Hi All,

As we settle into the Christmas holidays, we’ve had the chance to reflect back on a busy December. 

Santa Sleigh
As usual we’ve had the chance to spend time working with some wonderful people, and we were lucky to get an early date with the big msn himself, collecting for the Whittlesey Lions on Santa’s float.  It was great to see some many people, and lovely to see the little one’s faces.

Christmas Tree Festival
We followed this up by taking the NGNPUK remembrance tree to the Whittlesey Christmas Tree festival; held in St Mary's church, Whittlesey during the Christmas Extravaganza.  There are so many beautiful trees to see at the festival the church looks stunning. Well done everyone especially the organisers as we can tell a lot of hard work went into it all.
All the dragonflies with our loved ones names are in place, and we think it looks lovely. Thank you to everyone who contacted us to have a dragonfly made for their loved one and to everyone who has messaged us about the Christmas tree this year. 

Although we know there are always lots of tears around it we are so pleased it gives comfort to so many of you.  Please feel free to have a look at our feedback book which we have left with the tree.

We will be thinking of you all over the coming weeks

Donations
As is now tradition, it’s time for our usual round of thank yous’ for those kind donations we’ve been lucky to receive.  As Ant & Dec would say…….  In no particular order…

• Thank you to Alison Shaw for the donation of the old £5 note. We can still accept old notes and coins if anyone happens to find any lurking in coat pockets or behind the sofa :)
• Thank you to Shirley Short and Margaret for the beautiful syringe driver bags.
• Thank you to Becky Fewkes for your £10 donation in lieu of sending Christmas Cards
• Big thanks to the lovely Whittlesey Singers for their donation of £50 into the syringe driver fund.
• Big thanks to Natalie and Paul Markham who made a donation to NGNPUK instead of sending Christmas cards this year
• Thank you to G Parr from Abbots Ripton for the £10 donation we received through Paypal (just one of the ways you can donate to NGNPUK).
• Big thanks to the members of the Material girls sewing group in Eastrea for the beautiful syringe driver bags you donated. These bags really do make a massive difference to the patients and their families.
• Thank you to Diana Matthias for donating £10 towards Ngnpuk instead of sending Christmas Cards.

 
Once again, thank you all, these donations really do make such a difference!

ERT
We would like to say a huge thank you to ERT for their amazing donation of £1205!
This very generous donation will allow us to purchase another Syringe Driver for the local communities, as well as some extra toolboxes to keep the machines safe when they are out in people homes.
ERT have supported us from the very start and this will be the third machine we have been able to purchase due to their donations. Big thanks to the Andrea Barnes, the outreach team and everyone at ERT for their continued commitment to helping make a difference.
 
The Peterborough Biscuit Coffee Morning
As we may have previously mentioned, we have been selected to be one of the charity partners for the Peterborough Biscuit business to business network event.  We were recently asked to attend one of the coffee mornings alongside Deafblind UK, Little People UK and Family Voice.  It was lovely to meet so many new people and to explain what we do and why.  It was a great day and we look forward to the main event in February.  Tickets to visit the Peterborough Biscuit are free, with over 300 local businesses in attendance.  You can register at the following address:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-peterborough-biscuit-business-event-tickets-45101592076

Pride in Peterborough Awards
We were overwhelmed to find out that Louise was a finalist in the Pride in Peterborough awards on the 10th December for the work we all do here at NGNPUK.

This is an absolute surprise, and we feel honoured that people have taken the time to nominate. As Louise has mentioned, this is a real team effort and is as much for Samantha and Lee as it for Louise.
 
We also feel our team consists of everyone who supports what we do, including all our wonderful communities and everyone one of you. 
 
We had a great night at the Pride in Peterborough awards. Surrounded by some truly inspirational members of the public. Whatever was to happen on the night we already felt like winners just for receiving a nomination, we were pleased to find that we were finalist in the lifetime achievement award (hopefully this is a little premature, we still have some much work to do)! 
 
We didn't win on this occasion but were overwhelmed just to be nominated.
 
Chocolatey orange goodness
We thought that a little update on how a small act of kindness can grow to an amazing achievement was due. It is easily demonstrated by those kind folk who knitted chocolate orange covers for sale at our Christmas Fayre in November.  Firstly, thank you to everyone who knitted a chocolate orange cover for us this year or donated an orange or two.
 
With the pennies we made on our stall and the ones we have sold since then, the grand total we made was an amazing £870!!!
 
It is an incredible achievement and we would love to do some again next year as so many people loved them!  Lee has even got his knitting needles out, however he can just about “cast on”. Thank you everyone.
 
The Enchanted Plaza
As always a huge thanks to Sonia and Shelly at the Enchanted Plaza in Yaxley who have been busy fundraising for us throughout 2019 in their shop .  We’ve had a tally up and it has totalled an amazing £884.38 👏👏.

Thank you to everyone who popped their spare change in the collection tub or took part in any of their fundraising activities these amazing ladies have organised over the last year! :).  This amount will make a huge difference to the people in our communities.  The Enchanted Plaza is an Aladdin's cave of handmade crafts with lots of lovely gift ideas (I think they make a mean cake too, not forgetting the authentic Italian meatballs 😁).
 
Well done everyone xx
 
Ramsey Mereside Coffee Mornings
Thank you to everyone at the Ramsey Mereside Coffee mornings who have donated fantastic £100 to NGNPUK.  The coffee mornings are held every 1st Wednesday of the month. A massive thank you to Sheila Papworth who nominated us to be one of the charities to benefit from the fundraising.
 
These amounts really do make a massive difference.
 
Louise’s 1000 mile challenge
So it’s over to Louise for the final words of 2019, particularly fitting having successfully completed her 1000 mile running challenge.
 
“So pleased to say my 1000 miles of running in 2019 is now complete :).
 
Thank you to EVERYONE who has supported me along the way. It's certainly been a challenge! 8 half marathons lots of 10ks as well as running most days, on holidays and if I was feeling under the weather 😳.
 
I've learnt new words such as cadence and gait as well as seeing off two very expensive pairs of running trainers but it's all been worth it. It has been hard going most days but I never forgot why I was doing it.

I cannot begin to express the encouragement I have received from the running community, total strangers and my friends. It has made a massive difference so thank you all.
Thanks to everyone who has sponsored me so far :) .

https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fund…/showROFundraiserPage…
 
Here's wishing you all a healthy Happy New Year 😊. Louise.
Ps I think it's Sam's turn for a challenge in 2020 🤣. Xx”
 
 
With the festive season well and truly upon us we would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New year 🎄🎅.
Thank you everyone for all your help and support over the last year it's been amazing!
We know for some of you it will be the first Christmas without the ones you love so we send special thoughts to you.

