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Please help support a charity fun day I'm doing on

Sunday 23rd June 2013, 11am till 4pm
at Kilham Hall/Field,
Kilham Lane,
Branton,
Doncaster.

The charity fun day needs stall holders - local people selling there wares, whether they make things themselves or just buy and sell. This would be a perfect way to promote their business.

For more information please contact Emma at emmajane.entertainments@yahoo.co.uk.


About the charity: Harry Matthews Bowel Transplant Trust:

There is currently no other bowel transplant charity in the UK.

Our main aim is to provide a financial crisis fund to families of bowel transplant recipients, as children have a slower recovery and poorer prognosis in comparison to any other organ transplant.
Due to lack of research, high risk of infection from the donor bowel and sheer lack of numbers many children are struggling to survive the first year post transplant.
In addition to this there are only two main centres, Kings College Hospital London and Birmingham Children’s that can perform the transplant and both maintain complete control of care during the first year, requiring extensive travel for the child and their family. Post operatively it can be up to a year before you can use public transport (even a taxi) therefore families must drive to every appointment, some through central London and south of the river and pay daily parking charges of £25 as the NHS can no longer afford to fund transport. Due to the added complexities of bowel transplant the children require 1/2 full time carers post op and generally one parent will have to cease employment.

Also due to bed limitations even the children who are doing relatively well are finding their families have to book hotels for their hospital admissions and foot the bill. Many also find for a hospital stay longer than 3 months, all statutory benefits will stop.

As you can see these families really are quietly struggling and we want to be there when they are in financial crisis, we have close links with a family liaison officer who will assess in depth any family that applies and then fill out a grant application form which is then sent on to us for final decision.

Dr Hind at Kings is heavily involved with the charity and as soon as we raise enough we will roll out the crisis fund to encompass Birmingham. He has explained that bowel transplantation is currently at a similar stage to where liver transplantation was 15 years ago and this is due to lack of funds for research.

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