June - The Oxfordshire Vasculitis Group

Vasculitis is inflammation of the blood vessels. Any of the body’s organs may be involved and symptoms are often non-specific. As Vasculitis is a rare disease it can be difficult to diagnose. Early diagnosis is important to get treatment started, and to reduce permanent damage. There is no cure for many of the vasculitis diseases so the aim of treatment is to keep the disease process in remission. The severity of the illness can vary greatly from very mild, where no specific therapy is required, to severe life threatening multi-system diseases which need specialist hospital care.

The national charity does not give financial aid to local groups so as Gloucestershire is part of the Oxfordshire group this is where our money will go.

This is what Sue Ashdown tells us:

“I set up the Oxfordshire Vasculitis Support Group in 2005, after having had Granulomatosis Polyangitis since 1995. I felt there was a lack of support locally for people with Vasculitis. As Vasculitis is a rare set of diseases people can feel isolated when diagnosed, so to speak to someone with the same condition can feel very reassuring.

The aim of OVSG is to offer support to people in Oxfordshire and surrounding counties. We are an independent group who offer an e-mail link for information and for signposting people to other sources of support and information.

We link in with the Vasculitis UK group and so have access to literature and other resources.
We hold informal lunches 2-3 times a year, which give people, their families and carers a chance to meet us and pick our brains. These events are also an opportunity for them to meet people in a similar situation, taking similar medications and having been along the same path.

Our lunches are cheerful occasions and we aim to show people that you can have a Vasculitis and survive, and life can get back to normal.

Once a year we organise a more formal meeting: one or two doctors who have specialist knowledge of Vasculitis give a presentation, and it is a chance for people to ask questions and learn about their illness. There is also time to meet with others over lunch.

We are volunteers, and any money we raise at present is used for mailing and stationary needs.
We have to charge people for attending the seminar for the lunch. Even though the hotel is generous and doesn't charge us for use of the room, we have to pay for use of projector and screen. We do subsidise this if we have any spare money in our account as people may have financial restraints and we don't want this to bar them from coming.”

Mary Michael

May - The DEC Syria Appeal

To link in with Christian Aid week we will be supporting the DEC Syria Appeal via Christian Aid.  As with all long term tragedies the situation of the Syrian refugees becomes less newsworthy though the traumas continue and the death toll mounts. The terrible suffering of children that is almost unbearable to watch on our televisions is the daily reality.

The Disasters Emergency Committee brings 14 leading UK aid charities together in times of crisis all collectively raising money to quickly reach those in need. The DEC draws on many years of experience to plan and deliver each appeal, striving to ensure that the relevant support reaches the people who need it as quickly as possible.

This is an extract from the report of an aid worker’s assessment of the makeshift refugee camps, “As an aid worker, I’ve visited many camps of this kind, but what struck me the most about Syria was the lack of any international presence and limited camp management. We were confronted with total chaos and immense human suffering.

There were makeshift tents that were housing large numbers of people in overcrowded conditions. I met one family that was sharing a tent with fifteen other people. Food was in very short supply and there was a lack of medical care and inadequate sanitation. Most of the people I met in the camp had not eaten that day. The freezing conditions meant that most of the children had racking coughs as they tried to withstand the coldest winter Syria has seen in ten years - with damp blankets and hardly any heating.

Families told me they had fled to the borders because of frequent bomb attacks and because their hometowns no longer had even basic supplies of food or water. It was awful to see the stress these families were under – and sickening to see how little help was reaching them. I’ve seen for myself how vital it is for aid agencies to deliver more aid inside Syria. A breakthrough is desperately needed for aid agencies to establish a more significant presence inside Syria and help the hundreds of thousands of Syrians who desperately need humanitarian assistance.”

For more information on Christian Aid's Syria appeal click here

March - Cruse Bereavement Care

Cruse was founded in Richmond on Thames in 1959 by Margaret Torrie, a social worker, and the wife of a consultant psychiatrist. She realised that there was no service that provided help to grieving widows, and she advertised in the local newspaper to test out the possibility of setting up a group. Nearly thirty widows turned up at the first meeting and the service grew from there, altering its outreach in 1987 to include all those going through a period of grief.

Cruse Bereavement Care is now the largest charity of its kind in the world. There are branches in all regions of England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and there is a similar but autonomous organisation in Scotland.
The name of the charity comes from an archaic word for an earthenware jar.  The ‘cruse’ refers to the story in 1 Kings chapter 17 which tells of the widow who used her last oil and flour to feed Elijah, and from then on found that her jar (cruse) was always full. Cruse has no political or religious affiliations and provides practical advice and counselling through trained volunteers.

Services and support are available for anyone trying to come to terms with bereavement, with special emphasis on children, Service families, suicide and victims of crime. They also help following major incidents.
As well as training their own volunteers Cruse gives training to external organisations and individuals who may encounter bereavement in the normal course of their work.

