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November 2011 Newsletter

Welcome to the November edition of the THHN newsletter where I will be telling you all about our activity over the last eight weeks or so.

Fundraising

It has been a productive few weeks with regards to fundraising with lots to inform you of. My first thank you goes to the Provincial Grand Lodge of Devonshire Freemasons who invited me along to their annual presentation evening where they awarded over £20,000 between 28 local charities and organisations. It really was a very special evening and heart warming to see money going to so many great local causes and hearing some amazing stories! THHN was lucky enough to be presented with a cheque of £1,000 and I would also like to thank Rex Latham the Blacksmith at Cockington Village (longstanding THHN member business) of Quest Lodge for nominating THHN to receive the donation.

My next thank you goes to long time THHN supporters Palm FM who raised the fantastic sum of £660.00 for us through their charity ten pin bowling night. The event was great fun and a big thank you to all who took part including the THHN team who all had a great night! We tried our hardest to take the title but it was retained by the phenomenal Babbacombe Inn team who were very worthy winners. A massive thank you to Helen and her team at Palm FM for all their hard work that went in to organising the event and huge thanks to AMF Bowling for supporting the event and allowing the use of the centre.

A big thank you to local company Datamonster who provide a fully automated backup service ensuring important documents will always be protected. This is a great service which I use myself. Datamonster are very kindly offering to donate £10.00 to THHN for every person who enters the code THHN when subscribing to their fantastic service. For more information please follow this link http://www.thhn.co.uk/supporters/computers-it/datamonster

Our next fundraising thank you goes to Louise Roberts from the Midlands who is a member of the THHN's Facebook page. Louise came up with a great idea after buying her Alice Pyne - Emma Bridgewater - THHN mug. Louise is a big Emma Bridgewater fan and she set up an auction page on the Emma Bridgewater Facebook page where she asked other Emma Bridgewater fans to donate their old unwanted pieces of pottery to put up for auction and the money made would be donated to THHN. This is a fantastic idea and it raised £230.00 and I would like to send huge thanks to Louise and all who supported the auctions.

That brings me nicely on to an update of how Alice's Emma Bridgwater mugs sales are going, well there is only one word to describe this………INCREDIBLE!!!! Sales have now rocketed to over 1,200 mugs!!!! That translates to a minimum of £12,000 raised for THHN!!! I really cannot thank Alice Pyne, Emma Bridgewater and all who have purchased the mugs enough for this outstanding support. For those of you who would like to know more about Alice's mug and how to buy one please follow this link
http://www.thhn.co.uk/news-media/2011/07/alice-pyne's-thhn-mug

Once again I really cannot thank all of our very much valued fundraisers for all of their incredible efforts to support THHN and the families who we help, the money raised really is going to make such a difference to THHN as a charity and how we help families who are going through turmoil.

Charity Gala Event

Next I move on to tell you about an event planned for THHN that has been organised by our friends at Thirsty Work Watercoolers in Exeter www.thirstywork.com
They have a 'Charity Gala' evening in aid of THHN planned for Friday 30^th March at 7.30pm to be held at the Imperial Hotel in Torquay. It is going to be a wonderful evening of great food and entertainment including a top band and comedy legends Tank Sherman & Shaun Perry! Tickets will be on sale soon, for anyone interested in reserving a table please get in touch very soon as this WILL SELL OUT!!!

THHN Business Sponsorship

THHN is looking for businesses to help out with sponsorship in various different ways and we have some fantastic packages to offer! The first set of packages are to help with events in aid of THHN that form part of the incredible ten day 'Babbacombe Festival' , you can find more information on our brilliant packages by following this link http://www.thhn.co.uk/thhn-event-sponsorship
Even if you are unable to support with sponsorship we would be ever so grateful if you could share this link around all of your business contacts and ask them to do the same.

The next sponsorship we are looking for is to have a business sponsor the production of some THHN kite banners to display at events and in return you would have your company logo/artwork included on the banners.

