SobelltimesSummer 2014

The Newsletter for Supporters of Sobell House Hospice

GO YELLOW!

FOR MORE INFORMATION SEE PAGE 3

www.sobellhospicecharity.org.uk

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Community Fundraising Our supporters in the community continue to do an amazing job of raising money and awareness for the Hospice. It is not possible to mention every fundraising event, however some are listed below and our thanks go to all the others who have supported Sobell House.

The 8th Abingdon Brownies group raised £592.20 by doing a night time walk around Radley Lake. The walk was organised in memory of Mrs Vicky Lewis, who was one of their Brownie Leaders, and a teacher at Dunmore School in Abingdon, where many of the Brownies are pupils.

Also in the picture is Nicola Dixey, a fellow Brownie Leader and teacher at the school, who, with Gilly Absolom, organised a Ladies Night last year in memory of Vicky which raised a further £353.70. In addition, we have received £230.60 from the school raised at their Year 1 Nativity Play. Mrs Lewis was a much loved teacher who is very fondly missed by pupils, parents and staff of the school.

A big thank you goes to Kevin Bateman, Richard Pope and all the other organisers of the Witney Festival of Music, which took place on 31st January in Langdale Hall. There was non-stop music from local artists including Nikki Loy, James Felton, Rough Cut Ruby and many more. This very successful event raised a fantastic £3,650.

Keith and Jackie Bignall organised a Social Evening at the Westcott Sports & Social Club on 4th April, featuring Johnny Quantrell and the Confederates. The event was organised because their great friend, Diane Knight was a patient at the Hospice, and although they hoped she would be present on the evening, sadly she died before the event took place. The event raised a wonderful £2,660.26.

The Spring Sale held at Philberds Manor on 25th and 26th March was a very successful event with stalls including clothing, shoes, accessories, plus gifts and plants. £1,386.85 was raised for Sobell House and our thanks go to Maryrose and Robert Hodgson for organising the event.

Tracey Marting organised a psychic event and raised £414.63.

Lucy Purvey raised £650 from a Bingo event organised in memory of Karen Snow.

Marion Powell organised a Ploughman’s Lunch which raised £440.

Some Christmas events, which missed our last newsletter deserve a mention. Pauline Langhorne-Cox organised a Pre-Christmas sale and raised £450. Magdalen College raised £400 from sales of tickets for their Carols by Candlelight service. St Edward’s School held a Christmas Raffle which raised £1,164.00. Anthony Parker organised a Christmas Bingo event in memory of Ann Blake and raised £400. The Parochial Church of St Giles held a carol singing event which raised £180.65. Hanney Drama Group raised £580 from their pantomime, which they donated to Sobell House in memory of Vicki Parsons.

If you would like to organise an event in aid of Sobell House Hospice, please contact Lindsay on 01865 857007, or email Lindsay@sobellhospice.org.

Steventon Choral Society once again organised the biannual up-lifting ‘Voices for Hospices’ event, which raised £1,457.15.

The Circus Starr Autumn Tour came to Oxford once again in October 2013. The crew performed two shows in aid of Sobell House and raised £1,965.

The Common Room Play at Radley College raised £1,050, and the college also donated £634.31 raised from a sponsored walk.

£172 has been raised by Shirley Kerby from the sale of knitted chicks, holding cream eggs. They were knitted by her sister, Marjorie Barker and were mostly sold at Abingdon School. Thank you to Masons in Abingdon for helping with the materials.

Thank you also to Jane List who knits Easter chicks, as well as Christmas stockings for us, and this year has raised £400.

Jane Mattingly organised a Coffee Morning in Shillingford, with a wonderful variety of stalls, and raised £1,225.00

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GO YELLOW!Last year, many Sobell supporters went ‘YELLOW’ with some fantastic and fun ideas to raise money for the Hospice. We hope to spread even more sunshine this year with our ‘GO YELLOW’ campaign.

Here are some bright ideas to inspire you to get sunny and raise some money!

For those seeking adventure or to make a statement, you could:

F Ask for sponsorship to dye your hair yellow.

F Do a sponsored skydive, bungee jump or fun run dressed in yellow,

or as your favourite yellow character (The Simpsons, Sponge Bob Squarepants, Big Bird, Pikachu).

For those of you who are more yellow-bellied, why not organise a ‘Go Yellow’ themed event? It could be a yellow tea party or cake sale (banana muffins, lemon drizzle cake, lemon meringue pie, custard tarts – how can you resist?!), a yellow dinner party, or even a ‘Go Mellow for Go Yellow’ sponsored silence.

