Category Archives: Fundraising

7th Birdshot charity shoot

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Dylan from the Royal Berkshire Shooting School giving the instructions for the day

The Royal Berkshire Shooting Ground provided the perfect venue for twenty seven teams of four and attracted both novice shots and experienced guns to show their competitive skills, representing companies as diverse as Almacantar, Canary Wharf Contractors, Faithful & Gould, McLaren Properties, Malcolm Hollis and Sir Robert McAlpine. Organiser, host for the day and prime mover behind the Birdshot charity fundraiser was the John F Hunt Group. 

Now firmly established as the ‘go-to’ event in the London construction industry calendar, the 7th. annual Birdshot Uveitis charity clay pigeon shoot was again supported by a huge contingent from the UK’s property and construction sectors and proved to be both a beautiful day and a great competitive and fundraising success. 

Breakfast briefing over, a morning of testing clay shooting followed and after some ferociously competitive performances, Top Gun went to leading architect, Robin Partington with a score of 93, whilst Top Team prize was claimed by Cushman & Wakefield, with Digby Flower, David Tye, Andy Miles and John Rand accruing a collective score of 428.

Shooting over for the day, John F Hunt’s Group Chairman, John Hall, himself a sufferer from the visual impairment caused by Birdshot Uveitis, introduced fellow sufferer, Fiona Gee, who related her own experience of the debilitating condition. Richard Lee, Deputy Director of NIHR Moorfields Clinical Research Facility and Lead for Experimental Medicine, Inflammation and Immunotherapy, then explained how monies raised were helping to fund important research into this horrendous yet little-known eye disease. 

The auction that ended the day was skilfully and amusingly conducted by David Hunt of John F Hunt Power and bidding wars broke out across the crowded dining room for lots including weekends in Naples and at the George V in Paris, all helping to raise a stunning total of £72,000. As John Hall concluded; “Today has been a brilliant success both in informing more people about Birdshot and in raising research funding. I would simply like to send a heartfelt vote of thanks to everyone who took part, for their generosity and that of our prize donors.” 

May 29th2019

Fundraising initiatives 2018

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Birdshotters and their partners are definitely trying to get more active in 2018.  In the process they are also hoping to raise valuable funds to help pay for some much-needed birdshot research.

We are particularly impressed that Louisa, a recently diagnosed birdshotter from the York area, has decided to take on a massive cycling challenge:  two thousand and eighteen miles in the year 2018.  She is doing this to help celebrate reaching her 50th milestone birthday.  Road cycling is a sport she has only recently taken up, proving that it is never too late to start.

Diagnosed last year, Louisa has also taken to cycling the 30-odd miles  from her home  to her eye appointments at York Hospital.

Louisa cycling

Louisa’s fundraising has already got off to a really good start, but she would be delighted if you should like to help her towards achieving her target.

Here Louisa tells her story to help her fundraising:

London Marathon 2018

Roger Brown is running the London Marathon in April 2018, helping to raise awareness about birdshot uveitis. He is also raising much needed funds for research into birdshot. He fully appreciates the impact that this rare eye condition can have on an individual, as his wife Caroline has been living with birdshot for the last six years. He knows just how tough it has been for her, and for the team treating her, to find effective treatment. Research is desperately needed to find better options to treat birdshot. Birdshot Uveitis Society is delighted that Roger is running in the London Marathon this year. Places in the London Marathon are like gold dust.  To get a place, you have to promise to do substantial fundraising.  For a small charity like the Birdshot Uveitis Society, its tough getting marathon places, so we are delighted to be teaming up with Fight for Sight to do this.

You can click on this link to read Roger’s story in detail.  He’d love it it if you chose to support his marathon run as he needs to raise £2500 to keep to his side of the deal with Fight for Sight.

Victory for Roger – the elation of completing the challenge

Moorfields Eye charity  Eye to Eye walk 4th March 2018

Team Birdshot is also taking part in the Moorfields Eye to Eye 14 mile walk on the 4th March 2018.  If you want to take part in this walking challenge, further details can be found here, and there is also a JustGiving link where you can donate.

 

Moorfields Eye to Eye walk – walking as Team Birdshot

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Following on from last years success, Team Birdshot is taking part in the Moorfields Eye charities walk –  Eye to Eye 2018 walk, both the 14 miles and the 4 miles on Sunday 4th March 2018.  So far we have five people signed up walking for birdshot research, with a couple more people who are currently thinking about it. We’d love it if we can get 30 or 40 birdshotters walking (family and friends welcome) showing our support and enthusiasm for more research for birdshot.

