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Hearts
Issue 9, January-April 2015
Children’s Heart Surgery Fund
Hello Katie
Katie Bear has had a
makeover – see her
fab new look. Pg 2...
Meet Skye
Read the incredible
story of heart hero
Skye. Pg 8-9...
Thank you!
How your donations
help our young
patients. Pg 6-7...
Welcome
Sharon Coyle
Chief Executive
After years of campaigning
against the flawed Safe and
Sustainable review into CHD
services, we’re pleased that
the new national review is
more open and transparent.
CHSF has played a full part in the review – attending patient and
public group meetings; debating key issues with the NHS England
team running the review; and holding a series of public meetings
to help people take part in the recent public consultation.
That public consultation on the new standards suggested by the
review team for CHD services up and down the country has now
ended. We are expecting a decision on the proposals in the next
few months, and we’ll be continuing to campaign to make sure
any changes are in the best interests of patients and their families
not only in this region, but across the country.
We were pleased to see the standards proposed by the new
review included many of the things we have been in favour of for
many years. For example, a much greater emphasis has been
placed on co-location of services (having other services needed
by heart patients on the same hospital site) – and we strongly
support that proposed new standard. Likewise, there are many
other proposed changes and targets that we fully support.
However, we still have concerns about patient choice and access
to services. We believe it is crucial that doctors and facilities
should go where the patients are – doctors, facilities and funding
should follow the patients, not the other way round.
Patients should have to travel as short a distance as possible. As
well as shorter travel distances helping to save lives, we know it’s
a great benefit for families to be close together at such a difficult
time. Access to units should be a key part of any new standards.
Those standards will be costly to implement, so the financial
support we offer the Leeds Congenital Hearts service will be even
more in demand – making our fundraising more important than ever.
So, there are still some big issues for the new review to decide on,
but we’re happy with the more consultative approach being taken.
And we’re delighted that all the efforts of our Save Our Surgery
campaign have meant we are finally having a sensible debate
about the future of CHD services across the country. Keep an eye
on our website (www.chsf.org.uk), Facebook pages and Twitter
account (@CHSurgeryFund), where we’ll be updating supporters
as the review progresses.
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Let’s make 2015 great
What a year we had in 2014! We completed a major project
decorating the new ward at the LGI; continued working to make
sure the new national review of heart services delivers benefits
for our patients; hired new staff and trustees and moved to a
new office; and kept funding vital equipment and helping families
across the region.
Your support means so much to us, and the patients and families
we help. We are entirely self-funded, so we rely on donations to
continue our work. We’ve got events running throughout 2015,
and we can even help you fundraise for a particular project that
means a lot to you. Our back page shows you just some of the
events you can get involved with this year – there’s something for
everyone, so here’s to 2015 being our best fundraising year ever!
Wear Red Day is back
Scarborough
Richmondshire
Hambleton
Ryedale
Craven
Harrogate
York
East Riding of Yorkshire
Bradford
Leeds
Selby
Hull
Calderdale
You can get your support for CHSF in 2015 off to a flying start when
Wear Red Day returns on Friday February 6th. Once again, we’ll
be turning the region red - so please ask your school, nursery or
workplace to register (just visit www.chsf.org.uk and click on events
to register). Let’s make this year redder than ever - thanks!
Kirklees
Wakefield
Barnsley
Sheffield
North Lincolnshire
Doncaster
NE
Lincs
Rotherham
You can start supporting Wear Red Day now!
Text WRED15 £3 to 70070 to donate.
What’s inside...
4-5.
6-7.
8-9.
10-11.
12.
2
Check out the fab fundraising
done for CHSF by our
inspirational supporters
Find out how we spend the
money you raise – including
on vital new equipment
Read the story of Skye
Shepherd and mum Hollie –
both heart patients
Cardiologist Jamie Bentham
on life on the unit and his year
placement in the United States
Wear Red Day is back! Find out
how to register, and check out
other upcoming CHSF events
Katie Bear has had a makeover - we hope you
like her new look! Our lovely mascot is looking
forward to meeting even more of our fantastic
fundraisers out and about at events across
the region in 2015. Here are seven members of
Katie’s Club – heart
heroes who have
had surgery –
including brothers
Harrison and
Jackson who had
their operations
in 2009 and 2011
respectively.
er op
d after h
y picture 12wks
le
n
o
C
r
Ambe
aged
ay 2012
back in M
Adam Worker, who had truncus arteriosus
and a large VSD repair at 20 days old
Cover star
Our cover star this issue is seven-month-old Jack Hartley, from
Knaresborough. Jack had a large malaligned VSD and had surgery
in July for closure of the VSD and PDA ligation.
