Charity Afternoon Tea at Del Toro, Lisburn in Aid of Meningitis Now

On Wednesday, I attended my first ever afternoon tea (I know, I must be living under a rock!) at Del Toro in Lisburn in aid of Meningitits Now. 

Meningitis Now is the new name for Meningitis UK and Meningitis Trust. They've merged together to become a more powerful force in the fight against meningitis and septicaemia. They are determined that in the future, no one in the UK will lose their life to meningitis and that everyone affected will get the support that they need. 

Meningitis Now's goals are: 

To provide a powerful, united voice for people fighting meningitis. 

To fund research into vaccines and prevention. 

To raise awareness and empower the public and professionals to spot meningitis early. 

To rebuild futures with dedicated support for those affected. 

To listen and respond to the needs of everyone affected by meningitis and raise funds to deliver their plans. 

Meningitis and Septicaemia often happen together. We need to be aware of all of the symptoms. They don't appear in any specific order and some may not appear at all. The symptoms can be different for babies/toddlers and children/adults. 

Symptoms for Babies & Adults include:

• Fever, cold hands & feet
• Refusing food & vomiting
• Fretful, disliking being handled
• Drowsy, floppy or unresponsive
• Rapid breathing or grunting
• Pale, blotchy skin, spots/rash
• Unusual cry, moaning
• Tense, bulging fontanelle (soft spot)
• Stiff neck, disliking bright lights 
• Convulsions/seizures

Symptoms for Children & Adults include:

• Fever, cold hands & feet
• Vomiting
• Drowsy, difficult to wake
• Confusion and irritability
• Severe muscle pain
• Pale, blotchy skin, spots/rash
• Severe headache
• Stiff neck
• Disliking bright lights 
• Convulsions/seizures

Someone with meningitis or septicaemia can get a lot worse very quickly. Trust your instincts and get medical help immediately. 

You can find out more at Meningitis Now and maybe even give a little donation while you're there. 

The afternoon tea itself was absolutely beautiful and I would like to give a special mention to some of the companies who donated their time and products to the event: NDsigns, Ruby Jane's Vintage China Hire & Andrew Holden Cakes for all Occasions.

(Disclaimer: I did not receive any financial compensation for this post.)

Check Your Bauballs!

UK male cancer charity Orchid have launched a new campaign - Check Your Bauballs designed to raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of testicular cancer, whilst raising money for life-saving research.

If testicular cancer is spotted early, there is a 98% chance of a cure. Bauballs are for life, not just for Christmas so keep getting them out once and month and checking.

A huge host of celebrities including Dr Hilary Jones, Rizzle Kicks and the boys from TOWIE have all endorsed this campaign, posing with their bauballs.

Decorating your tree with bravado will help raise money and awareness of testicular cancer and you're sure to make people smile too! 

You can grab your own bauball at House of Fraser for £5.00 or online at: http://www.checkyourbauballs.com/

Come on everyone, check your bauballs!

(Disclaimer: I did not receive any financial compensation for writing this post. I am simply helping to raise awareness of a great cause.)

Twin Mum & Dad's Charity Raffle

In 2014 , Twin Mum and Dad from Our IVF Journey will be taking part in a number of events to raise money for Cancer Research UK and for Bliss.

Their first event will be a skydive! Neither of them have done anything like this before, so to say they are nervous is an understatement!

They are hoping to raise £2000 for each charity, but they need your help!

Their first fundraising event is their Fabulous Charity Raffle!

What You Can Win

• £50 Experience Gift Voucher to spend at Experience Days
• £25 voucher to spend at Bunnie Knitwear
• A personalised word art print of your choice from Baby Cakes Treasures

• 2 x Forest Jump vouchers at the Celtic Manor Resort (worth £18 each) courtesy of Giggle Giggle Activities
• A5 plain brown men's leather monsieur notebook courtesy of Ink Thistle worth £12.50

Miller heart pendant and Bubba Bangle from GumiGem worth £21.90 (colour depends on stock) 

• 5 gift vouchers (5 winners) to spend at Personal Planner
• Dancing Fairy Cushion from Little Ragamuffin LTD worth £13.95

