An evening of wine at Ann et Vin

We had a great evening with Ann (of et Vin fame) tasting wines, guessing which they were and generally schlooshing! This schlooshing is quite a difficult thing to grasp.....wine in mouth, roll it around, make lips into a sort of "cat's bottom"and breathe in making a strange schlooshing noise. Got it?? are you trying as you read?? you should be!!

This is all well and good if you don't want to smile, giggle or talk at the same time, then it's disaster....and always with the red wine which trickles quite quickly down your chin and onto your clothes!! Hey ho all in the name of pleasure and raising money of course....that's the reason we were all there!!

And thank you everyone we raised £355, and enjoyed every minute, thank you Ann you did us proud ~ and I had several comments that this was a marvellous way to raise money for charity this amount is winging it's way to The Children's Brain Tumour Research Centre in Nottingham.

 

Thank you too to Mike Wilson who was having a leaving party at Ann's before we arrived for our "do"and made all his guests put money in the collecting bucket as they left, Sam was quite happy to stand there and have money tossed in his direction!
Sorry  -  we didn't get a photo of you ...whoops

See if you can see you or someone you know amongst those who supported us on the evening, and thanks to all once again....I think we may have to have another one of these evenings before too long!!





Thank you Ann for the two great quizes, excellent wines to quaff...after tasting of course!!....and the pate and cheeses. And also for providing a lovely prize for the winner of the quiz....you are a star Ann!!!! And we will get you in the picture one day :o)

 

 http://www.cbtrc.org/

 www.justgiving.com/pam-white01

mimm

Holiday

Thanks to Luke Tillen and his team at the Torbay Holiday Helpers Network they gave us a wonderful holiday a couple of weeks ago.

Luke founded the network and he and his fellow hoteliers offer free holidays to families who have a child with a serious illness, either still receiving treatment or up to two years post treatment. They also offer holidays to bereaved families. Luke has also persuaded various cafes, attractions, cinema, theatre etc to take part and they provide free entrance or lunch/tea....how generous is this?!!

We had a great week in Babbacombe at Luke's hotel and visited a great many places....and had good weather!

Sam decided to interview Luke and chat about the THHN, here it is below...

apologies for the background noise, it proves this is a hands on role for Luke!! and I think one of the girls may have been playing the spoons - hoping to get into cabaret maybe! Anyway well done Sam and Luke...

 

http://www.thhn.co.uk/


mimm

European Parliament Workshop on Rare Cancers

So, there we were on Tuesday morning heading off by Eurostar to Brussels!!

Sam had been invited to the workshop by Glennis Willmott MEP - remember the blog earlier this year? - and was going to speak, along with Prof David Walker, about his journey through cancer so far.

What an impressive building, and how kind everyone was. Sam was impressive too and hardly seemed nervous at all, Debs and Peter from Jimmyteens.tv were also there.
Peter was  giving a talk about his experiences and Debs filmed both him and Sam so will post the link to that at a later date.  

There were quite a number of MEPs in attendance and I hope they listened to the message and try to persuade the drug companies to do more research into drugs and dosages for use in child cancers. It is worrying that the dosages used have not been designed purely for use by children and as a parent I know the worry that can cause. It is important to use what is best and most effective of course, and there is obviously not the incentive to develop drugs purely for childhood/rare cancers as, by their nature they are less common than those in adults, but we need more specifics when treating children. Our children. The balance needs to be right ....a high enough dose to be effective , but not so high as to then cause ill effects.

So come on you pioneering scientists, jump on board and look at what you can do for our children and young adults!!!!

The feedback from those there was wonderful and thanks to all those members who attended, also to Edel who took us under her wing and made sure we were well cared for for the rest of the evening.

Finally we went back to Parliament on the wednesday and had our own tour of the building, thanks Ted. It really is an amazing place and I was impressed that all those we met had time to listen as to why we were there and offer their support. 

And Glennis, we hope we meet with you again and thank you for listening, your team both in Brussels and UK are wonderful and it was lovely to see you "in the office"  I think I am safe in saying you have Sam's vote!!

Oh my!!

Well blog has been a bit quiet lately I know....we have just come back from a weeks holiday in Devon, thanks to the THHN -more about them and their generosity later!!

But now here we are packing again! Tomorrow Sam is off to Brussels .....he has been invited to the EU Parliament in Brussels to take part in a workshop on Rare Cancers and will be taking the stage to talk about his condition and treatment etc....Wow!! Sam is taking all of this in his stride...as usual and looking forward to being there......just how proud are we???? He is just amazing!

So, will be reporting on that trip soon too.

Thanks to Glenis Willmott for inviting Sam and for being so kind and listening to Sam when he showed her around the QMC hospital earlier in the year, we look forward to seeing you again tomorrow.

Bye for now....must dash, packing to do!!! 

Mimm