Supporting the JTSMA through Fergus' Angel Fund

An Angel Fund is a personal tribute fund that families can fundraise into in memory of their loved one. The money raised goes towards research into the treatment and cure of the different types of SMA, as well as enabling the Jennifer Trust to continue providing support and information to all those affected by these illnesses. Our initial aim was to raise £5000 for Fergus' Angel Fund. We set up his fund early in 2006 and by November 2006 we had raised well over our target. You can read about our fundraising activities on this page. A star has now been officially named after the little fella and is logged with the British Library.

Connemara Half-Marathon 2007

On April 1st 2007, Derek, Simon, Liz and Steve ran the Connemara half-marathon in the west of Ireland. Considering Liz was suffering from glandula fever and my ankle was in a bit of a bad state, the run went really well helped by beautiful blue sky, a cooling breeze and majestic scenery all around. Thankfully Steve's ankle survived the hills and he managed to run it in 2:05 and came in 1154th place, so about half way. Derek and Simon came in together five minutes later with Liz coming in soon after, which was amazing considering the circumstances. Thanks also to our great support crew - Ange, Pete, Vanessa, Jake, Wendy and Chloe. More importantly, between the four of us we managed to raise over £13000 and with GiftAid that came to nearly £17000.

Fergus’ World Cup Football Fundraising

The World Cup came and went in June and July 2006 and aside from the odd moment of skill and excitement, the beautiful game once again ended up looking like an unseemly cross between Aladdin and Swan Lake and our abiding memory will be of a bunch of overpaid, play-acting, head-butting jokers. Thankfully, on June 15th at St. Andrews, Cambridge the true Corinthian ideals of football were there for everyone to see and we saw none of the ugly side of our national game. And as a spooky coincidence just like the World Cup itself, the Blue team triumphed amidst controversy over match fixing and bribing referees (for shiny new Fiat read kebab). In the end we managed to raise over £750, which was a stunning effort. We also held a sweepstake, quiz and a 'guess the number of choccie footballs' competition and altogether we managed to raise a stunning £1008.01 for Fergus' Angel Fund. A huge thank you to those who helped plan and organise the events and to everyone who took part and gave so generously.

5K Challenge

Ange’s trainers came out of hibernation for the 5K Hydroactive run in Hyde Park, London back in September 2006. This race is great for 3 reasons:

• 1. It's not too far!
• 2. You can run for the charity of your choice.
• 3. The atmosphere is brilliant.

Afternoon tea

Our friends Selina and Jason hosted an afternoon tea party back in July 2006. It was a beautiful afternoon - the sun shone and the Pimms flowed. Over £500 was raised. Actually, everyone was so busy eating, drinking and chatting that we forgot to take any photos! We did manage to get a few of the chefs in action before the event began.

Indian night

A big thank you to our friends Rahul and Catherine who hosted an Indian themed evening in November 2006. The food was fantastic and there was certainly lots of it! Check out the photos! Rahul is probably still finishing off the chick pea curry … £500 was raised – WOW!

Race night

Many thanks to our friends Sharon and Keith who hosted a ‘Race Night’ at their house. Thanks also to Selina and Jason who shared the cooking responsibilities. Fortunately, donations were safely tucked away before we started gambling. We managed to raise over £700! Thanks to everyone who made the evening such a success.

Lots of other events have been taking place to raise money for Fergus' Angel Fund:

• Evangeline's baptism - Evangeline, the baby daughter of our friends Angela and Nick, was baptised on November 25th, 2007. Angela and Nick asked friends and family to donate to the Jennifer Trust in memory of Fergus and in celebration of the baptism of Evangeline and they managed to raise £440!
• Commerzbank Dress-Down Day - Simon's company replaced their suits for jeans in August '06, raising £1063.76 in the process!
• Car boot sale - Pauline and Neil raised over £100 by selling a load of tat at a car boot sale in August '06.
• Sponsored diet - Jane and Tim are well known for their hearty appetites, well not any more. They are just shadows of their former selves and have raised lots of money in the process.
• Raffles - The town of Corby has been very active on the raffle front. Cityfax (where Fergus' great Aunty Carol works) raised a massive £350. The staff of Corby District Council and RS components have also been digging deep into their pockets too.
• Charity Sport's Day - Not only have class CASG2 at Rees Thomas School raised over £100 for Fergus' two charities via a football raffle, they are also organising a charity Sport's Day in the Summer term with the proceeds going to Fergus' Angel Fund.
• Organising a charity coffee morning - Thanks to Mike and Fiona Lewis, the people of Edinburgh have been extremely busy sitting around supping coffee.
• Daisy and Louis - Probably our youngest contributors Daisy and Louis aged 3 collected donations for Fergus' fund instead of receiving presents at their birthday party. They raised a massive £155!
• Swansea Spring Fair - The Lewis family have been in action once again this time encouraging the good folk of Swansea to give generously. They organised a Spring fair and made (at the current time of counting) over £300.
• Stamp collecting - Many of you are busy collecting stamps for the Jennifer Trust. Actually, it’s made lots of us realise how little ‘nice post’ we get nowadays. Special thanks to Patsy in the Rees Thomas School office who is managing to put quite a collection together and to the people of Payhembury who seem to get a significant amount of 'nice' post. If you have any used stamps, please tear them off, leaving a 1cm border, and send them to: Stamps for JTSMA, 45 Hartwood Road, Southport, Merseyside, PR9 9AN. The Jennifer Trust also collects ink cartridges and mobile phones too. Visit the fundraising page on the JTSMA web site to find out more.