• £50 voucher to spend at Teeny Beanies
• Prize (TBC) from The Early Years Boutique
• Make your own sock money kit from Presents for Men worth £6.99

• Bottle Starter Set from MAM worth £30.00
• £20 Voucher to spend at Little Gems Boutique
• Pourty Potty and Flexi Fit Trainer Seat from Pourty worth £24.90
• Pink Snoob Scarf from Snoob worth £25.00
• Resusable Nappy from Baba+Boo worth £9.25
• Mama Bear and Papa Bear Soft Toy from Little Bird Told Me worth £30.00

How do I enter?

Tickets cost £1 each

Important - Once you have donated either online or by text message YOU MUST email:twinmumanddad@virginmedia.com with your FULL NAME, TELEPHONE NUMBER and THE AMOUNT YOU HAVE DONATED. This is to allow them to confirm your donation and so that they can contact you if you win.

You can enter by any of the following methods

By Text Message

• (Cancer Research UK) Text TMAD47 to 70070 with the amount you would like to donate, e.g: if you would like to buy one ticket simply text TMAD47 £1 to 70070, if you would like to buy two tickets simply text TMAD47 £2 to 70070, if you would like to buy three tickets simply text TMAD47 £3 to 70070 and so on

• (Bliss) Text TMDB60 to 70070 with the amount you would like to donate, e.g: if you would like to buy one ticket simply text TMDB60 £1 to 70070, if you would like to buy two tickets simply text TMDB60 £2 to 70070, if you would like to buy three tickets simply text TMDB60 £3 to 70070 and so on

Online

• Click here to donate to their Just Giving Cancer Research UK page. If you would like to buy one ticket, simply donate £1, for two tickets donate £2, for three tickets donate £3 and so on.

• Click here to donate to their Just Giving Bliss page. If you would like to buy one ticket, simply donate £1, for two tickets donate £2, for three tickets donate £3 and so on.

REMEMBER - Once you have donated either online or by text message YOU MUST email:twinmumanddad@virginmedia.com with your FULL NAME, TELEPHONE NUMBER and THE AMOUNT YOU HAVE DONATED. This is to allow them to confirm your donation and so that they can contact you if you win.

Terms and Conditions

• This raffle is open to individuals resident in Great Britain aged 16 years or over. Any person found to be under 16 years of age automatically forfeits the right to any prize. Proof of identitiy may be requested
• Tickets cost £1 each
• Monies raised by the raffle will go to the work of CRUK which is a regisitered charity in England and Wales (1089464) and in Scotland (SCO41666) and also to the work of Bliss which is a registered charity in England and Wales (1002973) and in Scotland (SCO40878)
• Payment for participation in the Raffle can be made by debit card via our Just Giving pages or via text message
• We take no liability for entries from which the prize winner cannot be identified
• The closing date is 25th December 2013. Tickets after this date will not be entered into the draw and monies will be treated as a donation
• The Raffle draw will take place on 4th January 2014 at Twin Mummy and Daddys residence
• The winners will be the drawn at random from all entries received by the closing date and prizes will be awarded in order of selection
• The results of the raffle draw are final and communication about them will not be entered into
• Winners will be notified by email or telephone no later than 11th January 2014
• Prizes are shown above
• All prizes are also subject to the terms and conditions of the prize provider
• By entering the raffle, entrants agree to be bound by these terms and conditions (which may be amended at any time by Twin Mummy (aka Emily Higgins). Any entries not complying with these terms and conditions will not be valid
• If you have any queries or complaints please emailtwinmumanddad@virginmedia.com
• We reserve the right to award any prizes not claimed after three months to an alternative winner
• A list of the surnames of the winners will be available on this page by 31st January 2014
• We reserve the right to reject any entry (and award any prize to an alternative winner) if we have grounds to believe the entrant has breached any of these terms conditions, acted fraudulently or illegally or on other reasonable grounds

The Happy Badger has Paid me a Visit

A lovely little badger came to visit me this morning - The Appliances Online Happy Badger to be exact. He likes to go around and spread happiness to whoever deserves it by donating £50 to a charity of the bloggers choice.