Take care of each other.
Louise, Sam and Lee
Team NGNPUK

Hi All,

We're certainly noticing the change in the weather and are currently arguing about putting the heating on in NGNPUK HQ! So far an extra pullover is just edging ahead (well played Louise :-) )!! 

Here's the latest update to what we've been up to, starting with some thank you's;

Donations 

• Big thanks to Jan Sharman for the beautiful syringe driver bags and the donation of £40. Jan has been sewing for friends and looking after pet birds and instead of payment Jan asked for a donation to NGNPUK.  What a beautiful gesture.
• Massive thanks to the Posh Princesses from Sudbury Court who won the Accent Inter scheme challenge and donated the winnings of £301.50 to NGNPUK.  It was lovely to be invited along to the coffee morning at Sudbury Court to collect the donation. 
• Thank you to Helen Killeen for the donation of £120 from the sale of her kitchen
• Also a big thank you to Tammy Fulcher Roan for the donation of 10 old £1 coins. As a charity we're still able to bank these if you have any spare lying around and which to find a new home 😃
• Thanks again to Annette & David Mercer for the donation of lavender plants. That's another £18 in the syringe driver pot

As always, thank you to everyone involved, these donations make a massive difference to people in our communities  

Great news for a Wednesday morning!
We are so pleased to have been awarded a grant for £3300 from the Cambridgeshire Rural Fund! 

This is a charitable fund managed by Cambridgeshire Community Foundation and it will enable us to purchase 3 more machines for the Cambridgeshire areas to share. Well done Lee for finding the grant for us and filling out all the necessary paperwork. 

It seems to take a lot of time to put the case and information together and to campaign for the funding, but makes a huge difference to help us push further into Cambridgeshire to support our neighbouring communities and make a difference to so many people. 

Xmas fayre donations 

• Huge thanks to Wendy Bailey who has made some beautiful Christmas goodies for us to sell at the upcoming early bird Christmas fayre :). These will be on sale on the day (3rd November) along with the Chocolate orange covers that people are currently knitting :) . Thank you Wendy! X 
• A big thanks to Brigitte Jones for the donation of Chocolate oranges for the Christmas fayre at the Eastrea Centre on 3rd November :) . We will be using these to put inside the covers people are kindly knitting for us!
• Also, a huge thanks to Julie Taylor for sending us a little bundle of lavender bags (containing lavender from her own garden - how brilliant!) and hair scrunchies for the Christmas fayre . Julie sent these all the way from Liverpool :). 
  Julie's runs the charity "making for charity " who make syringe driver bags among other things for patients to improve their lives. She has been invaluable to us with lots of advice, finding suppliers for free material and bag patterns . 
  Big thanks Julie. X 
• We recently had a surprise visit from the Amazon man with a whole bunch of chocolate oranges for the fayre!! 😳😃. Thank you SO much Nicola Zolnhofer for this donation and your lovely note.
• A thank you goes to Carole Dilorio for the raffle prizes for the fayre.
• Also a big shout out to Mel at McCain for once again printing off our Santa letters. Make sure you bring your little ones along so they can deliver their letter to the big man himself 🎅 
• Another huge thanks to Shirley and Richard Short for the raffle prizes and bottles of booze you donated they will be a big help.
• Big thanks to Heather Jennings who knitted some beautiful goodies for us in memory of her mum and brother. They are amazing! We have angels, robins, snowmen, Christmas trees, polar bears, bells and gingerbread men among other Christmas themed covers . Thanks also to Martin Bristow for delivering them to us :). We can't wait to see what they look like with the Oranges in :). Massive thanks to Heather we love them  
• Big thanks to Felicity Dicker for these lovely chocolate orange covers along with the oranges :) . We 💞 them. They will be on sale at the Early Bird Christmas Fayre at the Eastrea Centre on 3rd November :) . Thanks again to everyone who is knitting/ donating for NGNPUK it's a massive 
• Big thanks the the lovely Sarah Bassam for these beautiful key rings :).  Sarah has made these for us to sell at next week's Christmas Fayre. All proceeds will go to NGNPUK :).We only have a limited number of these and they will only be on sale on the day so come along and see what else you can find :) . 

Remember, these gifts will ONLY be on sale at the upcoming Christmas fayre at the Eastrea Centre on Sunday 3rd November :) 

Calling all cake bakers 🎂🍰🧁 
Our Christmas fayre wouldn't be a NGNPUK do without cake. Sam and Louise will be doing their very best to bake as much as they can, but we are always very grateful of any donations for us to sell on our tea and cake stall :).  If you would like to help us by baking a cake please let us know :). They can be dropped off at:

19 Eastfield Drive on Saturday 2nd November or dropped off on the day :) 

Reindeer food (Wildlife friendly of course!!)
We have  recently started making our wildlife friendly reindeer food 😳, yes I know, in October 🤣!!. This will be on sale at the Fayre. We have a full house and will even have the big man himself along with one of his Elves to collect all those Christmas lists :) . 

Over 30 different stalls and lots of tea, coffee and cake on offer :) .  Free entry so come and have a browse. 

Driver bags 
Big thanks to Gwen Bunting and her friends Ann, Helen, Trish, Maureen, Shelagh, Pauline and Sandy who have delivered more Syringe driver bags to us :) . 
These bags are always needed and so well received by families and patients. Thank you again ladies  

Happy Anniversary - 2nd October 
Our first machine has just turned 4 years old ! What a journey it's been.  Thank you everyone for your continued support you have been amazing! :) . X 

Trotters Independent Trading 
We often get donations of random bits and bobs and sometimes joke we are a bit like Trotters Independent Traders 🤣 but recently we were donated a bunch of roof tiles. If anyone knows anyone who would be interested in these please get in touch. They are about 12 years old and in good condition! Details below:

Redlands 90s ministone wold roof tiles. 
41x 33 cm each. 
Approximately covers mono pitch roof rafters 12 ft by 16 ft extension.
Collection only from Whittlesey. 225 whole tiles plus some scraps.
All proceeds go to NGNPUK raising money for syringe drivers in the local communities. £100 ovno. 

Some AMAZING news for 2020….
NGNPUK have been selected as a charity partner of the Peterborough Biscuit business event on the 5th February 2020 held at the East of England Arena and Events Centre 😄 

The biscuit is the largest business to business, exhibition and corporate day event in East Anglia. The aim is to showcase the excellent business community that operates within a 55 mile radius of the city. 