Apart from a small central staff in Richmond the service relies entirely on volunteers and generates no funds of its own. Nobody who needs help is turned away for financial reasons, and clients make a contribution that they can afford. Support sessions can take place in an individual’s home, a Cruse office or by telephone or via email.

Local support groups meet on Tuesday mornings in Cheltenham, and Friday mornings in Gloucester.
Friendship groups meet on those same days.

Cruse websites are very ‘user friendly’ for both a grieving person and someone wanting to help them.
For young people between 12 and 18 (approximately) there is a specific website and freephone helpline:

www.rd4u.org.uk
( 0808 808 1677

National contacts:
www.cruse.org.uk
( 0208 939 9530

Local contacts:
gloucestershire@cruse.org.uk
( 01242 252518

February: Severn Freewheelers

From 4x4 wheels used in last month’s charity we are now moving to 2 as we support one of our Mayor’s charities.

Severn Freewheelers are a group of advanced motorcyclists providing a free out-of-hours courier service for hospitals in Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, North Wiltshire and Herefordshire. Carrying anything from blood to X-rays and patient notes between hospitals in the area, they are available from 7.00pm in the evening to 7.00am the following day, and all day at weekends.  All riders are volunteers and must have an advanced riding qualification (ROSPA or IAM) with a yearly check-ride.  All receive extra training in emergency response riding, and go through a First Aid course. In short, a professional team delivering a professional service, FREE to the NHS at the point of use.

Each "shift" consists of two people, a rider and a dispatcher. The dispatcher fields calls from the hospitals and plans the route for the evening based on the calls received. Emergency calls are obviously dealt with first, and for these they can use their blue lights.

For those of you who are interested in the technicalities of the machines used, this is what the website has to say about the bikes themselves:

“We run a fleet of five motorcycles. Each bike is specially modified to carry the packages given to us by the NHS, and liveried in emergency response reflective battenburg colours.

The three original R1150RT BMWs are being replaced after nearly three years of service by the next generation R1200RT BMWs. These are the bikes commonly used by police forces throughout the UK and have a reputation for robustness.

These emergency service bikes are specially built by BMW. We have four of these bikes, having replaced one after completing over 60,000 miles.

Our most recent purchase was a Honda Pan European (ST1300) from Honda UK. This bike is similarly liveried and equipped to the BMWs.”

If you would like to see the team in action they will be at the Prescott Bike Festival, Prescott Speed Hill Climb on Sunday 7th April.

For more information click here and visit the Severn Freewheelers web site at http://www.severnfreewheelers.co.uk

January - Gloucestershire and Worcestershire 4 x 4 Response

Gloucestershire & Worcestershire 4×4 Response began life in 2006 by a small group of members of a responsible 4 wheel drive association. They recognised the need for a local team, able to respond to incidents in our locality using specialised vehicles with trained drivers.

The first major incident was the flooding of 2007. Gloucestershire 4×4 Response (as it was then) worked with the British Red Cross and other 4×4 response teams delivering bottled water, hygiene packs and food to Care Homes across the county.

Teams responded to freak weather conditions on Crickley Hill the following winter, making checks on drivers and passengers of cars stranded in the traffic and snow.

In 2009 they were involved with Great Western Ambulance Service (GWAS) and Gloucestershire Primary Care Trust when wintery weather spread through the county. They had teams out for almost a week and covered several hundred miles collecting medical personnel, and transferring them from home to work and vice versa allowing wards and home visits to continue as well as the conditions would allow. During the warmer months of 2009 they became involved in the Worcestershire area and began recruiting members to strengthen the service they could provide. They were elected onto the Worcestershire CVEC (Community Volunteer Emergency Committee) and attended meetings and presentations about how the deployment of voluntary services can be effectively managed. With this involvement came the decision to re-brand the team and they became known as “Gloucestershire & Worcestershire 4×4 Response” or GW4x4R.

Gloucestershire & Worcestershire 4×4 Response (GW4x4R) provide 24 hour 4-wheel drive support to the Emergency Services, Civil Authorities and selected volunteer and utility organisations in Gloucestershire & Worcestershire. GW4x4R is a non-profit making voluntary organisation whose members use their own 4×4 vehicles, at their own expense, to provide this service to the emergency and other services.
If you are ever frustrated by trying to park at Highbury on the third Tuesday evening of the month (which is when they meet) please use it as a reminder to thank God for this service and to ask his blessing and protection on its members.

December: Children's Homes in Kerala Stage

There was a brief history and outline of the work of the Chiks charity in the December 2010 Highbury News, and its founder and co-ordinator, Robin Radley addressed the Highbury congregation last June. A synopsis of his entertaining update was that, like most charities, Chiks is struggling to meet the needs of our friends in India. Donations from Britain have dropped and prices of even the most basic requirements of life in India have escalated. Demands for help have also risen, so a vicious circle is in place.

