SPARKS Headlines

I.With Christmas on the horizon, we’re delighted to offer you the chance to save time on finding the perfect present and help SPARKS at the same time.

Passport 2 Sport is the perfect place to find a Christmas gift for anyone who loves sport and their website www.passport2sport.co.uk has hundreds of ideas from a £10 gift voucher as a stocking filler, to a weekend in Madrid to watch Beckham and Owen in action and SPARKS will benefit from every purchase. So if their exciting range of options seems a more appropriate present than a new pair of pants or a tie, all you need do for SPARKS to benefit is quote our charity reference SPARKS03  when you buy your vouchers and SPARKS will receive a donation of 10% of the amount you spend. This could be a substantial additional income for SPARKS on an ongoing basis, please spread the word to family and friends.

About Passport 2 Sport – With a truly amazing range of redemption options, spanning over 40 sports, Passport 2 Sport offers the first universal sports gift voucher in the UK. It’s the perfect present for both participant and spectator alike. Passport 2 Sport vouchers can be used in full or part payment for goods and services. They can be used for a lesson, or for a one-off experience in a variety of sports, from driving a real formula one car to sailing on an Americas Cup yacht, an introductory golf lesson to a white water rafting experience and hundreds more.

Passport 2 Sport vouchers are also ideal for a well-deserved spot of après-sport relaxation and pampering. They can be used for subscriptions to your favourite sports magazine or you can buy signed prints and memorabilia. For the ultimate experience, Passport 2 Sport can provide premium tickets and hospitality at some of the world’s greatest sporting events.

Flexibility is one of the key elements of Passport 2 Sport. If whatever you choose costs more than the value of your voucher, you can pay the difference. If it costs less, the balance remains on your voucher to be used against something else and you can always top up your voucher at a later stage. To see the full range of what you can buy with Passport 2 Sport from £10 to £10,000, visit their website at www.passport2sport.co.uk and don’t forget to quote SPARKS03 if you buy anything.

SPARKS Rugby Dinner, 27th October, RAC Country Club, Surrey

SPARKS is delighted to be benefiting from a Rugby Dinner to be held at the RAC Country Club, Epsom, on Wednesday, 27^th October. Former England player Martin Bayfield will be the guest speaker. A number of other players and former players have also kindly accepted our invitation to attend, including the following regular SPARKS supporters: Zinzan Brooke, Damien Cronin, Alex King, Kenny Logan, Bev Risman, Chris Sheasby, Mick Skinner and John Taylor.

 She may be back home …..but the money’s still rolling in to Jane’s Appeal from the epic 2,500-mile ‘Rome to Home’ tandem marathon undertaken for charity by Jane Tomlinson and her brother Luke.

Members of the public inspired by terminally-ill cancer sufferer Jane’s toughest-ever challenge and the massive amount of media coverage it received have now helped take the amount of money raised by the ‘Rome to Home’ challenge beyond £320,000.

Meanwhile more money is starting to come in from a series of fundraising activities staged in Jane and Mark’s home city of Leeds as part of an ‘Action Week’ launched by the local council. Local authority workers and schools are among those who pledged to help Jane’s reach her ultimate target of taking her charity fundraising grand total to the magic £1million in 2004.

Some Leeds pupils, deeply moved by Jane’s achievements and the huge public salute she received when she ended her ‘Rome to Home’ effort, voted to plough profits from annual school fundraising efforts, including Sports Days, into Jane’s Appeal rather than into their own school funds.

Over the last 3 years, Jane’s  gruelling series of marathons, half-marathons, triathlons, Ironman events and tandem rides from Rome to Leeds (and before that Land’s End to John O’Groats to Land’s End) have taken her extraordinary one-woman charity fundraising record beyond £950,000…and brought that million pound target tantalisingly close.

COOLING THE BRAIN:THE INSIDE STORY OF THE REMARKABLE RESEARCH BREAKTHROUGH OFFERING NEW HOPE TO BABIES IN PERIL

By Professor John Wyatt, of University College London Hospital.

