Our utterly amazing Advocates.

We mention the advocates now and then but we've decided it's about time we dedicated some serious blogging to our awesome team.

The advocates are based around the UK and work incredibly hard to promote both LLTGL and Organ Donation in general. Let's start in the South East and introduce you to Lisa...

Lisa is our Advocate for the South East. Her smiley photo sums up her personality although it cannot depict what a chatterbox she is! Lisa is a double lung transplant recipient and endured a nervewracking 6 false alarms before her 7th call went ahead.

Lisa is a fantastic speaker and takes up every opportunity she can to give a talk about how her life has been transformed by her transplant, and about her work with LLTGL.

Here recent talk at Chipstead Golf Club has resulted in the Golf Club selecting LLTGL as their chosen charity for the year. The Lady Captain's daughter is undertaking a 10k fun-run to contribute towards this fantastic fundraising effort and you can sponsor her here.

Lisa also makes and sells her own greetings cards and continues to raise funds for LLTGL by doing so. Confident at giving interviews and appearing in the Media, her most recent articles include one for Yours Magazine, encouraging older women to consider signing the Organ Donor Register, and her local paper where she was pictured sitting on Father Christmas' lap!

Lisa selling her greetings cards at a local fete.

You can read more about Lisa on her biography page here. Lisa - we're so proud to have you as part of the team; well done and thank you for all that you do.

Look out for our next advocate blog, coming soon!

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.

A Christmas break

Just a quick blog to let our fab supporters know that the team will be having a well-earned Christmas break from today until Monday 4th January.

Any urgent Media enquiries will still be picked up via email.

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy 2010.

Love,

x

Christmas tears and dreams

Firstly we hope that all our LLTGL supporters have a wonderful, happy and peaceful Christmas and New Year.

Secondly, we would like to extend a huge thanks for everyone who has raised money for us, shared their stories and done sterling work in raising awareness of organ donation this year, however small.

Christmas and New Year are always bittersweet for us at LLTGL as it is a time we reflect on the feelings of joy and sadness we have experienced this year.

There are so many celebrations to be had, for Bethany, Gabrysia and Nelly will be spending the Christmas they thought they'd never see with their families.

This year will sadly be the first Christmas without many of the people who had fought hard to raise awareness or organ donation whilst they waited and hoped. We are thinking of the family of Ollie Faulkner, the gorgeous little boy whose kidney never came in time for him. This is the first Christmas that the family of Helen Miller will be spending without her. Baby Ethan's family will also be spending their first Christmas without him. Although he received his liver this year, it came too late and his poorly body couldn't cope.

Then there are those still waiting: Jess, Rachy, Paul and Tor who are potentially facing their last Christmas. This is Jess's fourth Christmas waiting and dreaming that the next year will be the year she is given her chance at life.

Please don't let it be their last, or the last for the other 8000 people waiting for a transplant this Christmas.

Please sign the organ donor register
Please tell all your friends and family
Please spread the word

Together we can use 2010 to fight for more transplants and more organ donors to prevent the needless deaths of people like Mary Hand, Robyn Tainty, Ubaid Ali, Richard Grannell and all of the other friends we have loved and lost.

A Christmas Fundraiser

Last week, the lovely Charlie Coe raised more than £700 and got people signed up to the organ donor register to celebrate the 6 month annversary of her double-lung transplant!


Charlie, 23, has Cystic Fibrosis and was placed on the waiting list 6 months ago after her health declined rapidly in November 2008 and she needed oxygen 24 hours a day. Waking up in the morning was a struggle and just doing the housework was such a great effort.

After an incredible 2 days after being placed on the transplant waiting list Charlie got her call. She says "I can not describe how good it felt to wake up and breathe how other people breathe...I have been making up on lost time going out with my friends, my husband and taking my dog on long walks. I have a whole new life!"

To celebrate 6 months of her new life, Charlie threw a huge party and used the opportunity to raise awareness of the organ donor register. It was a great success!

If you've been out and about raising money for us, or simply doing small gestures to help raise awareness of organ donation and transplantation, please get in touch with Jen !


Love as always,

Doing some serious business at the ICAP Charity Day 2009

We were extremely honoured to have been invited to the 17th annual global Charity Day hosted by the world's premier interdealer broker ICAP. Every year, the company holds a charity day involving all employees across the globe. It is a huge affair and has so far raised over 100 million pounds for charities across the world over it's 17 year history. It is also an event that attracts the cream of A list royalties and celebrities as they come along to thank staff on behalf of the charities they support and represent.

This year, LLTGL were there because of a very special lady and her husband. Tim McCarthy worked in the IT Network at ICAP for 4 years. In July, 2009, he died in a motorcycle accident. Tim was a blood donor and on the organ donor register and four people had life saving transplants thanks to the decisions he made when he was alive.

Sarah and some of Tim's colleagues decided to honour Tim at this year's charity day by encouraging employees throughout the huge organisation to sign the organ donor register. Sarah is an incredibly brave and inspiring woman and was there herself to talk to people about Tim and organ donation. She was joined by her sister, Tim's parents and the two donor co-ordinators that supported her on the day of Tim's death and ever since. LLTGL were invited to come along to talk to people about organ donation and share our own stories.

Advocates Audrey Eade and Nehal Shah joined Sarah Milne on the chaotic trading floor alongside staff dressed in every manner of fancy dress from Andy and Lou from Little Britain to knights, dragons, polar bears and everything in between. Each team had a theme and not only dressed themselves but also their areas. As we toured the building talking to people and handing out leaflets, we walked through action man camps, curry houses, hospitals, jungles, spaceships.

LLTGL were given our own special area on one of the trading floors, transformed for the occasion into a regatta. Nelly, Sarah and Audrey encouraged people to visit by offering Pimms and a chance to race against Olympic rowing medalists in an interactive rowing machine race.

Several celebrities wandered in and out throughout the day, and we bagged 30 seconds with Kevin Spacey, just enough to tell him about organ donation and give him a form, which he put in his pocket and promised to read. We also managed to get forms to Jo Brand, Des Lynam and Kelly Brook. The GB Olympic Rowing team also promised to sign the register. Sadly, we were all disappointed to have missed the chance to talk to Jedward, as whether or not you managed to catch a glimpse was the talk of the building!.

Despite the fantastic party atmosphere the real job of the day was to "Make Every Deal Count" and make as much money as possible. A massive 11.5 million pounds had been raised by close of play. For LLTGL, the main job of the day was to tell as many people about Tim and Sarah and encourage them to make today the day they make the same decision Tim did. Over 100 people visited our regatta to sign the organ donor register in his honour, and hundreds more took leaflets home to consider their decision.

As ever, we encouraged people to talk about organ donation with their family and friends in the hope that the ripple effects from one man and his courageous wife will carry on . Every single employee in the London office was given a leaflet about Tim and organ donation, with the web address and phone number to register.

It was an unmissable opportunity to spread the word about organ donation, so our thanks go to Peter Lewington and his colleagues at ICAP for organising it and to Sarah and Tim's family for being so brave in doing this in his memory.