Since 1999, through Chiks, one Children’s home, Karunanilayam, has been established and two others have been given great support. All three homes are in the state of Kerala, South India, a region also known as ‘Gods Own Country’ for its beautiful scenery. Unfortunately, beauty does not always mean wealth.
Karunanilayam, is run by Sister Mary Mathew, and currently over 30 children are resident. They are fed, clothed, educated and, most of all, are happy. I’ve been associated with Chiks since 2002, and seen expansion of the home from a single house to an extensive plot of multi-purpose buildings.

Likewise, the two homes in the mountain regions of Kerala, Little Flower Mercy Home and, even more remote, Carmel Matha Santhi Bavan have much to thank Chiks for.

Little Flower Mercy Home was started over 20 years ago by Molly and Mathew Manuel to shelter one hundred destitute and mentally-handicapped adults. Seeing a need for shelter for wandering children more recently, their scope has widened. Again, purpose built buildings have been erected, but already they are full to overflowing, partly because the Indian government has decreed that boys and girls must not share the same facilities.

Carmel Matha Santhi Bavan, run by Brother Joy Daniel, houses boys of all ages. The help of Chiks has also seen that home rebuilt and extended; and significantly, a large area of farmland purchased with a view to self-sufficiency. The land was already planted with banana, coconut, coffee trees and rice paddy.
Those are the successes. Now, the disappointments:-

Each month there are worries that bills will be met and food available. Meat has become a treat rather than a regular part of the diet.

At Karunanilayam, children have grown up, and will leave school. Then what? A training centre was planned to teach sewing skills and I.T. to the girls, also to be open to other girls in the neighbourhood. That project is now on hold, indefinitely.

Little Flower had an adjacent large plot of farmland on the market which would have been ideal for self-sufficiency. Chiks could not raise the asking price (which was hiked when the seller realised European finance was involved). However, a generous landowner has offered a smaller plot where a new boys’ home can now be built.

Carmel Matha Santhi Bavan farmland needs fencing to prevent theft of produce by needy neighbours. Again, insufficient funds are available.

If you actually see for yourself the happy faces of these children compared with the faces of those begging on the roadside, emotions are touched.

Some have horrific backgrounds ... death or illness of parents, desperate poverty leading to alcoholism and suicide. A boy saw his father step out in front of a train,  another spent his first years tied to a table then was given away in exchange for a cooking pot. More recently, a boy raised in squalor with an idle drunken father saw his mother die in agony after being beaten and poisoned by the father. While the man is in prison the boy is now safe in one of the homes.

Children may be from unknown origins, could be Christian, Hindu, Moslem or Buddhist. All join in daily prayers to Jesus to give thanks for their blessings, for Chiks and for supporters in the UK. All the Homes are sustained by an abundance of love, faith and prayer. Need I say that more support is always needed.
India has great wealth but, thus far, no welfare system. It could be decades before cultural traditions, the caste system and dowries (both of which are technically illegal) and responsibility for the destitute change.
Meanwhile, children do not deserve to suffer, and Chiks is doing all it can to ensure that some don’t.
The work goes on. Robin’s regular ‘Letter from India’ is always cheerful and optimistic, but so often frustratingly disappointing that more cannot be achieved as fast as his aspirations would wish!

Sue Cole

November - Langley House Trust

As a Christian Charity, our mission is to work with those who are at risk of offending, or have offended, establishing positive foundations so that they can lead crime-free lives and become contributors to society. At Langley House Trust we believe all people are:

 made in God’s image
 loved by Him regardless
 called into community
 offered redemption by His grace
 promised His glory

Our Vision - The Trust will work towards the fulfillment of its vision of a crime-free society where no-one is unfairly disadvantaged or excluded because of their past.

The Knole in Cheltenham is a Registered Care Home, providing accommodation for fourteen men aged 30 years and over. Our aims are to enable and equip former offenders to address their physical, emotional, mental and spiritual needs within a caring Christian environment; and to assist each person to progress towards more personal independence, learning life and social skills in order to live a fulfilling and crime-free life. We also offer a floating support service which is able to support residents in their own accommodation after their stay at the project. The Knole is committed to achieving equal opportunities for all. Religion, race, nationality, disability, age and sexual orientation will not be part of the selection criteria. We will challenge any discriminatory attitude within the house. The Staff provide each resident with a confidentiality policy, through which they seek to safeguard and keep secure all confidential information received regarding an individual.  With your support we can continue our work to help overcome the challenges faced by our residents such as gaining meaningful employment and/or voluntary work, furthering education, enhancing social skills in order for them to rebuild their lives and become part of the wider community.

If you wish to find out more about our valuable work please visit our website www.langleyhousetrust.org www.langleyhousetrust.org or contact The Knole on 01242 526978