Well, another year has nearly gone and your chairman is fast approaching the time when he will actually get back some of the money that regularly pays to Gordon Brown, in the guise of tax. Despite your committee's feelings that 2006 would not be a good year for income, due to our involvement with the Mayors Charities, we have again topped £7,000. Not only have we topped £7,000 but, thanks to a generous bequest from Rene Baker, we have actually topped £17,000 so far. Rene Baker left us £10,000 in her Will and, whilst we are delighted to receive this money, we are sad that Rene is no longer with us. She has been a great supporter of Muscular Dystrophy over the years. Thank you, Rene, for all your support and hard work over the years, we are already missing you; Chris, her son, wishes to keep an involvement with MD, although he works in London and I am very happy that we still have that family involvement. I also have to announce the sudden and sad death of Peter Loxley. Peter had only been on our books for a few months and his death was totally unexpected. Our condolences go to his widow, Anne, and their family.
Recent developments, especially regarding Duchenne, are very encouraging for the future and hope springs eternal that treatments for at least some forms of MD will be available, possibly as soon as 2 years hence. Let us hope so and we will continue to try and raise funds to help MD sufferers.
The Film Maker Club and the Race Night both took place in October and were successful but the most successful event so far in respect of funds raised was the Run4Fun in September. Nearly £8,000 has been raised from this and your Chairman took part and then found out that he was one of the oldest runners taking part. I am delighted to tell you that I raised £441.02 and had the shock of my life when I was presented with a plaque for the highest amount raised by an individual for the event at the next successful event, the Mayor's Quiz where we had a team taking part.
Forthcoming events - Mayors Charities.
Please consider attending some of these events, I can arrange for tickets if you contact me. If any of you have any good ideas for any further functions please let me know. If any idea is accepted we are guaranteed the help of the other charities involved, although it is getting a little late for arranging anything so - let me know as soon as possible.
Funds raised on behalf of the Mayor's Charities are around £10,000 so we are looking at £2,000 as our share of the proceeds and there are still around 6 months to go.
Since the last newsletter we have at very short notice collected in Culver Square (Prudential have MD as their charity of the year this year and we had late notification that they wanted us to have a team collecting and also arrange for a band to play in the Culver Centre). We were very grateful to the Sweeting Swing Band who not only agreed to play for us free of charge but they also played brilliantly and helped us to raise £300.72. We were also grateful to Mayor and Mayoress Richard & Jackie Gower who not only turned up to support us but also presented a cheque from Colchester Round Table to us and took collecting bins round as well. Colchester Round Table gave us a cheque for £750.00 following a talk that your Chairman gave to them about Muscular Dystrophy, earlier in the year.
Most of you will know that 80% of the funds we raise are sent to Head Office but we can spend the remaining 20% on welfare for those suffering from MD. If you wish us to consider helping you with a particular project please let any committee member (especially Janet Saunders) know. We are limited in our rules to a maximum of £250 for each project. The funds that we send to Head Office are returned in many ways be it grants for equipment, treatment or consultations at one of the specialist hospitals or in research into finding a treatment or cure for all forms of MD. Although we are limited in the amounts that we can give to our sufferers we are also aware of other organisations that we can tap into to provide necessary funds for equipment etc.
The Falls Prevention Service offers a handyman service and if anyone is interested please speak to Janet Saunders; you would need to be over 65 and had a fall or a slip in the last 12 months.
May I wish you and all your loved ones a very happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year.
Chris Jenkinson
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19.8.08