The first pagoda sale of 2010 in Woodley town centre on Friday 30th April raised over £305, a very good figure, especially considering the chilly weather. But at least the rain held off until later in the day.
Well done all the sales force, and thanks to all who donated or bought goods!
This year's lambing weekend at Rushall Farm proved our most successful ever, with over £25,000 being raised to help people locally with MS, writes branch chairman Rose Tocock.
The weather was perfect and after such a hard winter I am sure people just
wanted to be out in the beautiful countryside. Everyone who came had a
fantastic time, with trailer rides, seeing and feeding new born lambs and
eating copious amount of homemade cakes. It made for a really special
Mother's Day.
My thanks to everyone who helped and who attended. Now on to Bluebells!
We had 13 flagdays in 2009 which raised £6,258.74. A very big thank you to the 31 stalwart collectors who helped to achieve this fantastic total.
We are busy booking dates for 2010 and already have two dates confirmed for Broad Street. These will require a huge number of collectors so please think about lending a hand. Our calendar will be published in January, please send back the reply form even if you can only help at one flagday for one hour - it all helps!
Our pagoda sale in October raised £327.00. A big thank you to all those who helped on the day and to those who donated items for sale.
Our final sale for this year will take place on November 20th. Please contact Shirley Boyt on 0118 961 6107 if you can help on the day or have items to donate.
Hydrotherapy sessions are proving so popular that two sessions of one hour’s duration are being run at the Royal Berk hospital, at 5.00 and 6.00 p.m.
See the Regular Activities page for more details on this therapy.
The sun shone as 4,700 runners lined up at the start of the 27th Windsor Half Marathon. Not only did they have to contend with the heat but the course in Windsor Great Park included several steep hills.
Among those taking part was Anna Grove, running to raise funds for the Branch. Anna finished in a very respectable 2 hours 32 minutes and looks on target to raise £500!
This year the national MS Society AGM was a small affair due to the threat of Swine Flu. A few of your committee attended an interesting morning.
You may have heard about the passing of a resolution committing the Society to increase research spending to 35% of it’s income. I would like to reassure you that this is the national society and will not affect our branch spending. You can read about this and other resolutions on the MS Society website.
I am also pleased to congratulate John Litchfield on his election as a Trustee of the Society. Many of you will know John, as he is a great supporter of this branch and a good friend to me. He also is Vice Chairman of the Thames Valley Region. I’m sure John will be a great asset to the board.
Thanks to the glorious weather, both lambing weekends at Rushall Farm in March were extremely well attended. We shared the proceeds with The Primary Project this year but still raised a magnificent £21,000!
The weather continued to smile on us for the bluebell walks resulting in a record turnout raising almost £9,500.
Our thanks to everyone who helped over the three weekends ~ we couldn’t have done it without you. Well done everyone!
Resources for people with multiple sclerosis is written by someone with vision problems who has volunteered to participate in the testing of accessibility tools. It identifies software features that may be of use to people affected by MS. For further information click here.
If you want to read some of the other articles or sign up to receive the Accessibility Update newsletter, go to the Microsoft Accessibility website.
MyMSmyWAY.com is a US based website which also has some helpful information on affordable assistive technology solutions for people with Multiple Sclerosis.
You can also find the results of a recent survey which looks at how people with MS are using technology.
It may surprise you to learn that we rely entirely on volunteers to run our Branch activities. New volunteers are always welcomed and these are just some of the ways you could get involved. It needn't be a huge commitment even a small amount of your time would be valued. Perhaps you could:
sell raffle tickets, publicise an event, bake a cake, make tea at a social event.
If you have a little more time to spare maybe you'd like to:
drive one of our minibuses, look after our website, help organise fundraising events, visit someone with MS.
If you have a young person in your family who is taking part in the Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme, they might like to help us as part of their charitable work.
Contact us, we'd love to hear from you!