Tim and I decided that for MOvember he would grow a 'Stash and it frustrated me that I was unable to join in, because we had decided that the charity, instead of being a male related charity, this year we would donate the money raised to Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSHCC) having spent most of the last six months in and out of hospital (Two heart attacks, one heart failure requiring CPR, three stokes, non-stop bleeding haematomas on my legs and arm, five days of coughing up blood and numerous other things including some rather painful tests!!) Tim has stood by me throughout all of this, and in fact saw each happen, his health has obviously suffered massively because of the trauma to the point where he has had to leave his job to look after me full-time and recuperate from his own PTSD brought on by watching some horrific emergency treatment being administered to me. He has slept in hospital chairs next to me, to comfort me and ensure I'm OK - he's my superhero and always will be. He does it with such grace, never grumbles and is always there to hold my hand. Despite all this, we decided that we wanted to help a family (and many families) struggling with the trauma of watching their children go through far worse than we had experienced, which is why we chose GOSH. Because of my health problems I am unable to give blood (although I've given enough!) and cannot currently go on the bone marrow list (if you can do either of this things, I urge you to think very carefully about what you are actually giving - you are saving someones life!) but I wanted to join in. The family we wanted to help the most is the Warren family. I went to school with Katherine and Caroline Warren, and although Caroline was a year or two younger, we spent time together when I went to their house (especially to watch the Eurovision Song contest - before it became political - nearly 20 years ago!) Me and Caroline got in touch with each other through the 'wonder' of Facebook and have kept in touch ever since. When we discovered 'Little Naomi' had ALL Leukaemia I was heart broken (and not ashamed to say I shed a few tears knowing the pain this would cause to a family that anyone would be lucky to know - and the pain Naomi would go through before she reached the age of three :( ) I spent a long time wondering what I could do that would show I really cared, and would make people put their hands in their pockets during a very difficult financial time. As a girl we always pride ourselves on our looks, even if it's to the smallest degree, so I decided that to get people's attention and hopefully coax a few pennies from them I would shave my head. To do this I want to set the bar high, and I thought £300 would be fairly unattainable in this time when people are struggling to find money for their own needs, let alone those of others. How wrong I could be! I then changed the target to £400 (although I am still shaving my head as the original target was met, and I never back out of a challenge!) I'm currently only £25 off that target, and the brilliant news is that Tim has well surpassed his initial target of £25 (we didn't think anyone would give him money for growing a moustache!!) then he surpassed his next target of £100 and is currently on £125 - I'm so proud of him!! If your reading this tonight (30/11/12), please thing about giving a couple of pounds to my head shave so we can reach the £400 (which will mean GOSH get over £500). Tim has decided to make it a proper challenge he will also be shaving his head, so it's two for the price of one - it's got to be worth a fiver (you can't even buy two pints of lager for that!) so if you would like to donate, you can do so at: https://www.justgiving.com//Naomi-Brunt-Shave-Head and you will help very sick children and families in the UK, not just over the Christmas period, but for the rest of their lives. £5 goes a long way, imagine it was your child. Thank you for reading. If you'd like to read this from a different perspective, please visit: http://www.ohmyhandmade.com/2012/what-we-know/handmade-hero-naomis-big-hearted-holiday-mission/comment-page-1/#comment-136547
You can expect more blogs about what Starfish Quay's Tim and Naomi get up to in 2013, as Tim will be sharing the work load and we're hoping you can share the journey as we build our business :)
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