Jess and to encourage people to "think about it, talk about it and do something about it" (organ donation that is!)

Our headline acts are: stunning singer Natalie Imbruglia, and Canadian comedian Glenn Wool and Mock the Week favourite Ed Byrne, with more to announce later in the week.

This star-studded fundraiser will place on the evening of Friday October 16th at The Village Underground in Shoreditch, London. Doors open at 7.00pm.

Tickets will be available very soon and are limited so, to make sure you are first in the queue, please register your interest by emailing us at info@savejess.org.uk and we will email you with full booking details as soon as the tickets go live, so you can beat the rush!

For more info on our 'Save Jess' campaign, please visit http://www.savejess.org.uk/

All proceeds go to the Organ Donation Charity Live Life Then Give Life, of which Jess is an Advocate.