This is a HUGE opportunity for us to take our message about the importance of syringe drivers, and our mission here at NGNPUK to a large corporate and business audience. 

We can’t wait to get going, so watch this space for more info as it gets closes. 

A huge thanks to Gary Swan, Steve and Edward Smith for this amazing opportunity. The more people who know what a syringe driver is and what they do, the better!  
 
Perkins Great Eastern Run 2019 
Well done to the lovely Karen Willmott who ran her 13.1 half marathon independently! 
Karen was due to take part in the Peterborough Great Eastern Run on Sunday 13th October raising funds for NGNPUK in memory of Kevin Bassam.

As many of you may know the race was called off leaving many runners very cold and wet but it was the right decision on the day. Karen was not to be defeated and ran the distance today ! 
Massive congratulations and thank you to Karen and everyone who sponsored her, you have raised a fantastic £115.

Karen's next challenge for NGNPUK in memory of Kevin Bassam is the Peterborough Marathon in April 2020 which she is already busy training for! Go Karen! x 
 
Whittlesey Music Nights - Jersey boys in aid of NGNPUK
We're really pleased to announce that Whittlesey Music nights have arranged a sponsored charity event for NGNPUK at Childers in January.  Details are below;

Jersey Boys
Saturday 11th January 2020
8 PM – 11 PM
Childers Sports & Social Club,
1a, Station Rd, Whittlesea, PE7 1SA Peterborough 
Hosted by Whittlesey Music Nights 
Please contact Whittlesey Music Nights for Tickets  

These are a very popular event, so make sure you contact Whittlesey music nights to book up early!

That’s all for now...  Till next time!

​Louise, Samantha and Lee
Team NGNPUK.

Hi all, wow what a busy few months it’s been! Time to try and update you all on September’s goings on.

Lets start with a few thank you’s for donations.

• Thank you to Alison Shaw for the filled Jam Jars for the Whittlesey Festival also to the Chalkboard Bistro at the Key Theatre for donating a £30 voucher to go with the 2 tickets for the Greatest Showman Sing along at the Key Theatre on Saturday 14th September.
• Big thanks to Kim Fountain who has set up our first monthly donation directly from her wages to  NGNPUK) . A great idea and now we are all set up to receive donations in this way. 
•  A huge thank you to McCain for their amazing donation of £1115 ! This will enable us to buy another syringe driver, lockbox and toolbox outright to help in the local communities.Massive thanks for this very generous donation which will make a big difference to people who need a machine in the future.

Whittlesey Festival
The Whittlesey Festival was on Sunday 8th September and we had a fantastic day! Thank you to everyone who donated anything to make the day a huge success. We made a whopping £621 this year, which is double what we took last year.

We were also able to unveil our beautiful new pink gazebo which we love and have waited very patiently for but think it was well worth the wait. Thank you again to the Milton Trust for their generosity. We even had a special visitor (check out our gallery to see the photos) a dragonfly who came to see us.

Our gorgeous name the tiger was won by young Theo who guessed the correct name was Tyler . 
The winner of the Greatest Showman and £30 Chalkboard voucher raffle was drawn by Karen from the march Rotary club and the lucky winner was Jo Hunt.  Jo lost the prize to her daughter and partner pretty much straight away

Handover 14th Sept
And the're off! 30 brand new syringe drivers, all complete with plastic lock boxes and toolboxes to keep them safe. This is what it’s all about. These machines will be out in the local communities making a difference to so many people.

We would like to say A HUGE thank you to EVERYONE who has done ANYTHING to help make this happen. These machines are vital in palliative care and help deliver pain relief and other drugs when patients can no longer take medication orally. Syringe Drivers can help patients remain at home with their loved ones instead of being in hospital or a hospice.

This takes the total donated to 91!! We have now reached over £100,000 in donations and grants and believe us when we say we had NO IDEA this would happen when we began fundraising for the first machine just under 4 years ago. 7 of the new machines will be off to help our Fenland neighbours and 23 will be used in the wider communities covered by the Peterborough and Cambridgeshire Foundation Trust reaching out as far as the Cambridge, Huntingdon, Brampton, St Ives, Royston and many other surrounding towns and villages.

Thank you everyone for your continued support. YOU all make this happen. A big thank you also to our wonderful District Nurses out there who do an amazing job looking after patients and their families. It was great to meet some of the team  :) xx

As well as the machines we were able to donate over 500 Syringe Driver bags for patients to place the machines in when they have one. We have had such amazing feedback about these bags and they really are very personal to patients and their families. Massive thanks to everyone who has made a bag they make a massive difference.


River trip winners
We are so lucky to have some amazing people support us at NGNPUK. Not only did Elin and Paul Floe Styles open up their beautiful garden and organise the Ukulele Picnic by the river again this year, they also donated a raffle prize of the afternoon on their boat.

Take a look at the Gallery to see the winners enjoying themselves on the river trip.  They had a fantastic day for it with blue skies and sunshine. They also enjoyed scones and bubbly  :)

Thanks again Elin & Paul. xx

Xmas Fayre
Plans are well underway for our next event which dare we say it is our Early Bird Christmas Shopping event at the Eastrea Centre on Sunday 3rd November 🎅🎄🎁🤶. Yes it will be here before we know it 😳.

Last year we had some lovely ladies run a tombola for us with a beautiful collection of chocolate orange covers. They were so popular and we would love to do the same this year. Someone has been very kindly knitting for us and we have about 50 so far but we would love a few more.

We have popped a photo in the gallery on the off chance a few of you might know someone who would like to help make a few in time for the event.  There are lots of different patterns out there and we are not fussy  :). We are also looking for the odd chocolate orange donation if anyone would like to donate one.

• Thank you Anna Foster for the Chocolate oranges you have donated for the Christmas fayre 
• Thank you Shelly Anderson for your donation of chocolate oranges for the Christmas fayre  :) .
• Thanks also to everyone who has offered to knit some Christmas puddings and/or Christmas trees for them to go in 

Hospital Plea
Please share as far as you can everyone. These machines are so important and need to find their way back home to Peterborough Hospital.  If you are a member of a community page or group locally please could you share on there too. Thank you!

Do you have a T34 McKinley Syringe Pump from Peterborough City Hospital at home that you no longer use? This is how you can return it.
You will be able to identify if your pump comes from Peterborough City Hospital by looking at the identification sticker with an asset number on the bottom of the pump.
Please return the driver in the jiffy bag/box provided to any of the following places:
• Main reception at Peterborough City Hospital (Mon-Sun 06:30: 21:00)
• Your District Nursing team
• Your Palliative Care/Macmillan nurse
• By post to: John Ellington/Annette Turner:
o Freepost, Dept No. 310a, Peterborough City Hospital, Edith Cavell Campus, Breton Gate, Peterborough, PE3 9GZ
For any queries please contact the Palliative Care team 01733 678579.
Return boxes should have been provided with the device, but can be requested.