If you are a business or shop, you could:

As part of our ‘Go Yellow’ week at the Hospice, (11th – 17th August) we are hoping to fill the garden with sunflowers, each in memory of a loved one. If you would like to take part, please complete the form below. We ask for a minimum donation of £5, and there will be the option of having your Memory Marker sent to you when our Go Yellow week has finished.

To get your ‘Go Yellow’ fundraising pack, please contact the charity office on 01865 857007, or email mail@sobellhospice.org.

My donation to Sobell House Hospice £

I/We enclose a cheque payable to Sobell House Hospice Charity Limited

Please debit my credit /debit card

OR

Card type:

Card number:

Valid from: / Expiry date: / 3 digit Security code:

Issue number:

Signed: Date:

Your details: Title: ……………….. First name: …………………………………………….……… Surname: ………………………………….…...……………………………………………..………..

Address: …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...........

Postcode: …………………………..… Tel no: ……………………………..………………………… Email: …………………………………………………………………………………………………..........

Name(s) in memory of: (only one name per Sunflower) Dedications are NAMES ONLY. PLEASE WRITE IN CAPITAL LETTERS

P l e a s e t i c k h e r e i f y o u w o u l d l i k e u s t o p o s t y o u r s u n f l o w e r t o y o u a f t e r o u r G o Y e l l o w W e e k .

Make your gift 25% more—at no extra cost (please tick the box below)

I am a tax payer and would like Sobell House Hospice Charity to treat all my donations made in the last 4 years as Gift Aid donations until further notice. N.B. You must pay an amount of income tax and/or capital gains tax equal to the tax we reclaim on your donations—currently 25p for every £1 you give.

Charity Registration number: 1118646

Please return this form to: Freepost RRKL—CJKH—HZSH, Sobell House Hospice Charity Limited, Churchill Hospital, Old Road, Headington, OXFORD OX3 7LJ

!

Sunflower Memory Markers

F Set up a Yellow Card system for the day, where employees are shown a yellow card and fined £1 when caught doing predefined offences (swearing, being late, not recycling).

F Organise Yellow themed competitions, such as: ‘Who can grow the tallest sunflower?’; ‘Who can eat the most bananas or custard?’; ‘How many yellow sweets in the jar?’

Our Charity shops will be ‘Going Yellow’ during the week commencing 23rd June, so look out for displays in their shop windows.

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Corporate Fundraising

Peach Croft Farm donated £279.67 from the sale of turkeys; PD Hook, Structural Genomics Consortium, Sherlock Combs Ltd and Grundon Waste Management raised £200, £75, £309.75 and £25 respectively from raffles.

Cellmark Forensic Services donated £430; Boots in Oxford raised £447.95 from in store fundraising; Tangoe Europe raised £234.50 during a charity auction.

Catermasters have been supporting us over the last two years and have raised £7000 from a range of office based fundraising.

Swets have raised £448.52 so far this year from their monthly dress down days and an Easter raffle.

Cottsway Housing raised £526 from their bonus ball collection and a tombola.

The inaugural Oz Oswald Memorial Cup Golf day, organised by HAE was held in Dubai on the 22nd January. The event was arranged in memory of Trevor Oswald and raised a magnificent £1500.

Iceland in Kidlington nominated Sobell House to receive a £200 donation from the Iceland Foods Charitable Foundation 10% Pot, our Corporate Fundraiser was delighted to pick up the cheque in store.

Jerrams Brothers Funeral Directors raised £1,175 at their annual charity concert which took place in January at Exeter Hall, Kidlington. The theme of the concert was “A Salute to the 1940’s” with music, comedy and dancing from that era. The event was sponsored by the funeral directors with a collection at the end for Sobell House.

OCDEM have been supporting the Hospice for over a year and raised a further £246 from their Easter fundraising. Once again they had some marvellous costumes and decorated offices.

A-Plan Insurance Witney will be supporting Sobell House in the future. The Witney branch will donate £20 for every new motor or home policy arranged from a referral in connection with the Hospice. All you have to do is mention Sobell House when you take out your policy. For further details contact 01993 778 778.

Would your business be interested in sponsoring one page of our next newsletter? A donation of £200 covers the cost of printing one page. Your company details would be included on the foot of the page and seen by over 8,000 readers. Please contact Kelly for further details.

If you own, or work in a business and would like to help in any way, please contact Kelly on 01865 857066, or email kelly@sobellhospice.org.