If you would like to join us, please do sign up with Moorfields Eye  charity at:  https://www.moorfieldseyecharity.org.uk/eye-eye-2018 and let them know that you are walking for Team Birdshot.  If you prefer, you can pick up a registration form in the hospital which can then be returned to their office in an attached Freepost envelope. If you can’t find these in the hospital, Gaby in the Moorfields Eye Charity office is the person to go and find.  You may also see Gaby visiting the clinics, as part of her job is to go and meet patients.

Birdshotters can choose to walk either the 4-mile or 14-mile route according to fitness and preferences. Gaby has promised to let us have similar start times so that we can walk together, and that will also allow us to be able to get a great group photo before we set off.

4 miles – £12 to register

14 miles – £18 to register

There is no minimum sponsorship requirement: just raise as much as you can. You also get a free T-shirt and goodies at the end.

The times of the walk vary from 7.30am – 12 midday. If you are planning to do the 14 mile it is a good idea to start reasonably early.

If you want to take part, please sign up as directed above, but also drop me a line to let BUS know.  Here’s hoping for a sunny Sunday on 4th March!

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/team-birdshot-uveitis-society

 

 

Recent donations

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Marmalade

Member Margaret Gilmour’s marmalade-making skills have resulted in £150 being donated to BUS – one single pot of marmalade was raffled at our local north west meeting in Manchester and made around £70, plus a further £80 was raised from sales to local friends in Bolton.  Personally, I think Margaret’s marmalade is ‘to die for’ – and she has inspired me to have a go next year during the marmalade orange season.  Margaret enters her marmalade regularly in the World’s Original Marmalade Festival in Cumbria, this year achieving ‘silver’ (18/20).

Dress-down Friday –  matched donation from Shire’s Leasing

Just over £300 was donated to us by members of staff at Shire’s Leasing when they had a dress-down Friday in support of Birdshot.   Everybody was encouraged to make a donation of just £1.00 to come to work in casual clothes.  And to help even more, the company matched the donations received.  It really is an easy way to raise a bit of money for birdshot research.   Thanks go to the organiser and Helen George, a member of their staff who has birdshot.  Helen has also done a great job at raising awareness amongst her work colleagues, which is also a really important thing to do, as it may help people to get eye conditions diagnosed more promptly.

Gifts in memory of Uwe Ploog

BUS has received a number of generous gifts in memory of Uwe Ploog, a Moorfields birdshot patient who took part in the pilot ‘red light’ study which is continuing.  His wife decided to request donations to BUS and the Pituitary Foundation instead of sending flowers in his memory.  The gifts to BUS will be used to go towards future birdshot research. We would like to thank all who kindly donated in this way.

Regular donations

One of the ways in which it is easy and quite painless to give to BUS is to make a small monthly donation by Direct Debit via the Just Giving site.  We’d like to thank the member who signed up to this last month.  If you are also interested in doing this, just click the following:  https://www.justgiving.com/birdshotuveitissociety and select ‘make a monthly donation’. You will also be able to see some of the ways other people have raised money for BUS on the Just Giving donation page.

Annual Shoot

Next month we will be holding our annual clay pigeon shoot on election day, 8th June! This is our major fundraising event and we are hoping the sun will shine.  We have one of our leading clinicians as guest speaker and Lord Jeffery Archer will again be auctioning the fabulous prizes which will be on offer.

BUS’s grateful thanks go to everyone who helps us raise funds.  Our administration costs are virtually non-existent, so nearly all money raised goes towards our charity objectives.

Moorfields charity walk from EyetoEye please sign up and help!

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Help raise money for Birdshot research !

We thought it would be fun to get a team together to do the annual Moorfields EyetoEye walk on Sunday March 12th 2017.  After all, there are a lot of birdshotters who get treated at Moorfields and we believe it is great to be able to collaborate with other charity group events, especially if it is going to help promote relevant research.  Moorfield’s Eye Charity plans to have cake and coffee at the end and they are also going to have a live band and a bit of a celebration.  But afterwards, we wondered if we might find a venue close by (pub or cafe??) and have a bit more of an informal meet-up if we feel like it.

We’d love it if we can get 30 or 40 birdshotters walking (family and friends welcome) showing our support and enthusiasm for more research for birdshot.

So, our team is called “Birdshot.”