Patient Feedback 
As we've already mentioned, It's all been a bit full on here and we are not sure if we are at a Christmas fayre or a summer ball 😳🤣 but we have some feedback we wanted to share with you:

One of the local areas that has benefited from some new machines had a total of 14 being used in one week. That's just one area. We are so pleased of the difference these new machines are making. Thank you again everyone for your support, by helping us you help so many.

See you soon!

​Louise, Samantha and Lee
Team NGNPUK.

As we close the door on summer and prepare to embrace Autumn, we get the chance to celebrate those last few wonderful sunny days with a few brilliant events..

Annual WUF picnic by the river 
To start with, we'd like to say a massive thanks to everyone who attended the Ukulele picnic by the river on the 3rd of August, and in particular to a huge thanks to Elin and Paul for organising it all and opening up their beautiful garden again this year. It is always such a wonderful event and as always a special mention to the Wansford Ukulele Folk for providing the entertainment again!  They really do put on a great show.

We think Elin put it so beautifuly and we agree wholeheartely.

"Thank you to everyone who came, played ukulele, donated, supported and otherwise helped the Ukulele Picnic today. 
The amazing amount raised so far (after a couple of honest guests messaged to say that they had forgotten to pay) is again £1100 (+ a bit still to come)

So, another Syringe Driver will soon be out in our community and make such a difference to people at very difficult times. I am truly amazed. Thank you to everyone xxx  And Samantha Carter from NGNPUK worked soooo hard! Thank you Sam!! X"

We are always blown away by the effort and commitiment that Elin (and Paul) put into this event and it testament that so many can't wait to do it again! 

There was one last surprise when the total of £1171.00 was raised on the day, and another £1000.00 was matched funded and with a final kind donation of £29 to round the total to an incredible £2200.00!

That's two more Syringe Drivers that will be available in our Communities which will make such a difference to people at very difficult times.

As always we thank you for your support!

Early Bird Christmas Fayre
As we mentioned last month, we're not known for resting on our laurels, so have been head down prepearing for the Early Bird Christmas fayre. We know it's early but the venue is all booked and we alrfeady have a lot of stall holders booked in :). It always seems such a well regarded event, so get there early so you don't miss out ;-) 

Please share if you dare ;) xx

So excited..
Finally after months of waiting we had an unexpected knock at the door and a precious box was delivered :) .
It contained 30 brand new Syringe Drivers and lockboxes!

This will be be biggest donation so far and we would like to thank each and everyone of you for your support! Without you all this would never be possible.

We will be handing these over to the District Nursing teams of the Peterborough and Cambridge Fountain Trust to be used in the local communities in mid September :)

These machines will make a massive difference to patients and families in palliative care locally.  However, just in case you missed it our mantra is below:-.

What is a syringe driver?
It is a small portable computerised machine that delivers pain relief and other drugs in palliative care. They can help patients remain comfortable at home with their loved ones instead of going into hospital or a hospice. One machine costs £1100 and can help so many during it's working lifetime. Many areas share a small number of these vital machines.

The Enchanted Plaza
Did you know that NGNPUK have a unit at at the Enchanted Plaza in Yaxley where local crafters have been making items to sell with all the proceeds going to Ngnpuk? 

Take a look at their facebook page, of better still, get yourself over to have a look at all the beautiful things people have been making.

https://www.facebook.com/theenchantedplaza/

Big thanks to Sonia Ciriello for supporting NGNPUK at the Enchanted Plaza in Yaxley :) If you would like to donate anything handmade for the shelf please get in touch with us or Sonia :) x

Whittlesey Festival & donations
As we prep for the Whittlesey festival, we'd like to say a huge thank you to the following:

Emma Brown, Anna Foster, Sue Shore, Felicity, Amanda from the Lovely Little Tea room in Thorney, Marion Godfrey ,Shirley Short, Joanne Ball at Childers , Janet Smith for the big box of goodies, Jason Mockett, Eileen Ladd's, Leanne Sargent, Clare Marie, Kathleen Forbear, Steve Gale, Sue Beck and everyone who donated any sweets, Jam jars or toys donated for our jam jar tombola at the Whittlesey Festival on 8th September.

We would also like to say a huge THANK YOU to BGL for the donation of £100 to enable us to buy sweets and toys for our jam jar tombola at the Whittlesey festival :) . This is a HUGE help to us this year and will make a massive difference to our stall.
Thank you Amy Goodacre for helping organise this :) xxx
 
Also, big thanks to Jackie Bullen who has donated 2 tickets to the Greatest Showman Sing Along at the Key Theatre on Saturday 14th September. A huge thanks also to the Chalkboard Bistro at the Key Theatre for donating a £30 voucher to help us fundraise at the Whittlesey Festival.

We will be raffling these alongside our Jam Jar tombola and name the bear at the Whittlesey Festival on Sunday 8th September :) x

Big thanks to Tammie Robertson Peacock for the bottles of booze donated. These will come in very handy for future raffles and booze hampers x

Massive thanks to Jenny Bowles from just outside Cambridge for the huge box of Syringe Driver bags she made and sent to us. There are some beautiful bags and even some Angry Birds ones! We love them and we're sure they will be gratefully received out in the community. Xx

Huge thanks to the friends and family of Brigitte Jones who raised a fantastic £105 through Facebook Fundraising in honor of Brigitte and her dads birthdays. Thank you all so much. This donation will go towards a new syringe driver in the future :) xx

Thank you to the friends and family of David Peaks who gave NGNPUK a very generous donation of £449.55 collected in his memory.
These donations make a huge difference to the charity and help provide more machines to help local communities.

Thanks again, and our thoughts are with you all. Xx

Perkins Great Eastern Run 2019
Running has become a bit of a theme here at NGNPUK HQ, and the lovely Karen Wilmott is running the Peterborough Great Eastern Run and her first marathon for NGNPUK in memory of Kevin Bassam.

If you would like to sponsor Karen or read her story you can do so below :) . Thank you Karen. Xx

https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-display/showROFundraiserPage?pageId=1092394&fbclid=IwAR2y1w_iJBS_fyovvH-zPkoxDk9tLxoWEsP6iQFj-LHwPoDJG2D5fOYYjao#

If you are interested in running in an event for charity and would like to do something for NGNPUK, please do get in touch

That’s all for this month folks! See you soon!