We are continuously grateful to our many corporate supporters who raise money for the Hospice in a variety of ways:

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This page has been kindly sponsored by S&R Childs, 69 London Road, Headington, Oxford, OX3 9AA, tel. 01865 427272 www.srchilds.co.uk

FirewalkTwenty-three brave supporters took part in a Firewalk on Saturday, 15th March, at Oxford City Football Club. They received special training to help them face the challenge of walking over hot coals and raised £6,500 for the Hospice.

The event was supported by Jack FM, The Oxford Gospel Choir and Sol Samba Band, who all helped to create a great atmosphere, and we are also very grateful to Oxford City for their help in hosting the event.

A great way to support Sobell House Hospice is by making a regular gift. You can choose the amount and how often the payment is made, e.g. monthly, quarterly or annually, and in return we will keep you up-to-date on news about the Hospice and the Charity.

Another way of making a regular gift is through Payroll Giving. Why not ask your employers if they are registered for this, and then a donation can be made directly from your salary.

If you would like to get involved in this way, or for more information, please contact us on 01865 857007, or mail@sobellhospice.org for a Regular Giving Pack.

Our customers and volunteers provide us with some beautiful items to sell in our shops. A Thame Shop volunteer, Caz, has been making bird boxes which have been very popular and a customer, Brian Elks has been supplying us with a wonderful selection of goodies to sell.

Brian has written and published a novel “My Heart and I” to commemorate the valiant exploits of the Ox & Bucks Infantry regiments, as well as the courage of the Thame townspeople as they coped with the advent of the war in 1914. All proceeds from the sale of the book in Thame Shop, as well as any Brian sells himself, are going to Sobell House. Brian also supplies wonderful postcards of his paintings and some stunning photographs of red kites to sell. Brian’s Allotment Group has also kindly nominated the Hospice to receive the proceeds from their plant sale in May. Thank you Brian for helping us in so many ways!

If anyone would like a copy of Brian’s book, please contact our Thame Shop on 01844 212682.

News from the Sobell Shops

Regular Giving

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Active Fundraising

The Oxford Moonlight Stroll – the biggest pyjama party of the year!

The last few places are still available for this year’s amazing Oxford Moonlight Stroll.

Every year hundreds of you take to the streets of our lovely city in aid of Sobell House Hospice at our annual nine mile sponsored night-time walk.

In our eighth year now, the Stroll is our biggest annual fundraiser and a great opportunity not only to see Oxford from a different perspective, but also to have a fantastic night out.

Each year has a different theme, and this year we want to make the Stroll Oxford’s biggest pyjama party, so don your onesie, nightshirt, PJ’s and dressing gown to make this the best Stroll ever!

Places cost £18 per person with all proceeds going to the work of Sobell House.

To sign up, or for more information please call us on 01865 857007, or visit www.oxfordmoonlightstroll.org.uk.

Lots of Sobell supporters do just that by skydiving in aid of the Hospice.

This year we’re hoping that a squadron of Sobell House supporters would be willing to jump out of a perfectly good plane to raise money.

Visit www.skylineparachuting.co.uk to find an airfield near you and how to sign up to jump for Sobell House, or call Skyline direct on 0207 424 5520.

Two wheels rather than two feet are the order of the day for some other Sobell House supporters. Iain Bradley is riding from Land’s End to John O’Groats in memory of his uncle and says: “My Uncle Derek had great support from the Sobell House team before he died in November. When I committed to riding from one end of the country to the other (on his bike, which will make things all the more poignant), I asked him for which charity I should ride. It is therefore at his suggestion that I am cycling to raise money to thank Sobell House for their kindness and support.”

You can donate to Iain’s ride by visiting www.justgiving.com/Iain-Bradley1

Mark Crick and Neil Barson will be heading to Ireland as they ride end to end from Mizen Head to Malin Head (approx. 460 mile route) in 4 and a ½ days. Mark is no stranger to fundraising for Sobell having completed the three peaks, ridden Land’s End to John O’Groats, and London to Paris as well as running the London Marathon.

Please support Neil and Mark’s challenge at www.justgiving.com/end2endmarkandnobby

Aeroplanes are overrated, throw yourself out of one!

Iain saddles up for the Land’s End to John O’Groats challenge

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Active FundraisingOur London Marathon team of Ian Wooster, Claire Newell, Jennie Haynes, Caroline McCormack, Paul Hayday, Josh Hillsdon, Amy Palmer, Casey Charlesworth, Richard Wild and Nicola Edginton did us proud, whilst Paul Higgs went to the slightly less high-profile Milton Keynes Marathon. The team look set to raise over £16,000 in aid of Sobell House.