Jessica Foulkes, 9mths, three weeks after
her tetralogy of fallot repair in May
t a week
ward jus
e
th
n
o
,
5mths
yne
Jack Pa art surgery, aged
e
h
is
after h
Harrison and Ja
ckson Aris, who
both
had surgery in th
eir early months
tetralogy
ho had a
w
r,
e
e
im
Mort
rning on
Lilly Belle air a week after tu
p
of fallot re
3
A BIG thank you to all!
£14,
000
The team collected a cheque for £14,000
at the Give A Gift Ladies’ Glitz & Glamour
Dinner. Give A Gift has run a series of
events and we thank them for the support
The second annual CHSF fire walk saw dozens
of fundraisers prove their feet could handle
the heat as they braved the burning coals.
Ella Ballard raised
£413 by doing a
2.6 mile sponsored
walk in Norfolk,
from Downham
Market to Wimbotsham and back
£413
25 supporters took part in the event at Stockeld Park, raising an
estimated £5,500. CHSF’s Debbie Field said: “Money is still coming
in from this year’s fire walk, and we’re really grateful to all our brave
fundraisers who really stepped up to the challenge – thanks everyone.”
£45
6
an e
stim
ate
d
£5,
500
A group of supporters in Chesterfield also took on a fire walk, with an
event organised by Sandra Vaughan seeing 33 walkers raise £4,152.
Ella and Scarlett Qarikau, aged 9yrs
and 9mths respectively, raised £350
when their family asked for donations
to CHSF at their recent Christening
All our fire walkers really stepped up
to the challenge – thanks everyone!
£54
5
Scott Riley took part in the Leeds Abbey Dash 10k
race dressed as a shark for his son Cooper who was
being treated on the unit at the time. Scott raised £456
£4,1
52
Stockeld
Park event
Chesterfield
Brave Jacqui Burnell jumped out of a plane to
show her support... and raised a fantastic £405
Rhiannon Moss and friends raised more than
£1,800 by completing the Valencia Marathon
£40
5
£51
part in an event for
If you’d like to take
12 for details, or...
CHSF, turn to page
£1,8
00
Toby Strangeway, Jenny Aldrich and Toby’s mum
Lynne organised a cricket match which raised
£2,379 in memory of Toby and Jenny’s son Jack
Heart mum Sally Boocock
receives a cheque for £2,218 from
Roy Harrison, who holds an annual
dinner at the Fountain Inn, Lynton,
and calendar girl Tricia Stewart
Here’s Alison Ritchie (left) from TD Direct Investing handing over a cheque for a
massive £16,651 to heart patient Liam Hanley, CHSF’s Sharon Coyle, and Leeds
Congenital Hearts matron Heather Wardle.
£1,13
5
Danielle Roberts and her mum
Susan Watson held a family fun
day in memory of Maisie Anne
Simpson, raising £1,135
£110
£1,0
00
£2,
379
£2,
218
Clare and Tony
Newman ran the
Berlin Marathon,
raising £1,000
We are very grateful for all donations no matter how small. Thank you!
4
£35
0
Heart patient Amy Cohen ran a
1.5k fun run in just nine minutes,
and raised a brilliant £323.50
£32
4
Aimee Worker
and friend
Evan hand
over £51.10
they raised
at St Mary’s
Catholic Primary School
in Selby by
organising
table-top
games at 10p
a go. Aimee’s
baby brother
Adam is a
heart patient
Laura Parker and son Mason
raised £545 with a fun day at
FCCC Lorraines Nursery in Halifax
Katie Bear went to meet Father
Christmas at Langlands Garden
Centre in Shiptonthorpe. Thanks
you to the staff and Tracy Stowe,
who raised £109.71.