​Louise, Samantha and Lee
Team NGNPUK.

Welcome to July’s blog! It’s been yet another busy month here at NGNPUK

Donations
We have had some amazing donations this month coming from the Burghley Family Trust, The Earl Fitzwilliam Charitable Trust, and the Masonic Fenland Farmer Lodge.

We would like to thank these Trusts and organisations for their generosity. These donations will make a massive difference to patients and their families in palliative care in our local communities by enabling us to buy more machines.

Tour of Cambridgeshire | Gran Fondo
This month we were offered a fantastic opportunity to help at next year's Tour Of Cambridgeshire at the Peterborough showground on Sunday 7th June 2020!

We were looking for 20 willing volunteers who would each earn a £50 donation directly to NGNPUK by helping on the day. We realised it was a year away but we know how busy everyone gets.

The first 10 volunteers would be on traffic duty between 6am and 12 and the second 10 would be needed from midday until around 6pm to hand out medals to the finishers. (What
a great job :) !) 

Lunch and a t-shirt will be provided, and everyone would just need to be able to get to the venue at Peterborough showground and back again.

We were so pleased with the response and now have our 20 volunteers! What a great way to earn some money for NGNPUK so thank you everyone who has volunteered.

Annual Ukelele Picnic - Wansford
Also this month plans were well underway for the annual WUF’s Picnic by the river.

The wonderful Wansford Ukulele Folk are playing for the 3rd year running in aid of NGNPUK on 3rd August.  This has always been a wonderful event and we would like to thank Elin and Paul Floe Styles for opening their beautiful garden and hosting the event again. It really is a spectacular setting. Huge thanks to the WUF again they, are a fantastic band.

Tickets are now all sold out and we hope the sun shines for everyone on the day.

NGNPUK Christmas Fayre
Preparations are also well underway for the NGNPUK Early Bird Christmas Fayre. Yes we know it’s early but we have to be organised :).
The date is booked for 3rd November at the Eastrea Centre, and no doubt this will soon roll around!

If you would like a stall please contact Nicky Bedford either through Facebook or by emailing at nkybed@yahoo.co.uk

As with previous years we are trying to have one of each type of stall to give customers a good variety so please do not be offended if we already have a stall selling the same items and you are put on the reserves list.

Nearer the time if anyone would like to make us a cake for our coffee and cake stall we would really appreciate that. We had some AMAZING cakes last year. 

Bits and bobs!
We would like to thank Gwen Pacey for the raffle prizes and car boot bits donated this month also thanks to Joan for the beautiful syringe driver bags you have made and donated.

Louises 1000 miles for NGNPUK
Last but by no means is least Louise still running! 330 miles left for her 1000 miles in 2019 challenge.

On Sunday 28 th July Louise and her running pals were out trying to raise awareness of NGNPUK, syringe drivers and the vital role they play in palliative care at a rather wet race in Littleport. Littleport is just one of the areas covered by the Fenland District Nurse teams of the CPFT.

They also cover Ely, March, Wisbech, Soham, Chatteris, Parsons Drove, Haddenham, Manea, Sutton, Doddington, Burwell and all surrounding towns and villages.

NGNPUK hope to supply more machines to these areas in the next batch.

Big thanks to Amy Hales and Carl Ellingham for donning the charity vests to help spread the word it all helps.

If you would like to sponsor Louise you can click on the link below.

uk.virginmoneygiving.com/LOUISENicholls11

That’s all for this month folks! See you in August.

​Louise, Samantha and Lee
Team NGNPUK.

NGNUK Blog
Well overdue….
 
Hi all,
 
Well it’s been a long time since we last posted so it’s time for a well overdue catch up.  As usual, many things have been going on behind the scenes, with a number of updates that we hope to bring you up to date with.
 
It’s quite mad that since our last update in the New Year, we find out selves staring into the beginning of what hopefully will turn out to be another glorious summer.
So what’s been happening since?
 
Tesco Bags of Help
You may be aware that NGNPUK were chosen as one of Tesco’s charities in their bags for life scheme, running through January & February this year.  This allowed members of the public to “choose” their charity by dropping a token into one of the voting stands. 
We were pleased to receive enough public support to awarding us 3rd place and a donation of £1000 from Tesco’s and Groundforce. Every penny really does help and this goes a long way to supplying another syringe driver into our local community.
Thank you to everyone who voted for us, and for your selfies.  Take a look at our gallery for the pictures.
 
Donations
As the New Year is often a time to commit to changes and new resolutions, NGNPUK are happy to help remove temptation by accepting any kinds of gifts for events and raffles we run regularly through the year.  We were very fortunate to help some Thorney residents get 2019 off to a great start through their Christmas detox.   Thank you to all those that donated extra, unwanted and leftover “goodies”. They been much appreciated and have helped to raise pennies for the syringe driver pot. We couldn’t achieve what we do without the help of our communities and hopefully, we’ve helped you stay on the path away from temptation!! ;-)
 
We were also fortunate to receive a donation from Whittlesey based Vanden Recycling following their Christmas hamper Raffle. 
Lee was invited to take a look around the recycling plant where plastic materials are recycled back into raw grade materials to be reused in manufacturing.  Vanden were looking for a local charity to support, and felt NGNPUK was the perfect fit.
Once again, thanks to the team at Vanden Recycling, and thank you to the sterling job you’re doing in the battle against the scourge of plastics….
 
One of the things we like to do is to get involved with those who are helping us.  You will often find us doing talks at groups, visiting events and selling cakes.  This year, we were chosen as the charity to benefit from the March Rotary and Lions Santa sleigh appeal. 
 
Team NGNPUK were out in force with the March Rotary and Lions members visiting the public with Santa. It was wonderful to meet so many lovely people, and in particular seeing the faces as Santa stopped by to say hi. A total of £450 was donated to NGNPUK from both clubs. Thank you!
 
 
We had a lovely donation of £217.60 from a gentleman who donated a lot of craft bits and pieces owned by his late wife to be sold at the Enchanted Plaza. Thank you Sonia for organising this.
 
Thank you to the Ladies Fellowship Deeping St James who invited Louise along to talk about NGNPUK and explain what we do and why. The lovely ladies also donated £40 into the Syringe Driver fund.
 