You can sign up online https://www.moorfieldseyecharity.org.uk/eye-eye or if you prefer, you can pick up a registration form in the hospital which can then be returned to their office in an attached Freepost envelope. If you can’t find these in the hospital, Gaby in the Moorfields Eye Charity office is the person to go and find.  You may also see Gaby visiting the clinics, as part of her job is to go and meet patients.

Birdshotters can choose to walk either the 4-mile or 14-mile route according to fitness and preferences. Gaby has promised to let us have similar start times so that we can walk together, and that will also allow us to be able to get a great group photo before we set off.

4 miles – £12 to register

14 miles – £18 to register

There is no minimum sponsorship requirement: just raise as much as you can. You also get a free T-shirt and goodies at the end, but we will supply BUS T-shirts for all our walkers.

The times of the walk vary from 7.30am – 12 midday. I think we should go for a mid-morning time slot, eg, 11am, but I am open to suggestions.

If you want to take part, please sign up as directed above, but also drop me a line to let BUS know.  Here’s hoping for a sunny Sunday on 12th March!

Annie

Beer festival and a 52 mile walk to fundraise for birdshot

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BUS members’ October fundraising
Birdshot beer bash

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Clare Wood from Newcastle held a beer festival for us, and above and below are a few pictures that set the scene.  By all accounts it was a very jolly occasion for fellow birdies, their friends and families and work colleagues.

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Birdshot helpers

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Birdshot bar staff

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

Here is a message from Clare:   “Just a quick update on the fundraising beer festival. We are now at £2833 which is fab. Thanks to Sharron, Barrie, Debbie, Annie, and David and Carly for their help with prizes, flags and designs. Ella (my daughter) also raised £600 doing the Great North Run recently.”

BUS hopes that this might become an annual event, like the Birdshot Shoot.  Despite the massive amount of work Clare put in organising it, she has already said she will be in touch next year when (we hope) she may do another one!

52 miles for Birdshot

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Barrie Standish and his friend John are two keen fitness fanatics in the North West of England who thought they could easily manage a 52-mile stroll for birdshot.  The aim was to promote the eye condition and raise a bit of money along the way.

On Friday October 21st, just after lunch, they set off on their route.  They walked from Glazebury, going through Lymm, Knutsford and Holmes Chapel. They walked 26 miles out and returned the same way. They set off at a brisk pace, and by evening time it was obvious that they would be walking through the night.  It was not as easy as they had imagined.

The following morning at 6.02am, Barrie’s wife Debs reported on Facebook:  “He is home now and tucked up in bed. His words: NEVER AGAIN…. So proud of them. Thank you to all who have sponsored for this amazing achievement…He will suffer when he tries to get out of the bed.  I am sure there could be less challenging ways, but that’s Barrie!”

Barrie commented afterwards to his birdshot friends who had supported him online through the night: “Thank you so much for all your support and donations, really, really appreciated your well wishes, it went a long way in helping us keep going through the night. I can honestly say that I have never done anything that hard in my life! We had to dig deep and then find some more from somewhere. The last seven hours were purgatory. John lost the skin on both feet and toes, and I’ve got away with 3 blisters.  My legs are absolutely battered, I’m lying on the couch not knowing what to do with myself, it’s the tendons at the backs of my knees, I can’t straighten them properly, walking around like Max Wall.  Never ever again.”

But we say: watch this space!

Barrie raised nearly £1,000 from his walk which is a fantastic total.

What a fabulous couple of fundraising events from the north of England! Thank you all for your great efforts. BUS will be putting all the money raised from these two events towards future birdshot research.

4th Birdshot Clay Pigeon Shoot

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For the fourth time in as many years, the beautiful Royal Berkshire Shooting School was the venue for John Hall’s Birdshot Uveitis Charity Clay Shoot day, sponsored by John F Hunt. The weather was not very early June-like, but it did not prevent the 28 teams of four having tremendous fun on the 10 stands provided. Top team, winning engraved whiskey tumblers, were the Greenshield JCB’s ‘Marksmen’ team: James Pengilley, Paul Poulter, Andy Skilton and Alex Cobb, with a superb score of 437, some way ahead of their rivals. Top gun was Paragon’s Richard Estrop of the creatively named ‘Paragon Pigeon Punishers’ team, while Carol Limehouse carried away the prize for Top Lady.

