A group of Birdshotters and their friends took part in Friday night’s Carrots Night walk raising money towards future Birdshot research.    The walk was organised by the charity Fight for Sight.

BUS are pleased to announce that we will have raised at least £7,000, and probably more, thanks to all the generous support we have received from friends, family and supporters.    This is fantastic news for Birdshotters.   It means that we have made a good start towards helping to get some funding for future research into Birdshot in partnership with the much larger charity Fight for Sight.  Thanks so much to all our supporters and of course to all our walkers!!

It’s not too late to donate!   http://www.justgiving.com/teams/Birdshot-Biobank

Lorraine leading the way for the Birdshot team of walkers

More photos of the some of the team and some of the sights from the walk are displayed in the Photo albums on the Birdshot facebook page.

Below a picture of Professor Peng Khaw, Director of Research and Development, Moorfields Eye Hospital and Director of the NIHR Specialist NIHR Moorfields Biomedical Research Centre, with Birdshot Uveitis Society founder members Rea, Adrian and Annie before the walk began.

Left to right – Adrian, Annie, Rea and Professor Peng Khaw

Adrian checking on the map that we are on the right route! left to right, Mikael, Adrian, Lorraine and Monica

Some of the Birdshot walkers left to right: Rea, Adrian Lorraine, Monica, Sue, Sue, Avril, Chrissy, Lesley, Annie and Claudia

Six individuals from the online retail and digital industry, known as DIGITAL DOGOODERS are taking part in a tandem sky dive in aid of BUS.  They are helping us to create awareness and publicize the work of  BUS  and also helping us sell tickets for the Winter Benefit on the 3rd November to their colleagues and friends.

The fool hardy folks of Digital Dogooders are – Leon Bailey Green, Jonathan Hall, Gabrielle Hase, Helen Colclough, James Gurd and Fergal O’Mullane.

If you would like to support their jump you can make a donation to BUS  through their Bmycharity page http://www.bmycharity.com/birdshotwinterbenefit

This a great intiative and we are very grateful to this intrepid team for supporting us and helping us in this way.  We hope it will be the first of many adventures!

Thank you so much to the “Digital Dogooders” for your support!

We have a brand new fundraising brochure, pictured below.   The brochure was designed by Alison from John F Hunt – thanks to  BUS member John Hall, who is also one of our Directors.  Printing costs were sponsored by Premier Print and Promotions Ltd.  It clearly and simply explains Birdshot, why we need to raise funds for research and the work of BUS.  We are so grateful to John Hall, Alison Sherring and Premier Print for providing this brochure at no cost to BUS.

The brochure can also be used by all of us to help raise the profile of Birdshot. It can also help to explain Birdshot Uveitis to your friends, family members, work colleagues and all those NHS and health professionals who you come in contact with. You may want to give some copies to your optician or GP, so that we can get Birdshot better known.

Please let us know if you would like copies to help you with this and with your fund-raising efforts.

On Friday 21st September 2012, Birdshotters and their friends are joining with Fight for Sight on the Carrots Night Walk.  Already, because  of the efforts of just a few of our group, friends and family,  over £2,000 has been raised.  Our target is  £12,000,  so we have quite a  way to go.  If you are able to take part in the walk, and help raise funds, please let us know as soon as possible.

If you are not able to take part in the walk, please support our efforts by donating to our team of walkers via the special team fund raising page at Just Giving.

Funds raised will go towards much needed research on Birdshot – hopefully we can find better treatments and maybe even a cure or prevention of Birdshot.  We would be grateful for any donation – even very small amounts make a huge difference.  We have 300 members, and if each of those were able to donate just £10 we would be able to find £3,000 for research.  This is OUR future and the future of the next generation – hopefully they will not have to suffer Birdshot!   So please turn out your pockets and make a small donation,  especially if you are not able to join us on the actual walk yourself.

Thank you in advance for any small amount you are able to donate, and a HUGE thank you to our members from the UK, Ireland, Canada, USA and Australia who have already donated to this cause – you are stars!

So please dig deep and donate now.

Dear Birdshotters and friends

It is now just over a month since the Birdshot Day and time to start thinking about our plan to raise funds to make a difference in all our lives.  Not just for a biobank, but for research projects mentioned on the Day, that are looking at less toxic methods to control our Birdshot.  As you all know we are a very special group and belong to quite an exclusive ‘club’!  This is why it is so important that we all put our heads together and come up with ideas and plans to raise as much money as possible for our wonderful group of Birdshotters.

This is something that many of you are already thinking about and have come up with unique ways of doing. We have bake sales coming up, used book sales and of course the Carrot Walk in September. Our team of walkers is growing all the time, and I suspect we will have an amazing group ready to take London by storm!!  If you want to join us and need any help with registration or setting up your just giving page then please get in touch at info@birdshot.org.uk.  Sue Wheeler has very kindly offered to help with any difficulties.  It promises to be a fun event and despite the fact that we will be walking for 6 miles (our younger walkers) or 15 miles (the rest of us) through London at night time, I think we will have a laugh.  If anyone wants to walk with a full trolley of refreshments, that would be extremely welcome too!  We will be organising ‘training’ walks over the coming months which will be a great excuse for us all to get together and as most of us like to chat, its a good excuse to do that too!

If any of you have creative ways in which you can help raise further funds, I would love to hear about them. We can help you with BUS posters and leaflets to let people know who we are and what we are doing.

I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas about how we can move things forward.  Contact me at info@Birdshot.org.uk

Lorraine

Do you shop on-line?  If so, there is a very simple way of raising money for BUS without spending any of your own money.

Here is how it works: log on to Easy Fundraising at www.easyfundraising.org.uk and click on the tab that says ‘find a cause’.  Type Birdshot Uveitis Society into the box that displays, and click on the button that says ‘support’ next to Birdshot Uveitis Society.

Once you have done that, just remember to log into easy fundraising every time you want to shop on-line.  You will find all your favourite retailers listed (including Amazon, John Lewis, Argos, etc).  click on the retailer you want to shop from and a new window for that retailer will open up.  Just shop in the normal way, and an automatic donation will be made to BUS!  Hooray!!!

Sue Bridge, a BUS member and a Birdshotter, is setting up a local group for people with Birdshot in the Humberside/Lincolnshire area. She had already set a date for the first meeting, but this had to be cancelled due to bad weather. She is now busy re-organising this first meeting.

Last weekend she and another Birdshotter set up a BUS stall at a local craft fair to advertise Birdshot and to raise money by selling hand made cards and crafts.

Below is a photograph of their stall – it really looks great. This is wonderful publicity for us – any opportunity we can get to help raise the profile of this rare disease helps us along the path of creating more interest and finding better treatments or a cure.

Many thanks Sue for your hard work. Any Birdshotters in the Lincolnshire, Humberside, Yorkshire wanting to attend the local group can email Sue@birdshot.org.uk She is really keen to hear from you.

Sue Bridge sells her hand-made cards at a local craft fair for BUS