We had an amazing donation from the Evelyn Trust of £4000 to buy more Syringe Drivers for the Cambridgeshire area who are currently struggling with low numbers of machines.
The Evelyn Trust support medical research and health and wellbeing projects in Cambridgeshire.
Well done to Lee who found and applied for this grant for us
 
Thanks to Jan Sharman for the donation of £33 for doing various sewing jobs for people. Instead of payment Jan very kindly asks for a small donation into the syringe driver pot. A great idea! Jan also likes to make syringe driver bags with a bit of a difference and has made some double and triple driver bags, some with pockets and buttons! Great ideas!
 
 
Artist Donation
Local artist Diana Blake sold some of her beautiful art work at the Friends of St Mary's art and craft exhibition at the weekend and donated the proceeds to NGNPUK. £135! Thank you Diana.
 
Sam had a Birthday!
Sam was our first attempt at the Facebook birthday fundraiser and her friends and family who were able to donate online raised and amazing £127! This was the first time anyone has used this method and it worked really well plus it was all free! No hidden charges for the charity so a great way to donate. Thanks again to everyone who donated. You are helping to make a difference.
 
Crafting
We’ve been so fortunate to have a wonderful community of crafting volunteers who continue to provide us with Syringe driver bags.  We often have crafting groups come together to make bags for us and it if lovely to visit to see the sense of pride and community that coming together for a common cause has.  We’ve also been very fortunate to be supported by our friend’s at Riverside beads and crafts, and the Enchanted Plaza, who have amongst other things organised free events such as “sew-alongs” for the public to come along and have a go at making driver bags.
A big thanks also goes out to the following crafters and individuals
 

• Fitzwilliam & Bits n Pieces Quilters who also donated £700 to the syringe driver fund.
• Jenny Bowles
• Orton Waterville Methodist chapel Group who also donated £400 to the Syringe Driver fund.
• Market Deeping Hijackers

 
Jo hunt, Joan, Gwen, Ann, Helen, Trish, Maureen, Shelagh, Pauline, Sandy Jan, Rosemary, Annette, Judi and Jennifer for the continued supply of bags. Special thanks to Rosemary Marson for the beautiful dragonfly tags made to put on the bags.
 
Thanks again to Lee Fisher at Interior Goods Direct in Wakefield for the constant supply of free material this is a massive help.
 
Also, a big thank you to Sonia and the team at the Enchanted Plaza in Yaxley, who have donated a charity shelf to NGNPUK in store.  If you have anything handmade you would like to donate you can take it along there and Sonia will display it on the NGNPUK shelf.
 
These single use bags are in constant need, so if you would like to get involved, take a look at the easy to follow pattern or get in touch with us here an NGNPUK.
 
NGNPUK Quiz Night.
We had a quiz night at Childers in Whittlesey on 1st March and it was a good turn out again (thankfully no snow this year!) Everyone raised a whopping £1475.90! Enough to buy another machine outright!
Big thanks to everyone who donated a raffle prize. This is the first time we have ever had an anonymous donation for a prize so thank you to whoever it was who donated the 32”flat screen TV! Also to Gary, Chris, Andy and Denise for all their hard work setting the questions and running the quiz. Also to Joanne Ball who let us have the room at Childers for free and the caterers and bar staff who looked after us all so well. The food was fab!
 
Sams car boot
Sam has been busy on the car boot scene and managed to add another £85 into the pot. We had a donation of horse bits and bobs from Lin Griffin which really helped. Also donations from Charlotte Mariee from Bourne and Claire Juliet from Southampton.
 
Thanks!
Huge thanks to Melanie Gowler and her team at McCain for always doing any printing we need! Leaflets, driver bag instructions, you name it they print it! It really helps us get the word out there.
The help we get from McCain saves us so much time and money and means every penny goes into the pot for more machines!
 
The Buffaloes
Last year, Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes in the Peterborough District had been fundraising and running events for their chosen charity, NGNPUK.  This ranged from taking our unwanted stuff to car boot sales to hog roasts, family bingo evenings, race nights and many fundraising activities.
 
We’ve been very fortunate to spend some time with many of the Buffs and their generosity is amazing, so we were a little overwhelmed when we were presented with a cheque for £7683, a culmination of the entire years fundraising.
 
It is a truly staggering amount and they have made team NGNPUK (and our families) so welcome.  It’s been a pleasure spending time with them all.
 
Letter B
It seems a month doesn’t go by whereby we’re not being contacted by Bruce and the team at the letter B public house.  We were fortunate to receive another donation of £300 from Bruce and his amazing patrons following their quiz nights.
 
We really do appreciate all the support, and just a special mention to Bruce and the regulars at the Letter B who have supported NGNPUK from day one, and support so many other local and worthy charities.  These guys are true charity and community super heroes.
 
Lost machines!
As you know if you follow our page all sorts of things can happen to Syringe Drivers, they can get lost, broken, destroyed (as people think they are disposable) or simply not returned after use. 
As you may have seen from some of the posts we share many hospitals and hospice's struggle to have their machines returned to them. Although we fundraise for machines to be used in our communities we will always do our utmost to make sure any machine is returned to its rightful owner.

We have always kept an eye on internet selling pages and sure enough there are usually a few McKinley T34 syringe drivers for sale. Recently we were able to identify one machine that should never have been for sale as it belonged to a hospice in London.

As you can see from the photo (in the gallery) this machine had markings saying St Chris. After a little research we suspected this machine belonged to St Christopher’s Hospice in London. We contacted them and they confirmed it was indeed one of their machines. We were also told how they serve 5 boroughs in London and they do sadly loose around 10 machines a year despite going to extreme measures to get them back. Some of their machines have even been found for sale on car boot sales!

We were very interested in how they tackle the issues of getting their machines back and found that as well as these stencil markings they also use 3 hard to remove labels on each machine which also withstand harsh chemicals, as you can see from the photo of this driver these have been removed.
This machine is now a police matter and we hope the hospice are able to get this vital piece of equipment back but this goes to show what hospitals and hospices can be up against. There are still machines for sale and these have all been looked into.

Syringe drivers can ONLY be used by TRAINED Professional’s. They also need to be correctly calibrated and serviced yearly. Each machine has a unique serial number and when they go in for servicing this is checked against who purchased the machine. If these do not tally questions are asked.

We know are never going to stop this sort of thing completely but the more we can share information about these machines the more chance there is of them getting back to where they should be.
 
As a charity we have now looked into these stencil markings and going forward have decided to use this on all of the new Syringe Drivers we donate. It will cost around £1.15 per machine and if in the future it means a machine gets back to its rightful home then we feel it is well worth it. We have also shared this information with other hospitals who we know are struggling to get their machines back. We will always do our utmost to make sure ANY syringe driver gets back to its rightful home, we know as you all do just how many people one machine can help.
 