£16
,651
The firm has raised almost £100,000 over the last seven years, and Sharon says:
“The impact that Alison and colleagues have made is phenomenal. They’ve
funded a large number of projects – equipment for the wards, INR testing
machines, decorating the wards, travel expenses and much more. Last year
TD Direct Investing put nearly £10,000 towards an ultrasound scanner for the
intensive care ward. We can’t thank them enough for all their support.”
A huge thank you to TD Direct Investments for raising
a massive £99,510 for CHSF over the last seven years!
5
Festive fun and
games at our
children’s party
Miles
The Chuckle
Brothers!
Heart heroes
scoop awards
A huge thank you to everyone who came to
our children’s Christmas party, and to all those
who helped make it such an enjoyable event!
Two young heart heroes have won
prestigious Yorkshire Children of Courage
awards. Ebony Fisher, aged 13, and Miles Gilbert, 10,
collected their awards at a star-studded ceremony in Leeds.
Ebony, pictured being interviewed by host and BBC Breakfast
presenter Steph McGovern, won a Special Recognition
award. Ebony has battled CHD and severe scoliosis, and
spoke in front of hundreds of people at the CHSF carol
service in 2013. Football-mad Miles has overcome complete
heart block and uses a PaceGuard device to protect his
pacemaker while playing for Killinghall Nomads. He won the
Sporting Achievement award. Congratulations to both!
The brilliant news is that – as well as giving the children the
chance to meet other patients, Katie Bear and our star guest
Santa – the party raised a fantastic £4,000! So a big thank you to
the Royal Armouries, ATM Events, Playtime Children’s Mascots,
Huckleberries, Changing Faces, Charlotte Foster Photography and
everyone who volunteered.
• Bedside cabinets and tables, a notes
trolley, and a mobile light for HDU on
Ward L51- £1,985
Here are some of the grants
we’ve approved recently:
• Five portable DVD
players to be used on Ward
L51 and in HDU - £400
• Two unit staff to attend
the annual British Congenital
Cardiology Association
conference - £215
• Nursing folders for confidential
patient information for Ward L51 - £143
• Help towards the administration of a
survey about a joint ACHD and pulmonary
hypertension clinic - £21
• Conversion of a room into an office for
the nurse specialists, psychologists and
junior doctors - £4,363
6
• Contribution towards hosting a young
person’s youth forum organised by Leeds
Teaching Hospitals Trust £246
• A cabinet (pictured)
to hold the Killingbeck
Memorial Book now
housed in St Luke’s Chapel
at the LGI - £835
• Christmas crafts for
patients on Ward L51 - £127
• Books to help the unit’s
play specialist and psychology team
with their therapeutic play sessions for
patients - £170
• Refurbishment of the outpatients’
playroom and waiting room - £10,776
• Unit for portable DVD players and
games consoles on Ward L51 - £109
Ebony
Incentive spirometers
Here’s heart patient Hollie Beverley using a
new incentive spirometer on Ward L51. The
machines are used by the physiotherapy
team to work with patients following their
heart surgery.
We’ve funded 24 of these machines, together
with bubbles, whistle flutes, a football game,
fabric petals, feathers and step stools for the
physio team, costing £171.
Eckersley House
family rooms
We’ve continued our
support for Eckersley
House, awarding a new
grant of £25,000.
Every year, Eckersley
House, run by The Sick
Children’s Trust, provides
free accommodation to
hundreds of families with a
child in the Leeds General Infirmary, including many on the
heart wards. Since 2010, we’ve awarded £360,000 to help
run the house.
Jane McHale, the house manager, said: “Every day we
meet families of children undergoing heart surgery who are
desperate to be close to their child’s side during their time
in hospital. This grant from CHSF will play a major role in
making this possible, keeping families together at a time of
great distress, and enabling them to be here to care for and
support their child. Thank you.”
‘Skye’s diagnosis broke our
hearts, and now we realise just
how lucky we are to have him’
We owe everything to the
fantastic team in Leeds.