The charity that I would love to help out is Tiny Life.

Tiny Life is the premature baby charity here in Northern Ireland. When C was in NICU/SCBU one of the nurses gave me a Tiny Life card and told me that we could give them a call if we needed help with a Moses basket or premature baby clothes or even if we just needed support as sometimes it can be hard to deal with the emotions and hurdles that you may need to get over with having a premature baby.

Tiny Life can also help out by loaning breast pumps to new mothers, offering home-based family support, running family support groups & baby massage classes and offering books and publications as obviously, you will want to know as much information as possible.

A regular donation to Tiny Life of £2 a week could:

• Provide breast pump kits to enable 5 mums to express breast milk for their sick babies.
• Fund a family activity session.
• Fund a piece of sensory equipment.
• Fund paediatric first aid training for a parent.
• Fund specialised resource books on premature births.

I was lucky enough to not need the services from Tiny Life after C's birth but it is great to know that they would be there if I needed them and that they are doing so much for other families. They are very deserving of this £50 donation so a huge thank you must go to the Happy Badger!

If you run a blog and would like a visit from the Happy Badger yourself, please visit the website to contact him.

www.donate-mobile.com

Today, I'm bringing you something that may seem a bit unusual for my blog. It isn't something that I'd normally write about but it's such a great cause that I feel like I have to share.

Source

Recently, the website Donate Mobile has been brought to my attention. Everyone has a mobile phone. And the way things are nowadays, we're never off them! Donate Mobile have come up with an absolutely fantastic concept. How about you switch from your current mobile provider to Donate Mobile (they will match the price, whether you're with o2, Orange etc) BUT 10% of your bill will be paid to a charity of your choice with no additional cost to you?! Oh, and you can keep your existing number too!

You can choose from a Pay As You Go contract (SIM only) or get a handset from Donate Mobile and use it with a Pay Monthly scheme. You will get everything that you get from your current provider, except you'll be helping your favourite charity at the same time! It can be a big charity or a local charity. As long as their registered, you can donate to them.

If you want to join but your current contract isn't up for quite a while, you can pre-register with them and they'll send you an email a month before your current contract is due to expire. 

Each month, you can check how much you have paid to your charity. All over my Facebook and Twitter feeds are people doing fundraising for various different charities. Donate Mobile make it so easy!

Check out the little video below for more information.

Change the world...with Donate Mobile from Donate Mobile on Vimeo.

This is a sponsored post.

Charity Walk for Coeliac UK

(This post is picture heavy).

My friend Jessica is coeliac so has to have a gluten-free diet. She decided to plan a charity walk for Coeliac UK to help with the development of more gluten-free products.

We walked along the coast from Cultra to Bangor (have a Google if you're not familiar with NI!) which is roughly eight miles. It was a beautiful day with only a five minute sun shower! I was pushing C in the pram (who isn't exactly light!) so it was like a double workout for me.

Along the way, we stopped and let C dip his feet in the water for the first time! I was expecting him to cry as it was cold but he just looked at it as if to say "what is this?" Haha!

C walking with Jessica:

At the end of the walk, Jessica had planned a little lunch for everyone. If you know Jessica, you'll know that she always goes all out with the planning. The kids got goodie bags with lucky bags, colouring books, stickers, masks etc and because C is only little, he got a book and rattle toy and a little bag of biscotti! We also got goodie bags filled with gluten-free products and a little gluten-free recipe book, a gluten-free cupcake and a thank-you gift (mine was a bookmark).

Jessica's table layout:

Beautiful handmade wine glass charm:

Gluten-free 'thank you' cupcake:

My thank you card and bookmark:

C's first time in a restaurant highchair!:

After the lunch, we had around an hour to spare before getting the train home. Bangor has a lovely park so we took the kids there.

Myself and C having fun at the park:

C and Jessica at the park:

Sleepy C on the train home:

All in all, it was a great day. I was exhausted after it but so glad I did it. Jessica counted up the sponsors totals and over £700 was raised!