News:- Multiple Sclerosis News Surrey

Thank you to everyone who supported our Xmas Fair stalls at the Centre this week. We managed to raise an impressive £1870. Many thanks to those who helped on the stalls and for those of you who baked delicious cakes, made marmalade, chutney, donated items for the stalls etc.

At their charity quiz night, Surrey Police recently raised over £600 for the Samson Centre. A great big thank you from all of us.

We were lucky enough to receive a cheque for £900 last weekend from Lisa and Matt Stanley as a result of a Masonic Ladies event that was held recently in support of the Samson Centre for MS. Lovely to meet Lisa and Matt and a big thank you goes to St. Andrew’s Lodge in Bedfordshire for holding this event and raising money for our Centre.

Thanks so much to Ellen Love at Watts Gallery in Compton for running a printmaking workshop yesterday for a few of our members and carers. Such a lovely idea and our people really enjoyed their creative arty morning.

Thank you so much to Gavin Thomas who masterminded the One Summer’s Day music event in the summer and raised an amazing £2000 for us and an additional £2000 in match funding from Santander. Also to Graham Jelley, one of our Trustees, whose wife Pene sadly passed away earlier this year and donations in excess of £2700 in her memory were given to the Centre. These sums of money enabled us to purchase an easystand standing frame that one of our members, Jenny, demonstrated today. We are so grateful to Gavin and Graham for supporting the Centre and allowing us to buy this amazing piece of kit to use with some of our members.

A brilliant evening was had by many ladies on Saturday 14 October at the annual ‘Only girls allowed’ disco. A huge thank you to Megan and Marion Hambly for organising this event along with Paula Emery for selling raffle tickets and Claire Heap and Bridie O’Reilly for decorating Milford village hall. An amazing £1760 was made for the Samson Centre for MS and a donation of £565 was made to the Brain Tumour charity. Clearly a great time was had by all!

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There is some not so good news and some very good news.

Christmas is coming, sooner than we think
whether we are prepared or not!

But the excellent news is that the Samson Centre’s
Xmas cards are now on sale from the office at the Centre.

To make it even easier for you to choose your pack(s) we have put together a flyer incorporating the designs, pack sizes and prices. Remember that you can share this flyer with friends, family and colleagues and take orders too.

Sales of our Xmas cards raise valuable funds for the Samson Centre, so please feel free to spread the word and the flyer, far and wide.

If anyone needs a jpg of the flyer to share on their facebook page or via email
please let me know and I will gladly email you one over.

Denice
Fundraising for the Samson Centre for MS
07751 667645

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Recycling is a particularly current topic and not only will our thoughtful disposal of unwanted items preserve our planet for future generations it could also help to raise money for our own Samson Centre for Multiple Sclerosis.

For that reason we have teamed up with Recycle 4 Charity to collect empty inkjet cartridges and old mobile phones.

We collect in our dedicated bin at the Samson Centre, they collect from the Samson Centre and we raise money in the process….it’s as simple as that.

The poster explains more about this initiative, but if you have any queries please don’t hesitate to ask Denice by contacting her on 07751 667645 or by email:

In the meantime please feel free to share this news with colleagues and family members. The more of these items we recycle, the more money it will generate for our valuable work here at the Samson Centre..

I thought you would like to see a couple of photos of the new gym layout that Chris Boys, one of our members and also the Gym Manager at the Centre, has worked so hard to organise. Chris has worked really hard with the kayakers in particular to agree a better layout for the gym that will benefit all parties.

We now have a much better sense of space in the gym and easier access for our members. The new cable stack machine in the photos is a great addition to the gym and the money for this was kindly donated by a very generous person.

I hope many of you will enjoy the new gym layout.

THE ORDER OF MERCY…….a very prestigious award with the most noble of origins.

Here we track its history and the fantastic news that in July 2017 the Samson Centre for MS’s very own John Hambly was awarded the prestigious ‘Order of Mercy’ by the League of Mercy Foundation.

Congratulations to John Hambly and thank you on behalf of everyone at the Samson Centre for your time, dedication and being one of the founder members who back in 2005 had the energy, drive, enthusiasm and wherewithal to turn a vision into reality. You were part of a building project that would ultimately provide a special place for people living with Multiple Sclerosis in Surrey and surrounding areas, a ‘safe haven’ that has now been successfully operating from its riverside location for some 12 years.