Everybody at the LGI has
done everything they can to
help a hard situation be as
manageable as it can be.
Little Skye Shepherd was born with an ASD
and pulmonary hypertension. When his heart
condition was detected at nine months old it
was a terrible shock to mum Hollie and dad
Kris – especially as Hollie also had surgery to
repair an ASD when she was a child. Hollie
and Kris tell us about their experience...
Tell us about Skye’s heart condition
Kris: Skye’s heart condition was first spotted when we went to a
scheduled check-up at the heart clinic at Barnsley hospital when
he was nine months old.
Skye had open
he
old – very soon art surgery when he was ni
ne months
after his cond
ition was first
diagnosed
Knowing what Hollie had been through, when we got the diagnosis
we were just in shock. We had noticed that he had become
unwell — he was getting really tired, sweaty and hadn’t gained any
weight, but we didn’t know exactly what was wrong.
Hollie: It was all very manic because we were told to go straight
from Barnsley to the LGI to be assessed. He had an ECG and then
was diagnosed with an ASD and pulmonary hypertension.
We were told that he would have to undergo the operation to close
his heart that same month. It was very terrifying to see our baby
boy going through so much so young.
8
How is Skye doing now?
Kris and Hollie
completed the
Yorkshire
more than
3 Peaks, raising
£4,000
What is an ASD?
Kris: Skye is a bright, confident happy little chappy and is nearly 18 months
old now. He loves playing with his friends at nursery and enjoys baking with his
mummy.
Skye has coped tremendously well since his operation and continues to amaze
his doctors with his improvements. We were lucky enough to have Dr Hares
say we could take Skye on holiday to Turkey – he absolutely loved it and
played all day in the pool.
So one of Skye’s heart defects is the same as yours?
ASD stands for atrial septal defect. The atrial septum
is the wall of tissue and muscle between the upper two
chambers of the heart – and an ASD is a hole in this wall.
Hollie: Yes, I had an ASD that was diagnosed when I was five
years old and I had an operation to close it when I was six. I’ve
not needed any treatment since, and haven’t been affected by it
at all. I can remember some bits about being in hospital, but not
very much. Skye was also diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension,
which I didn’t have.
This hole means blood flows abnormally from one
chamber to the other – instead of oxygen-rich and
oxygen-poor blood being kept separate, they mix and
flow from the heart to the body and lungs.
Hollie: It has been very hard. The initial diagnosis broke our hearts. However;
our family, friends and the team at Leeds have been there from day one to help
in whatever way they could to keep us positive. Since Skye’s operation we have
put everything into perspective and realise just how lucky we are to have him.
So Skye had open heart surgery when he was nine months
old? How did that go?
but if they’re higher than they should be then a plan will be put in
place to deal with it.
Kris: Dr Hares and the team at Leeds decided to close the hole in
Skye’s heart, leaving a small hole to work as a blow off valve and
possibly help with his pressures. Since his operation the pressures
have dropped significantly and Dr Hares is very happy with Skye’s
progression.
Hollie: We owe everything to Dr Hares and the fantastic team
around him in Leeds. Everybody at the LGI has done everything
they can to help a hard situation be as manageable as it can be.
Kris: The whole experience was very tough, but we couldn’t have been looked
after better by staff in the hospital — they were unbelievable. They understood
what we were going through and the surgeons explained everything to us really
clearly – and being with other families in the same position was really helpful too.
Skye will be having a catheter roughly a year after his operation to
measure the pressures in his heart and lungs at the source. If the
pressures are at a normal level then no treatment will be needed
Kris: We’re not sure – he might possibly need keyhole surgery to
close a small hole that’s been left to help with the pressures. If the
pressures don’t come down then treatment for that will be needed.
Is Skye likely to need more surgery in the future?
As parents, how have you found coping with his condition?
Tell us how your experiences inspired you to raise money for CHSF?
Kris: Everyone who helped us at the LGI was fantastic and without it we would
have had an even more challenging time. Now that the unit has helped both
Hollie and Skye, we wanted to give something back to them to say thanks. We
wanted to do our bit to help the unit offer the same service to others as it did
to us and raise awareness of the good work that’s done there every day. So
we entered the CHSF’s Yorkshire 3 Peaks challenge – it was one of the hardest
d back
Skye bounce
from surgery
and enjoyed
a holiday
What is pulmonary
hypertension?