Recent research supported by SPARKS has given new hope for babies permanently damaged because of a difficult delivery. Results from a large clinical trial of brain cooling treatment, reported in May showed a significant improvement in many of the cooled babies

In the UK more than 1000 children in the UK die every year or suffer permanent brain injury because of shortage of oxygen around the time of birth.  This disaster can strike any baby without warning, despite the very best medical and nursing care. The problem has been known about for many years, but until now, no treatment has been found to prevent or minimise the damage.

A group of doctors and scientists at University College London has been tackling this devastating problem since the 1980s. Using state of the art brain scanning techniques we showed that, surprisingly, the brain damage didn’t occur immediately at the time of delivery. There was often a window of several hours before the injury was permanent, in other words a brief window of time when protective treatment might be effective. In a series of experiments we found strong evidence that cooling the brain by several degrees might be helpful in protecting the brain cells.

With support from SPARKS, research teams at University College London and St Michael’s Hospital Bristol have recently been testing the use of a specially designed cooling cap to reduce brain temperature after birth.

Years of research effort have culminated in an international clinical trial involving more than 230 babies in UK, North America and New Zealand. All the babies were enrolled because they were at very high risk of brain damage.  Once the problem was identified, parents were approached for consent to allow their babies to take part in the trial. Half of the babies were randomly allocated to 3 days of cooling treatment using the new cooling cap, and the other half were given standard intensive care.  Following this the babies were intensively followed to see if the cooling treatment had brought any benefit.

Nearly all the babies have now been assessed at 18 months of age by independent doctors and psychologists and the results of the trial have been announced at a major scientific conference in USA. The research teams were delighted to find that there was a reduction in the rate of death and severe disability in a large subgroup of the babies who had received brain cooling.  The rate of death and disability was reduced from 66% to 48% and the rate of cerebral palsy was halved.  The treatment seemed to be particularly effective in the majority of babies with moderate brain injury rather than in the small number of babies with very severe injury, and there was no evidence of any serious complications from the cooling itself. The results will be published in a major scientific journal later in the year.

It will be a number of months before brain cooling treatment starts to become available for babies and more research is urgently needed; but we are excited that for the first time there is a treatment which can reduce brain damage after birth, with all its terrible consequences. It is only because of the generous support of SPARKS and other medical research charities that this vital work has been possible.  With your support, the Brain Protection and Repair Group at University College London is continuing to build on this work, finding new ways to protect precious and vulnerable babies at the beginning of life.

SPARKS first female President, Anna Walker, is asking our supporters (especially Mums) to “Put the Kettle on for SPARKS” anytime during September, and host a tea party which will raise vital funds for medical research.

Holding a tea party couldn’t be easier – just call Fiona on 020 7799 2111 or email [email protected] to receive your free fundraising pack (including tea bags, invitations and posters), pick a date in September and get your friends round for a well earned cup of tea!

Robert Half International Demonstrate their Support for SPARKS

.Robert Half International Demonstrate Their Support For Sparks

SPARKS was delighted to benefit recently from several motivational speaker evenings – part of ‘The Robert Half International Interview Series’.

The well known face of Dave Alred MBE, widely regarded as the best kicking coach in rugby today, spoke of his involvement with the England Rugby Team and his time coaching the last two British Lions tours to Australia and South Africa.  He also shared his experiences playing Rugby Union, Rugby League, and American Football where he gained insights which he now applies to coaching.  Dave shared how through his career he has worked closely with Johnny Wilkinson, Mike Catt, Rob Andrew and Paul Grayson to name but a few. Also a tactical and motivational coach, the audience found the secrets of his success extremely interesting and inspirational.

Dave’s evening raised £1,000 from donations, an auction of an England rugby shirt signed by the whole team and bets on whether a member of the audience could hone her kicking skills in 5 minutes flat, after a crash course lesson in the art of successfully kicking conversions!

A further interview evening with footballer manager Harry Redknapp also provided a hugely interesting incite into his world of sport. World class sailor Tracey Edwards will be the next celebrity speaker to provide a window into her world.

Robert Half also recently hosted their ever popular golf day at Woburn Golf Club. Dave Alred again ran a Sports memorabilia auction during the afternoon to further raise funds for SPARKS. to date, Robert Half International has raised over £3,500 this year from these events.

