Wessex Heartbeat is a charity close to many of the team following the tragic death of Ryan Gilmore last year. Ryan's older brother Marc and his mother Jackie are both involved in this challenge.
Ryan was a fit 12 year old who enjoyed playing cricket and football. Unfortunately Ryan died suddenly; the post-mortem showed that his heart was 3 times the normal size. No-one would ever know that he had a heart condition unless he had had a heart scan, so it was like a time-bomb waiting to happen.This can happen to anyone at any age or time.
To help prevent such tragedies from happening to others Wessex Heartbeat are in the process of building a new unit. With the money we are trying to raise we should help them to build a new reception area for the adolescence ward.
To find out more about this incredibly worthy charity please visit their website using this link: www.heartbeat.co.uk
We are supporting The Wessex Neurological Unit to help them buy new new equipment which will help them in their work looking into treatments and cures for Parkinson's Disease.
One of our colleagues, who is yet to celebrate her 50th birthday suffers with Parkinson's. She manages to cope with everyday tasks with the help of medication and this year will be completing a 13.5 mile walk in aid of Breast Cancer. We are raising money to support additonal research into this condition which affects the part of the brain that controls muscle movement, often impairing the sufferer's motor skills and speech. Poor balance and co-ordination and tremors are all symptoms of Parkinson's Disease. At this moment there is no cure.
Considering the nature of our challenge we felt it was only right to give something back to the people who, on a voluntary basis, make sure we can do this with the knowledge that there are skilled professionals on hand to offer assistance if something goes awry.
Mountain Rescue organisations provide assistance to anyone who has become lost or injured in the mountains, fells or moorland for any reason. During the last few years there has been a number of requests by the police to the mountain rescue bodies to search for missing children, the elderly, mentally ill or stranded motorists on snow bound roads as well as the more conventional rescue requests.
This service is provided 24 hours a day, 7 days a week no matter what the conditions are. This service is available across the whole of the UK free of charge and relies on support by public subscriptions and donations.
Without this continued support they would not be able to function.
The image below is of a new rescue centre being built in Scotland, they are half way through the project and are only £30,000 short of their £600,000 total. With our support we should be able to bring this total a little closer.
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