Pulmonary hypertension is raised blood
pressure within the pulmonary arteries, which
are the blood vessels that supply the lungs.
It can cause damage to the right side of the
heart, making it less efficient at pumping
blood around the body and getting oxygen to
the muscles.
It occurs when the small arteries in the lungs
become narrow or blocked – making the
heart work harder to push blood through the
narrower passageways in the lungs, which
cause higher pressure in the pulmonary artery.
challenges we have both taken part in, but we managed
to complete it in nine hours and 48 minutes. And we
managed to raise £4,285 for CHSF.
What would you say to other parents who have a
diagnosis that their baby has a heart defect?
Kris: Everybody deals with hard situations
differently. Stay as positive as you can
for your child and have confidence in the
people who are trying to help you.
Hollie: You’ll have the best people doing
all they can to help.
n
9
‘It’s a privilege when parents hand
over a child so you can try to help’
Globe-trotting Dr Jamie Bentham has
honed his skills in hospitals from New
Zealand to the US via the jungles of
Papua New Guinea. Now back in Leeds
after a CHSF-funded fellowship at
Boston Children’s Hospital, he took time
out to tell us about how his experiences
are benefiting Leeds’ patients...
paediatric medicine at Starship Children’s
Hospital in Auckland, and then did some
jungle medicine in Papua New Guinea
for six months, which was an amazing
experience. It was a way of learning to
become very independent – managing a
rural hospital often on my own, so it was
hard work – a lot of on-call; a lot of hours.
When I came back to the UK I did six
years of paediatrics – three in Oxford
and three years in Liverpool – my first
paediatric cardiology job was as a registrar
at Alder Hey, which was a great unit and
a lot of fun. I moved back to Oxford to
do a PHD in congenital heart disease –
looking at the effect of what we eat on
heart development. I stayed in Oxford and
worked at the unit there, and that was
the inspiration for doing interventional
cardiology because I had the opportunity
to work with one of the country’s leading
interventionalists at the time, Neil Wilson.
As a consultant cardiologist specialising
in interventional work, what does your
role involve?
My usual week includes three days in the
cath lab, and one day in the outpatients’
clinic. And one week in every seven I’m
responsible for running the paediatric
service and assisting the surgeons in
theatre. I absolutely love being in the lab – I
love catheterising with a passion. I think
that it’s a great privilege that parents have
given you their child to try to help. To have
the chance to understand that child’s
circulation and then to try to think of a
solution – and to do it with utmost care – is
an incredible opportunity and it’s definitely
what I enjoy the most and really thrive on.
Clinic brings its own challenges and is an
awful lot of fun as well. It’s an incredible job
and I love it and wouldn’t be doing anything
else. Even if I didn’t get paid I’d love doing it!
How did you work up to your current job?
I started training in medicine in Oxford in
1993, and first worked between Oxford and
Gloucester – my Oxford job was in adult
cardiology. I went to New Zealand and did
10
I went to Great Ormond Street for a year,
which is a busy unit and taught me a
lot about transplants, ECMO, and their
hypoplastic left heart programme. It
was clear then that the speciality within
paediatric cardiology that I wanted to
focus on was interventionist cardiology,
so I moved up to Leeds to work with John
Gibbs [now retired] and John Thompson.
I’ve really benefited from moving around
and the opportunity to work with multiple
operators is really key to training. If you
work at multiple units you get a broader
view of the kinds of problems we face in
what is an immensely difficult speciality.
CHSF funded your fellowship to Boston.
What were the benefits of that year?
I’m immensely grateful for the generosity
of everyone involved with CHSF. What the
charity did by allowing me to go to Boston
for a year was invaluable. To access the
leaders in the field; see them working;
work with them; and get trained by them –
there’s no other way of really excelling and
the charity made that happen.
The NHS offers an amazing service for
everybody and is quite incredible. But
in the US there’s no frontier that they’re
Final report backs unit
not willing to touch – they’ll push beyond
sometimes what we would regard in Europe
and the UK as acceptable. That means
they’re able to evaluate new therapies and
ideas much more readily than we are able
to in the NHS.