For Nicki Wiggins, a marathon just wasn’t enough; instead she decided to take on the 104 mile Cotswold Way. Supported by her friend Corry Ravenscroft, the pair covered the 104 miles in just five days.

Nicki was running in memory of her dear friend Sarah who was a patient at Sobell, and said: “Well I did it! I have a dodgy hip and toes to show for it. Plus I feel like I have been run over by a huge truck. I can’t believe it’s over now. The challenge was very hard but something got us through.

I carried one of Sarah’s necklaces the whole way round and she pushed me up the hills when I was having a dip. Corry was brilliant and we’re so proud and pleased that we did it - 104 miles, in 5 days! I have downloaded the stats from my Garmin device and we did it in 25 and a half hours. I’m pretty pleased with that.”

Nicki has so far raised almost £2,000 but she is keeping her fundraising page open a little longer.

If you would like to donate, visit http://virginmoneygiving.com/NicolaWiggins.

As they finished in sight of the Queen’s house, Libby Spurge and Emma Phipkin finished their own marathon challenge with the Eiffel Tower dominating the skyline as they completed the Paris Marathon, raising over £1,000.

Well done to everyone who put their bodies on the line for us, you’re all amazing.

If a marathon is a little too far for you, we still have places available for the London 10k which takes place on the 13th July.

For more information, please contact kevin@sobellhospice.org for more information.

Marathon Mania

Nicki’s Cotswold Way

London 10k

Sobell House Hospice

Registered Charity Number: 1118646. If you would prefer not to receive further copies of this newsletter please contact us on 01865 857007 or Email: mail@sobellhospice.org

Sobell House Hospice Charity, Churchill Hospital, Headington, Oxford, OX3 7LJ. Tel: 01865 857007 Fax: 01865 857015 Email: mail@sobellhospice.org www.sobellhospicecharity.org.uk

Did you know that when you are buying online, booking holidays, arranging mobile phone contracts etc, you can also be supporting Sobell House Hospice Charity? If you make your purchases through the Care2Save website, many suppliers will give commission to your chosen charity. There are many similar websites, but Care2Save is different because it is a non-profit organisation. 80% of the commission paid would come directly to Sobell House and the additional 20% is placed in a Charitable Trust which supports Hospices.

Using the Care2Save website costs you nothing – all the commission comes from the supplier, and many big names are now signed up including Debenhams, Waitrose, Expedia, O2 and BT.

To find out more, please visit www.Care2Save.co.uk.

Legacies

‘Help us to care for the next generation’

‘Write a new chapter

and leave a gift in your

will to Sobell House’Leaving a legacy is a great way to help us to ensure the future of Sobell House Hospice. If you are thinking of writing or amending your will, why not consider including a gift for Sobell House Hospice?

Contact your solicitor, or ring the Sobell Charity Office on 01865 857007 for more information.

You are invited to a relaxing evening of pampering at The Sobell Day Centre on Tuesday, 14th October from 6pm - 9pm.

Come along and indulge in one of the many pamper sessions on offer. There will be Indian head massages, foot massages, manicures, a variety of stalls and much more to be confirmed.

Tickets are £5 and can be bought directly from the charity office, or by calling 01865 857007.

Go on, treat yourself!

Sobell Pamper Evening

Forthcoming Events

Care2Save

We are holding our second Sobell Rover Ramble on Sunday, September 7th. This sponsored dog walk will be a fun-filled day for all your family, friends and doggies.

Entry will be £5 per dog and we hope that your dog will collect some sponsorship to support the Hospice: we ask you to aim for a minimum of £25 sponsorship.

Sobell Rover Ramble

For further information, or to register for the walk, please contact the charity office on 01865 857007, or email kelly@sobellhospice.org.

Throughout the summerGo Yellow

23rd – 28th JuneShops Go Yellow week

Saturday, 12th JulyOxford Moonlight Stroll, St

Edward’s School

11th – 17th AugustSobell House Go Yellow week

Sunday, 7th SeptemberSobell Rover Ramble

Tuesday, 14th OctoberPamper Evening, The Sobell

Day Centre

Saturday, 22nd November

Sobell Christmas Gift Fair, Radley College

Sunday, 23rd NovemberSobell Christmas Gift Fair,

Radley College

Saturday, 13th DecemberLights of Love

Tuesday, 16th DecemberChrist Church Christmas Concert

If you would prefer not to collect sponsorship, entry will be £10 per adult accompanying a dog.