 
Driver donations
This year has been the most “frustrating” one so far in terms of Syringe driver delivery.  We have our own timetable to deliver a batch of drivers roughly every 6 months.  This ensures that they don’t all have to be serviced or replaced at the same time.
 
This year, the McKinley T34 has been due an “upgrade”.  While there is no impact on those 61 drivers we’re delivered to date, it has meant that we’ve been unable to buy any newer ones until the “upgraded” model has been completed, signed off by the manufactures and the CPFT as being fit for purpose.
 
However, as we stand today (June) we hope to have some more positive news of a handover in the next few weeks!!
 
In the meantime, we have been able to donate 10 additional lock boxes to replace those that have been damaged during the course of use.
 
Running
Now for those that follow our Facebook page, they will have recently seen our very own Louise’s 1000 mile challenge for 2019.  This is her commitment to run 1000 miles whist raising some money for NGNPUK at the same time.
 
With BT Mydonate closing down this was also a good time to try a new online fundraising platform and after a lot of research (as we do) we decided Virginmoneygiving had to be the one for us.
 
Why?  Well, following on from Sam and Lee’s efforts over the last couple of years in the Perkins Great eastern run, Louise (an “exer-phobe” who would never be able to run) committed to running the event in 2018. 
 
She was so elated to not only have completed it but raised money as well, that she has now spent the last several months running and racing.  Her mission is simply to run 1000 miles in 2019.  If you’d like to sponsor her, follow the link below:
 
https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-display/showROFundraiserPage?pageId=1030021
 
Following the running theme, huge congratulations to John Taylor our friend from Liverpool.  John’s wife Julie Taylor runs the wonderful charity, Making for charity, and has been an absolute godsend in our own drive for syringe driver bags.
 
John ran the London Marathon and raised £1074.55 that he donated to NGNPUK.  This money will go a long way to buying another driver for our communities and we’re honoured that John (and Julie) thought of us!
 
To find out more about making for charity, see the link below.
 
 https://www.facebook.com/makingforcharity/
 
Trikefest 2019
 
We were so pleased to have been approached by Trikes R Us again who had decided to support NGNPUK as their charity of choice for their Trike fest event held in Littleport over the late May bank holiday weekend.
 
It was a beautiful weekend, and a special thanks to Sam’s mum Eileen for volunteering to help with the raffle for our booze hamper which raised £83.
 
Collection tubs
Thanks to everyone who keeps putting their spare change in the Pink NGNPUK collection tubs it’s all adding up.
Cross Keys in Wansford                 £68.27
Letter B Whittlesey                         £84.30
City Care Centre                                £ 24.81
Westfield Nursery                            £14.28
Fen Wah                                               £38.34
 
 
Finally, we’ve got a few up and coming dates for your diary:
 

• Saturday 3rd August - the annual "Ukulele Picnic by the River" in Wansford.  A wonderful afternoon of music in a beautiful private gardens.   Contact us for further details and tickets.
• Sunday 8th September - we will be at the Whittlesey Festival again this year on with our Jam jar tombola (any filled jam jars would be gratefully received).
• Sunday 3rd November - we have the early bird Christmas Craft Fayre (I know the C.. word) at the Eastrea Centre (please contact Nicky Bedford for a stall). If anyone would like to make us a cake for our coffee and cake stall we would really appreciate that. We had some AMAZING cakes last year :)
• Saturday 20th June 2020 - We are also excited to announce we have booked our second summer ball at the Great Northern Hotel on 20th June 2020. Yes it’s a year away but it give you time to find your outfit ;)

 
There will be lots of other things come up during the year too just keep an eye on our page for details.
 
Wow 6 months in one go! We really must try and do the blog more often. Maybe a new year’s resolution for 2020.
 
​Louise, Samantha and Lee
Team NGNPUK.
.

January can be a quiet month in many respects but not in the NGNPUK world. Here, the weeks were again full of amazing people jumping to help us out.
 
Anyway, it’s time for a little reminder of what a syringe driver is:

It is a small computerised machine that delivers pain relief and other drugs in palliative care. They can help patients remain comfortable at home with their loved ones instead of going into hospital or a hospice. One machine costs £1100 and can help so many during its working lifetime. Many areas share a small number of these vital machines and it is so important that we keep fundraising to supply the communities. The difference a syringe driver makes to both patients and their families is enormous. We receive so many letters telling us this.
 
Here is this month’s fantastic contributors:
 
Big thanks to Jason Mockett for your donation of £30 from your win of the Letter B bonus ball last week.
 
RAFFLE PRIZES:
We are always happy to receive raffle prizes and this month we had deliveries from:
Janet Harbour.
Rachael Smith.
Julie Brookbanks
Stephen and Adrienne Hodson
 
Huge thanks to everyone from Thorney for all your bottles, sweet goodies, smellies and toys left over from Christmas. All this was collected from the lovely Trudy Spridgeon.

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!
 
TESCO:
We have been lucky enough to have been chosen as one of Tesco’s charities for their bags of help scheme for the months of January and February.

There are three charities to choose from and the one with the most votes will receive £4000. The second and third charities will receive £2000 and £1000 so it is well worth casting your vote.

As we've mentioned, Syringe Drivers cost £1100 each and one machine can help so many people in palliative care during its working lifetime. Syringe Drivers can help patients remain comfortable at home with their families instead of going into hospital or a hospice by administering pain relief and other drugs continually over a period of time. Many large areas shared just a small number of these machines but with everyone's help we are increasing these numbers in our local communities.

All you have to do to help is make any purchase and pick up a blue coin at the tills (even the self-service tills) then pop it in the bags of help collection station.

 The participating stores are -

•  Tesco Serpentine Green at Hampton
•  Tesco City Centre
•  Tesco Oundle Road
•  Tesco Stanground
•  Tesco Orton.

 
 GILDENBURGH CHOIR DONATION:
Big thanks to everyone at the Gildenburgh Choir in Peterborough for the donation of £81 to NGNPUK. This money was collected by the choir at Christmas instead of sending out Christmas cards
 
 REINDEER FOOD WAS A GREAT SUCCESS:
Thank you to everyone who bought our Wildlife Friendly Reindeer food for Christmas Eve. We raised a whopping £82.43! We hope Rudolph and his friends enjoyed it and it helped to keep them all well fed.
  
THE PINK TUBS:
Big thanks to everyone who put their spare change in the NGNPUK tub at The Enchanted Plaza in Yaxley. You raised a fab £48.00 to go into the Syringe Driver pot

-and another big thanks to everyone at the NHS Retirement Foundation who put their spare change in the NGNPUK tub. You all raised a fantastic £62.95 to go into the Syringe Driver pot.
 