Boston Children’s Hospital is the best
centre in the US, so it was the place to go.
They only have one senior interventionist
fellow per year, so it’s a difficult job to get.
I have three children – now 11, eight and
nearly four years old – so moving the whole
family was a really big deal and very tough.
We found a lovely neighbourhood about
eight miles away from Boston Children’s,
so I still got to enjoy cycling to work, which
was my only bit of sanity for the year.
The job was incredible tough – Americans
work unbelievably hard. There’s no real
concept of a contract – they don’t have any
work-life balance, they just work. They don’t
have any concept of vacation or weekends
or evenings – you’re on-call all year. You do
about two or three years’ worth of work in
the year. And that’s the attraction – that’s
why you go – but physically it was pretty
much the limit. I’m used to working hard but
working that hard was something else.
Has your work in Leeds changed as a
result of the year in the US?
I think the service here in Leeds will benefit
from it. Jim Lock, who’s head of the service
in Boston, is probably the world’s leading
interventionalist and the opportunity to
work with him was just amazing in terms
of the skills you acquire. I was exposed to
the single ventricle programme which is the
most complex form of surgeries and caths,
and introducing that here in Leeds is going
to be a big thing for us. Seeing that go
forward from strength to strength and seeing
the single ventricle programme build in
terms of its volume in both surgery and cath
will be very exciting. As a result, the unit in
Leeds will offer everything up to transplant.
So, after difficult times recently the
future’s bright for Leeds?
The great thing in Leeds is that we now
have such strength and depth to all
aspects of the service – it’s quite amazing
What is interventional cardiology?
Dr Bentham is a consultant cardiologist specialising in
interventional cardiology. This is the name given to treating
heart disease without using open surgery. He spends three
days a week working in the catheterisation laboratory (or
cath labs for short). Here, the cardiologists gather evidence
to diagnose heart disease and carry out interventional
procedures to treat defects that don’t need open heart
surgery. This often involves small cuts to gain access to
the inside of the body and the use of thin, flexible tubes
called catheters. The other part of the interventional service
is electrophysiology (EP), which diagnoses and treats
problems with the heart’s rhythms.
what’s been achieved. Leeds is developing a service that’s going to
be second-to-none and that’s what we want from the intervention
service – our aim is to be the best in the country, that’s what we’re
going for.
It’s entirely clear that the two things that saved this unit are the charity
and the politicians. It got to the point where it was out of the hands of
the clinicians. One of the strengths of the unit is that nobody gave up.
In other units people were starting to move overseas or switch units,
but there are some very gifted cardiologists here and they didn’t go
anywhere. It’s the same reason why I’m here – we saw the potential.
In Leeds the population is massive, the staff are friendly and it’s a
good team environment. John Thompson, the senior interventionalist
here, is a lovely guy to work for and, if you are beginning, you
want to work with somebody you respect. He’s probably already
the country’s lead in terms of what he does – he’s the future of
interventional cardiology. To now have three surgeons that are
incredibly gifted is just unbelievable, and the nursing staff here are
second-to-none because they are just so experienced.
It’s such an incredible combination – a unit that is dynamic, modern
and young, and that has an incredible future.
n
What the charity did by funding me to
go to Boston Childrens’ for a year is
invaluable and I’m very, very grateful.
The final report from the investigation into why surgery
at the children’s heart unit in Leeds was temporarily
suspended in 2013 has been released – and confirms
the unit’s safety as well as criticising clinicians in
the Newcastle centre who passed on “unchecked
allegations” about the unit at a time when one or the
other service was likely to face closure under the nowdiscredited Safe & Sustainable review.
Independent agency Verita carried out the review of the
Leeds service and CHSF CEO Sharon Coyle (pictured)
said: “The report finally provides
the balanced investigation and
viewpoint that clinicians and
families have been waiting for. The
report’s findings confirm that the
Leeds unit is safe and provides
excellent standards of clinical care,
treatment and outcomes for the
children under its care. The report’s
analysis makes clear that many of
the claims and accusations that led to the suspension of
surgery... were unfounded or incorrect.”