Finally we are looking for businesses to sponsor the production of a printed newsletter for THHN to help spread the word of our work and hopefully encourage more businesses to offer their services to THHN. In return once again the newsletters would have your artwork/logo and all contact details included as well as an advert within the newsletter. If you are potentially interested in either please email me direct at luke@thhn.co.uk

THHN Members News

Firstly welcome to our new member businesses who are all offering free services to THHN families, we really cannot thank you enough for your very much valued support:
Finlake Holiday Park
Jiggly Giraffe
The Babbacombe Cliffs
Hallets The Bakers
Luscombes Butchers of Torbay

Huge congratulations to long time THHN member Hanburys of Babbacombe who have won the South West Fish & Chip Shop of the year award once again! This is thoroughly deserved and they are entered in to the final of the national competition so well done and good luck to Dave and all his staff for the final.

A very big thank you to Simon Dingley of 'Prolific Notion' who has been a fantastic support to me in managing the THHN website and giving his services all free of charge! I would highly recommend his services as I use them for my business as well http://www.thhn.co.uk/supporters/computers-it/prolific-notion

Many thanks to Rachael at the HiFlyer in Torquay who is very kindly displaying two banners for THHN. One is situated on the railings surrounding the balloon and the other is on the gondola. Most of you will know that the balloon is situated right on Torquay seafront which has a massive footfall and when the balloon goes up it can be seen from across the whole of Torbay. So a massive thumbs up for your extra support on top of allowing THHN families free rides on the balloon.

Next is a very special thank you to long time THHN members John & Angela Bunce of Vomero Holiday Apartments in Torquay. John and Angie have agreed to take over as the THHN's 'Holiday Liaison Officers' as sadly Polly had to resign last month due to personal reasons and I would like to send a huge thank you to Polly for all her efforts and help. John and Angela will be helping find holidays for THHN families who are looking for specific dates or have missed a holiday due to a child being too ill to travel or families who have specific needs. John & Angela have also very kindly agreed to start organising the food boxes/hampers that are very kindly donated to THHN families who take self catering holidays. So some of you may well be hearing from John or Angela over the coming weeks/months regarding holidays and hampers, this is a huge help to me and I cannot thank them enough for getting involved and grabbing the proverbial bull by the horns!

Show Your Support

We now have our new clothing range which is now available to buy! We have hoody's which are available with or without zips and polo shirts. They come fully embroidered and are all available in six colours - White, black, navy blue, royal blue, Kelly green and hot pink.
Hoodys cost £30.00 each with or without a zip and Polo Shirts are £25.00 each, with all the profits going to THHN.

We will soon have an online shop on the THHN website but for the moment if you would like to purchase any items please email luke@thhn.co.uk
Special thanks to Dougie Worthington of 'Peacock Dreams Photography' the THHN's official photographer for taking time out to take all the pictures for the online shop and thank you too goes to our models Ruth, Lucy, Tim & Oliver for giving up their time. Not forgetting to thank all the staff at Prostitch Torquay who produce the high quality garments for us on a very quick turn around! If any of you would like to help promote the hoody's you can download a flyer to print and display by following this link http://www.thhn.co.uk/news-media/artworks-download

We now have some beautiful car/window stickers available, if any of you would like to display them please send a SAE to THHN HQ and we will get one out to you straight away!

As usual if any of you would like to show your support by displaying some THHN artwork on your website we have a selection of designs available for download along with html codes on our website here http://www.thhn.co.uk/news-media/artworks-download

THHN members plaques are still available to buy if you would like to display one on your business premises please do get in touch and I will make the necessary arrangements.

