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!

Abseil for Life

(Photo credit: AJS Photography)

Last week, our lovely North-West advocate Holly Shaw put an impressive 38-strong team together to complete her abseil challenge down the 100ft Leasehowe Lighthouse on the Wirral. Abseilers included our Welsh advocate Andrea Evans and the always wonderfully enthusiastic Team Ethan!


None of this would be possible if it wasn’t for Holly’s donor and the fact that their family said yes to Organ Donation. Holly says: “I wanted to do a physical challenge to show what a difference this transplant has made to my life....I will be eternally grateful to the donor and their family for giving me this chance at a new life I intend to make the most of my precious “Gift of Life” and I am keen to continue raising as much awareness as I possibly can.”

So far, Holly and her amazing team have raised over £3,500 for us!! There's still time to sponsor her, by popping over to her JustGiving page at http://www.justgiving.com/LLTGL-abseil/

Thanks to all of the brave Abseil for Life team for facing this daunting challenge on our behalf!!

An afternoon at Imperial College

Left-Right: Emily, Dr. Anthony Gordon and Pauline

This wednesday afternoon we were lucky enough to find ourselves at Imperial College NHS Healthcare Trust Clinical Ethics Committee Open Day. LLTGL chair Emily and treasurer Mandy, together with the fantastic Pauline (from our friends the Donor Family network) were invited to present to the committee at a special session on the ethics of organ donation. These kinds of opportunities are really vital to us as a charity, for it is a chance for us to get our message across to the people at the top who can address some of the structural issues surrounding organ donation.

Following presentations from Dr. Anthony Gordon, the Trust's Organ Donor Champion, transplant surgeon Mr. Vassiolos Papalois and the Trust's living donor co-ordinators, it was our turn to work some LLTGL magic with personal stories surrounding transplantation and organ donation.

Mandy started off by showing the LLTGL slide show, which tells of the most powerful aspect of organ donation: those lives that have been transformed by organ donation, those lost and the fear of those still waiting. Pauline then gave a very touching presentation about the donor family perspective. Although she made the point that Donor Families don’t want to be treated as heroes, Emily made the point for, I feel sure, all of those of us who have been lucky enough to have received an organ, that to her (and us) they are heroes because they really have changed our lives.

Emily then gave a wonderful presentation about the reality of life on the transplant waiting list, and the contrast with her life now and, as is her usual style, there was scarcely a dry eye in the house!

Most importantly the feedback from both the clinical staff present and ‘lay’ people reminded us just how powerful it is to hear firsthand experiences of organ donation. Thanks to all of our supporters who share with us their stories, for every single one helps us reinforce why organ donation matters so much.

Love,

An encounter with Phil Jupitus!

How exciting is this!?!? One of our supporters, Pete Franklin, was on twitter when Phil Jupitus tweeted:

"Time 4 the 'cap & cake' challenge. Am now in Stop The World cafe in Leigh and will buy coffee & cake for first 2 people to come up to me"

Despite being tied up, 15 minutes later feeling he had nothing to lose and eager to do something for himself and for us, he grabbed some marker pens, a camera and a SaveJess Tshirt. Amazingly, Phil was still there!

Phil bought Pete a double espresso and they sat down for a nice chat. Phil told Pete all about the comedy work he'd been doing and Pete, bless him, told him all about us and the Save Jess campaign! Phil kindly offered his help, including signing a SJ T-shirt.

Pete's encounter has really made his, and our, day!!

I Hope You Know

Exactly a year ago, Sarah Springett, lead singer of The Floe, gave her boyfriend Paul the once-in-a-lifetime gift of a kidney. In honour of the first anniversary of Paul's transplant, The Floe have launched a campaign to raise awareness of organ donation with the release of their first single, "I Hope You Know"

All proceeds from the single will be donated to The Transplant Trust and all people who buy or download the single will be encouraged to sign the organ donor register. We think this a fantastic way to mark Paul's transplant anniversary, so please forward this on to everyone you know!

To hear Sarah talking about why the single is so important, as well as to listen to some snippets of the song you can check out this video from The Floe:



To read more about the band and find out where they're playing next, you can visit them at their website, www.thefloe.com/

LLTGL on the Secret Millionaire!

Finally, we've managed to acquire a clip of our Welsh advocate Andrea Evan's star turn on a Vodafone Ad in between The Secret Millionaire! You can spot her 5 clips in!





Andy, who does a lot of work for St John's Ambulance, received an email asking her to go along to Cardiff Bay to promote the first aid charity. As one of her colleagues had already done a segment asking people to donate themselves to St John's Andy jumped at the chance to mention us! Although she was nervous about how she was going to get onto the giant box, after plenty of giggles she climbed up and said why she would (and does!) donate herself to us!


Andy says: "The filming was pretty fun, however I had to repeat myself- and each time I did it slightly differently, which meant that it took longer to film. Thankfully the sun was shining and it was a lovely day!"


Well done Andy, and huge thanks for all you do for LLTGL!!

Raise money for us with eBay!

What a difference a click makes! You can now raise funds for Live Life then Give Life by selling your stuff through eBay!!

The best part about this is that everyone wins!

• We get between 10-100% of your final selling price. If you select Gift Aid, the taxman will add 28% to your donation!
• Your listing stands out from the crowd with a charity ribbon. You can also find new buyers, increase your customer loyalty and watch your bids and sales grow
• Best of all, eBay will credit back your basic insertion and final value fees, equal to the percentage you donate

This is a quick and easy way to raise funds for us - here's how it works, the 1-2-3 of selling for Live Life then Give Life:

Once you’re ready to sell your item, go to the Sell hub and select ‘Advanced Sell’.

As you’re filling out the details, look out for the charity box just below where you set your price. Select Live Life then Give Life (id 33095) to support and the percentage (10%-100%) of your final selling price that you'd like to donate. The minimum donation is only £1 per listing.

A week after your item sells, MissionFish (eBay's charity partner) will automatically collect the donation from you. You can also manage your donations through the 'My Donations' section of My eBay, under the My Account tab. Any fee credits will appear on your next invoice.

We currently don't have anyone selling for us, why don't you be the first?

Huge thanks to our lovely advocate Louise Lawrence for spurring on to get this sorted!