Some history about the award in their own words.

The League of Mercy was founded on 30th of March 1899 by Royal Charter of Queen Victoria. It was instigated by the Prince of Wales who became its first Grand President. Subsequently two further Princes of Wales (George V and Edward VIII) succeeded him in this office; finally HRH Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester took over.

The object of the League was to establish a large body of voluntary workers who would assist with the maintenance of voluntary hospitals and ‘otherwise relieve sickness and suffering’. When the 1948 National Health Act abolished these hospitals, the League was quietly wound up after performing its task extraordinarily well for nearly half a century.

Central to the annual activities of the League was a notable ceremony at which about fifty people each received a medal known as the Order of Mercy. These were bestowed as a reward for personal services gratuitously rendered in connection with the purposes for which the League was established.

It is clear that in the future, communities will have to rely more and more on voluntary help especially as the population grows older. Voluntary work for the sick, the elderly, the disabled etc has long been an integral and valuable part of British life. It is developing and enriching for those who engage in it as well as being immensely beneficial to those served by it.

‘They deserve a medal’, is something we often say to those wonderful volunteers who have served their organisations and communities outstandingly. Sadly, there are too few to go around!

That is why on the 30th March 1999, exactly one hundred years to the day that it was first given, the League of Mercy Foundation revived this distinguished award for voluntary service, assisting in the relief of sickness and suffering.

“We believe that it is vital to recognise and honour the work of volunteers. By doing so we may develop public awareness of their work and encourage others to join them in giving up their time to the voluntary care of those in need”.
Lord Lingfield – President of the League of Mercy

Just a short update to let you know about some recent monies raised for the Centre thanks to some great volunteers and others:

Dorking street collection on 19 May raised £696.19

Guildford street collection on 16 June raised £1541.88

Cranleigh street collection on 8 July raised £441.07

Sainsburys Godalming collection on 9 July raised £400.17

These collections are vital in contributing towards our running costs at the Centre so that we can maintain and increase the vital support and therapies that we deliver to people living with Multiple Sclerosis

We had 29 runners take part in the British 10k run in London on Sun 9 July on a very hot and sticky day.

So far, over £7500 has been raised between them, with the total still rising.

It was a great event again, with people running for several different charities.

Thanks so much to our lovely runners for supporting the Samson Centre for MS by taking part in the British 10k run.

We would love to hear from you if you would like to run again for us next year!

It is official, on Wed 5th July 2017 the staff and volunteers of the Samson Centre for MS smashed their own Caledonian Challenge of completing 80km in just one day. At 9pm, some 12 hours after the challenge began it ended on a high as we powered well past our goal and clocked up over 100km.

We started early, we finished late and we walked, ran and cycled through the midday heat in between and boy was it hot!

The staff Caledonian Challenge came about after 16 of John Hambly’s friends the ’16 Idiots’ as they like to call themselves, hot footed it up to Scotland (after some training) and took on both the wild open and the calmer waters of the Caledonian Canal. They were in canoes and paddling their 80km through these often choppy waters.

They were delighted to know that we too were doing something towards their challenge and that is how our staff Caledonian Challenge came about.

If you would like to support our efforts follow the link and visit the official Caledonian Challenge Just Giving page.

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/16-idiots

The Samson Centre for MS was thrilled when Julia & David Hunt offered us the use of a wonderful marquee in their absolutely magnificent garden in the village of Compton in Surrey.

The weather was kind and we were bathed in sun and surrounded by beautiful flowers.

Add a lovely buffet lunch and the kind offer of antiques expert and tv personality David Ford to donate his time to be our guest speaker and antiques valuer and you have a perfect Summer occasion.

Some £850 was raised for the Samson Centre at an event enjoyed by many.

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Entries for the annual Samson Charity Golf Day, held at Puttenham Golf Club on Monday 14th May have opened.

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As always it promises to be a wonderful day, at a friendly and lovely Surrey golf course. This well established event raises a large sum of money for the Samson Centre for MS. Check out our poster for more details and there is an entry form to reserve an individual place or register a Team.

Samson Golf Day 2018 Entry Form