THHN Theme Tune

Huge thanks goes all the way across the Atlantic ocean to Chad Harper of US organisation 'Hip Hop Saves Lives' who has penned and produced a them tune for THHN! As far as I know we are the only UK charity to have its own hip hop theme tune! To read more about how it came about and to hear the fantastic track please follow this link http://www.thhn.co.uk/news-media/2011/07/2011/11/thhn-theme-tune
Special thanks goes to Kev Starr of Riviera FM who gave the track its world radio premiere live online last week!
Chad harper - Hip Hop Saves Lives

THHN Family Holidays

A huge thank you to all of our accommodation providers for supplying the following ten holidays since my last newsletter:

Buckfast Abbey provided a self catering holiday for a bereaved family who were referred from the charity PASIC. Huge thanks to abbey warden Geoff Pring for supplying this fantastic holiday.

Vomero Holiday Apartments in Torquay provided a holiday for a family who have a child suffering with Rhabdomysarcoma who were referred by the Christian Lewis Trust. You can read the families feedback of their holiday by following this link http://www.thhn.co.uk/family-feedback/2011/10/bragg-family-feedback
They also provided a holiday for a bereaved mother who had recently lost her only child and came away with her mother, she was referred by the charity PASIC. John & Angela were due to have a further two more families visit but sadly they did not make it down due to the children being too ill to travel, John & Angela are very kindly liaising with the families to try and arrange new holidays for them. Huge thanks to them for supplying these fantastic holidays.

The Westbrook in Torquay provided a holiday for a family who have a child suffering from Rhabdomysarcoma who were referred by the charity PASIC. You can read the families feedback by following this link http://www.thhn.co.uk/family-feedback/2011/2011/07/2011/10/kian-jones-family-feedback
Huge thanks to owner Maureen Tanner for supplying this fantastic holiday.

We provided the next holiday at the Hotel De La Mer in Babbacombe, Torquay for a family who have a child suffering from Retinoblastoma. The family were referred by The Childhood Eye Cancer Trust. You can read the families feedback by following this link http://www.thhn.co.uk/family-feedback/2011/10/2011/11/williams-family-feedback

Finlake Holiday Park provided their first THHN holiday to a family who have a child who is terminally ill with Hodgkins Lymphoma. The family have been on THHN holidays before and were originally referred by NACCPO now re-named CCPA. Huge thanks to manager Richard Mellor for providing this fantastic holiday and for arranging many extra's such as horse riding.

The Old School House in Torquay provided a holiday to a family who have a child suffering with Neuroblastoma and Leukaemia who was reffered by the Welsh charity LATCH. Huge thanks to owner Penny Kay for supplying this fantastic holiday.

The Babbacombe Cliffs provided their first THHN holiday to a family who have a child suffering with Anaplastic Oligodendroglioma who were referred by the charity Friends of OSCAR. Huge thanks to owner Lindsay Yelland for providing this fantastic holiday.

Pilgrims Rest Self Catering provided a holiday to a family who have a child recovering from a brain tumour referred by the Cambridge CLIC Sargent team. You can read their feedback by following this link http://www.thhn.co.uk/family-feedback/2011/2011/07/2011/11/pike-family-feedback
Huge thanks to fellow THHN director & trustee Martin Brook and his wife Kim for providing this fantastic holiday.

The Ashley Court Hotel in Torquay provided a holiday to a family who have a child suffering from the effects of Leukaemia and were referred by the Bristol CLIC Sargent team. Huge thanks to owner Steve for supplying this fantastic holiday.

I know that all the families who received THHN holidays had an incredible time and thank you so much to all of you involved in making their stays that bit more special!

I must say another very big thank you to all of our food box/hamper providers who have provided a record number of supplies to THHN families over the last eight weeks, your support really does make a big difference to families, many of whom shed tears when they see the kitchen filled with beautiful food boxes!

I strongly recommend you read the family feedback on the links above, they really do demonstrate just how important our holidays are to families and show the good that you are doing by offering your services to THHN.

Once again I really cannot thank all of our member businesses, supporters and referring organisations enough for all you do and help THHN achieve. Collectively we are making a huge difference to families lives and giving them incredibly precious memories they will treasure forever away from gruelling hospital appointments and treatments. Without your support THHN would not exist!

Best wishes & many thanks

Luke.