Before the auction, Miles Stanford, Professor of Clinical Ophthalmology at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, gave a brief talk about the current research being done on Birdshot Uveitis, a rare and potentially blinding eye condition. Lord Archer did the honours as auctioneer, as usual managing to extract money from people but leaving them with large grins on their faces.

The day raised approximately £50,000 for the Birdshot Uveitis Society (BUS). John Hall and all those at BUS would like to say a huge and heartfelt thank you to everyone who contributed to this enjoyable and successful day.

Below is a link to a slide show which gives a flavour for the day.  Photographs courtesy of Chris Warren  www.photoshoot.uk.com and www.chriswarrenphotography.com

 

 

 

Steroid fuelled fundraising

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Clare Wood, a senior project manager based in Newcastle, knows from first-hand experience what living with Birdshot is like because, before her own diagnosis, her father had suffered from the same condition.  Her diagnosis came as something of a shock as she was just 41 at the time, and also because Birdshot is not supposed to run in families.

Clare is fortunate to be under the care of Mr Pandit at Newcastle Royal Infirmary, who looks after quite a number of Birdshot patients.  She had been taking a break from treatment, but following a recent flare, she is currently on aggressive treatment to get it under control again.

Naturally, BUS was delighted when Clare contacted us at the beginning of the year and said that her New Year’s resolution was to raise funds for Birdshot over the course of 2016.

“I’m a busy person and the steroids have given me a real boost, although I really would like to sleep more than 4 hours! My husband and kids (19 &17) are great and support me 100%. I feel that I need to do something, even if it is small, to try and aid research into this blooming disease.  My team at work are fab and are all giving their own time to support the fundraising and me.”

 Clare’s plan is to try and organize a small fundraising event each month, and her daughter has also agreed to take part in the Great North Run this year to help with the fundraising.

Recently we heard back from Clare who has been busy making great plans:

In January, she organised a ‘dress down day’ in her office and raised £70.

In February, she is doing a rare or unusual food tasting for Rare Diseases Day on 29th February.

Other activities which will involve her work colleagues, who like to do things together, include:

  • Cocktail-making classes
  • Bikini boot camp
  • Cookery sessions
  • Comedy night

Her daughter Ella has secured a place in the Great North Run, so we will be setting up her Just Giving page shortly.

On Saturday 15th October 2016, as a grand finale to these fundraising activities, Claire is organising a micro-brewery beer festival.

Clare has roped in her fellow Birdshotter Carly, who also lives in the Newcastle area and whom she met via the Birdshot Uveitis Society, to help with her fund-raising efforts.  Carly is trying to secure raffle prizes for the beer festival from local businesses.  Carly is also organising a work’s event of Rare Diseases day.

These great fund-raising ideas are a wonderful initiative. If Birdshotters in the North East area want to buy a ticket and go to the beer festival and enjoy the festivities, Clare has 175 to sell.   They will be going on sale in July, so if you are interested in going, watch this space!

She is also on the look-out for donations of prizes for the beer festival raffle. If anyone can help, they would be most welcome.

In the first instance, please contact info@birdshot.org.uk and we will put Clare in touch with you.

 

 

Barrie’s sponsored walk

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BUS member  Barrie  and  his  wife Debs, decided to organise their own small sponsored walk to raise money for Birdshot Uveitis Society and they roped in a few of their friends,  to join them.  They walked from Rivington Barn in Bolton to the Grey Horse, Glazebury, Cheshire last Sunday 11th October.  Below they are pictured setting off and also on reaching their final destination.  Clearly they are a fit group.  The two women set a cracking pace and their 25 km walk was smashed in only 4 hours!

Barrie and his friends line up before the walk

With grateful thanks  to all who kindly sponsored this walk as well as those who actually did it.  Congratulations!   We are sure you all deserved a pint or two at the finishing line.

They reckon they will have raised over £1,000, between them which is absolutely fantastic.  It is not too late to add to their sponsorship as there is a donation page set up at Just Giving:

https://www.justgiving.com/Barrie-Standish

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3rd Clay Pigeon Shoot 3rd June 2015

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On 3rd June 2015, we are holding our 3rd Annual Shoot at the Royal Berkshire Shooting Club.  We are delignted to announce that once again Lord Archer has kindly agreed to be our auctioneer.  The Shoot is already sold out, so we are well on our way and have set  £55,000 as an ambitious target to  beat!

If anyone  would like to offer attractive auction prizes for Lord Archer to sell off, we’d be delighted to hear from you with your ideas.