SPARKS would like to give a massive thank you to Robert Half International for their continued support.

SPARKS was delighted to have benefited from the 2004 Securities Institute Financial Ashes. The annual charity cricket tournament was held at the Honourable Artillery Company Ground on the 3^rd August 2004.

The teams were made up of members from various city based financial organisations and represented England, Australia and South Africa. Several SPARKS celebrity patrons donned there cricket whites and took part in the friendly yet competitive competition. SPARKS celebrity patrons who took part included Victor Ubugo, Chris Sheasby, Simon Bowman, Angus Scott and Tim Foster.

The day raised over £16,000 and finished with a fantastic four course gala dinner, celebrity speech by England cricket legend Graham Gooch and live auction by channel 4’s Jon Snow.

SPARKS would like to a huge thank you to the Securities Institute and all those involved in the event.

A Personal Message from SPARKS President 2004

• To be a good mother.
• To help SPARKS raise more money than ever before.
• To get my golf handicap down.

All three are linked by a common purpose – for my family and others to lead a healthier, happier life.

When I first played in a golf event for SPARKS, I was immediately taken with the idea that I could do something that I loved while raising money for a cause I believe passionately in.

Perhaps I feel so strongly about the medical research SPARKS funds, because I’ve had such a rocky road to motherhood myself. We have an adorable 2-year old son and we’re expecting twins, but we’ve lost 5 other babies over the last 5 years.

Only advances in medical research, will help us to understand the intricate biology of pregnancy and the nature of a baby’s early development.  The dramatic increase in survival of tiny premature babies is testament to the success researchers have already had in learning how to replicate the conditions in the womb, to improve their chances of a healthy life.

But there’s so much more to do.  Already money has been committed to projects as varied as brain injury in premature babies, childhood strokes, cerebral palsy, cystic fibrosis and new treatments for childhood cancers.

Anyone whose lives have been touched by any of these devastating conditions knows how important advances in our knowledge are to combating them. But cutting-edge medical research doesn’t come cheap. None of these projects would be funded by the Government, so without SPARKS, no progress would be made in our understanding of any of them.

Any parent instinctively shares SPARKS’ philosophy, to give every child the chance of a healthy life.  As the first SPARKS President who has given birth, I feel it’s my duty to spread the word to the main beneficiaries of SPARKS fundraising that it’s not just about playing golf with the lads… mothers and babies; you have a huge amount to gain from supporting SPARKS too.

SPARKS IS DELIGHTED TO ANNOUNCE THE NEW CORPORATE PARTNERSHIP WITH SIMPLY COMPUTERS 

Simply Computers is one of the leading IT resellers in the UK – supplying cutting edge technology to the consumer marketplace.

As part of the $1.7 billion Systemax Group, the number one mail order IT reseller in Europe, Simply Computers has built a strong relationship with every key IT manufacturer and distributor in the UK. Combined with over a decade’s trading experience, we are able to offer our customers exclusive deals and the best pricing on thousands of items, from a massive selection of top brands, with products ranging from MP3 players to PC component accessories to desktop PCs.

Simply Computers works on the basis that building a close rapport with our customer base is the key to our success and our customer satisfaction. With this in mind we offer ALL our customers the support they need both before and after placing an order, all free of charge.

Unlike other etailer companies we still believe in the personal touch, therefore as well as having an easy to navigate, user friendly website which lists most of the 20,000 plus products we sell, we also employ a team of sales people and customer service agents who, only a telephone call away, are always happy to assist in whichever way they can.

At the beginning of July 2004 Simply Computers were proud to announce the start of their relationship with SPARKS. Working to actively support SPARKS by helping to raise funds for pioneering research that has a practical, positive impact on the lives of babies and children. 

Throughout the next year Simply Computers will be helping to support and raise awareness for SPARKS. You, as a customer of Simply Computers will also have an opportunity to take advantage of this special partnership. Initially Simply Computers will offer 1p for every order placed on the simply.co.uk website. Other initiatives will be taking place so look out for special offers, discounts and incentives to be announced that could save you money while raising funds for SPARKS. 

For more information about Simply Computers please visit www.simply.co.uk