The report criticised Newcastle, saying: “Reporting the
unchecked allegations of others is not whistleblowing.”
NHS England’s Dr Mike Bewick, said: “Patients and the
public can have confidence that this is a well-run unit
that is now in a position to go from strength to strength.”
Do #SomethingBrilliant
We’re supporting Media Trust’s Do #SomethingBrilliant
campaign – Adam Perry tells us all about it...
“Would you like to Do #SomethingBrilliant? Well
you already are by supporting the Children’s Heart
Surgery Fund. But there are even more simple,
little brilliant things you could be doing with the Do
#SomethingBrilliant campaign that’s running
across the whole of the UK. Whether it’s doing something
active or creative, doing something together or helping
the environment, there are loads of ways you can
get involved in the campaign. And if you are doing
#somethingbrilliant tell us about it so we can
inspire others to join you.
“Visit dosomethingbrilliant.co.uk to find out all about the
campaign, the organisations we’re supporting (CHSF
is one of them), and follow us as we celebrate the
people that make life a little better for us all. Find us on
facebook.com/dsbrilliant or Twitter @dsbrilliant.”
11
CHSF 2015 Events Calendar
January
May
August
Take part in January’s
dryathon to become a
CHSF dryathlete!
10th -Leeds ½ Marathon
1st & 2nd - Tough Mudder Yorkshire
10th -Leeds Junior &
Mini Run
2nd - York 10K plus York Junior & Mini Run
16th -Color Me Rad
5K Leeds
8th - Wiggle Yorkshire Tour (CHSF Sponsored Cycle)
February
6th - Wear Red Day
Can your school or work take part
in our annual event and help raise
awareness of Congenital Heart
Disease. Sign up today and help
us turn Yorkshire and beyond Red!
17th - CHSF Coffee
Morning
10am – 12 noon
Mega Play, Garforth, Leeds. Adult £3,
Children £2. Ticketed event **Limited
Availability**
1st - 7th Volunteers Week
…the perfect time to sign up and
become a CHSF Volunteer!
14th - CHSF’s
Sponsored Superhero Walk
11:30am – 3pm
Roundhay Park, Leeds. Reg fee £10,
min sponsorship £50
14th - Hull 10K
March
Spring cleaning?
Don’t forget to bag up your old clothes
& send them to Clothes for Charity…
they donate money to CHSF when
you do, they even come and collect
them from your house! Check out our
website for more details.
22nd - Lincoln 10K
July
Going on holiday?
Don’t forget to send in your left over
foreign currency after your holiday this
summer! A fantastic and easy way to
support CHSF!
12th -Leeds 10K
17th -CHSF’s Yorkshire
3 Peak Challenge
April
£25 reg fee, £150 min sponsorship
12th - Yorkshire Half
Marathon (Sheffield)
Reg fee £25, £150 min sponsorship
23rd -CHSF’s Curry
& Quiz Night
7pm – 11pm
June
Irish Centre, Leeds. £10 per person
(Over 14 years only)
For more info or
to book onto any
of our events, call
Debbie Field on
0113 392 3987
. c h s f. o r g.
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Get sponsored to give up alcohol for
the month… raise money for CHSF and
keep healthy at the same time!
Reg fee £25, £150 min sponsorship
ww
Thirsk, North Yorkshire.
Reg fee £23 (37 mile route),
£33 (79 mile or 101 mile routes)
Min sponsorship £150
September
13th -CHSF
Skydive
Hibaldstow, North Lincolnshire.
Deposit £50, raise over £395 &
your jump is free! (Deadline for
guaranteed entry is 13th July)
October
Take part in Sober
October or Stoptober
to raise money for CHSF!
11th -Yorkshire Marathon
Reg fee £40, £200 min sponsorship
November
Our Christmas e-card & a
range of paper Christmas
Cards are now in stock!!
December
4th - Christmas Bucket Collection 9am – 5pm
Leeds train station – volunteers needed
6th - Christmas Party (Venue TBA)
Children’s Heart Surgery Fund
Registered charity 1148359