RECYCLING CHRISTMAS RAFFLE:
Big thanks to all the members of staff at Vanden Recycling in Whittlesey who held a Christmas raffle and donated an amazing £210 to NGNPUK from the proceeds.

These donations make a massive difference and really help us provide more machines to be used in the local communities. Lee went along to meet everyone to say thank you and had a very interesting time finding out what these guys do. They recycle industrial plastics into small plastic flakes ready to be re used.

Huge thanks to everyone and to Danny Baker for recommending NGNPUK as the charity to benefit from the raffle.
 
BT MYDONATE UPDATE:
We have always used BT Mydonate as our online giving page as they have always taken a much smaller percentage per donation than many other giving pages. The maximum we have ever paid has been 20p per donation where some sites charge £15 a month as well as a %.

 Sadly we have been informed that BT have taken the decision to close their online giving page on 30th June 2019.
 We are still able to accept payments up to and including 30th however we will need to use a different online giving site after this date.

 We will be looking into different giving pages to work out which one will be best for us to use. In the meantime if you would like to fundraise for us by using Mydonate you can still do that up to 30th June. Gift aid will still be claimed and paid to us (which is a big help).

We will confirm which online site we will be using after this date once we have done all our homework to find out which one gets us the most for everyone's pennies.
  
SYRINGE DRIVER BAGS:
We are pleased to say we will be able to donate 304 bags and 8 double bags today (double bags are a new prototype developed by Jan Sharman for people who may need more than one machine).

That is an amazing effort and we would like to thank everyone who has made a bag!

Big thanks to all these “bag ladies”:  
Gwen Bunting and her friends Ann, Helen, Trish, Maureen, Shelagh, Pauline and Sandy who have delivered more Syringe driver bags to us.
Shirley Short for making and delivering
Jo Hunt for making and delivering

Of course this will leave us with zero bags and as you can tell they are always needed. We are overwhelmed from the response from everyone who has contacted us to help. Thank you all very much.
 
You are ALL making a huge difference at a very difficult time for people in our communities.
  
IN MEMORY:
Thank you to the friends and family of Zonah Boon for the donation of £55 collected in her memory. Zonah was a Mum, Nan, Great Nan, Great Great Nan and friend to many. We are thinking of all the family at this difficult time.

​Louise, Samantha and Lee
Team NGNPUK.

We'd like to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a happy, healthy New Year.

Thank you to everyone for all their support in 2018. Thanks to you all, there are now 61 new machines out their helping many patients their families and our lovely District Nurses. We hope there will be more to come in 2019 which will help the wider communities.
​
We have had amazing support and wholeheartedly thank you all!
 
Here are all the great thing that happened in December:

December started with a trip around Whittlesey with Santa and the Whittlesey Lions on the 2nd and again on the 4th, in March with the Lions and the Rotary. In particular, the March collection will be shared between 4 charities and NGNPUK were lucky enough to be one of them.

It was cold but fun nights supporting the Lions who are always supporting us and a nice hug with Santa kept Samantha and Louise warm.
 
Christmas Tree
Well it’s all done and we absolutely LOVE the NGNPUK tree!!
​
Massive thanks again to Jason Mockett for buying the tree it's amazing! To our lovely friend Donna McKean Smith from Riverside Beads for donating the card. To the talented Nicky Bedford for spending the time making the beautiful dragonflies for us and to all the families who contacted us to have their loved ones names added to the tree.
 
We hope you all love it as much as we do and that lots of you managed to visit St Mary's Church to see all the beautiful trees. It all looks amazing. Well done to everyone who decorated a tree for this lovely event. The church was full to the brim with beautiful trees.
 
UPDATE:
Wow thank you to everyone who voted for the NGNPUK tree at the Whittlesey Christmas Tree Festival.

We are a little overwhelmed as we won the best group tree which is just fantastic and lovely that people loved the tree as much as we did.

It meant so much to everyone seeing their loved ones names on the dragonflies.

Thank you to all the families who have been in touch over the last few days we are so glad it has brought a little bit of comfort to you all.

The church looked amazing and all the trees were beautiful. Well done to everyone who took part and all the organisers.

Valarie and Julie:
Big thanks to Valarie Griffiths for your donation at the carol service and to Julie Brookbanks for your kind donation.

WERRINGTON JOGGERS:
We would like to say a huge thank you to the Werrington Joggers who donated a whopping £1400 to NGNPUK last night.

Samantha went along and was presented with a cheque by Paul Burgess.  This donation will enable us to buy another machine outright which will help so many people when they need it most.

Big thanks to everyone involved.

RETIREMENT:
We would like to say a massive thank you to the lovely Janet Smith for her wonderful donation of £1000 to celebrate her retirement from Nisa in Whittlesey. Huge thanks Janet this donation will help so many people.  We wish you lots of fantastic adventures in the future.
 
CHRISTMAS CARD DONATIONS:
A big thank you to Wendette Horne Christian, Jo Hunt and Eileen Nixon for your donations to NGNPUK instead of sending out Christmas cards this year.

We wish you and your families a very happy Christmas and a great New Year.
 
FANTASTIC LOCAL DONATIONS:
Big thanks to the team at GasDesign in Whittlesey for the very generous donation of £500 to NGNPUK instead of sending out gifts and cards to clients this Christmas.

GasDesign donate to four charities and we are very grateful to have been one of the charities to receive a donation this year.
Also a huge thanks to the Whittlesey Round Table for their very generous donation of £500! These donations will help so many people.

Massive thanks to everyone involved with both donations.
 
In memory:
 
Thank you to the friends and family of Jim Roan who gave us a very generous donation of £352.90 collected in his memory. These donations make a huge difference to NGNPUK and help provide more machines to help the wider local communities. Thanks again, we will be thinking of you all.
  
COLLECTION TUBS:
It is amazing how far loose change goes.
 
Big thanks to everyone who put their spare change in the NGNPUK tub at Westfield Nursery in Whittlesey. You raised a fab £35.81 to go into the Syringe Driver pot and thank you to all the customers who put their spare change in the NGNPUK collection tubs at the Farcet Post Office. You raised a whopping £93.69 .

Those pennies really do add up!!
 
CLEVER SEWING:
A big thank you goes to Jan Sharman for your donation of £15. Jan has recently carried out a few sewing jobs for people and instead of receiving payment she has asked for donations for NGNPUK. 

​Jan has also made some fab syringe driver bags which are single bags with buttons on the side which can be buttoned together to make a double bag for those needing 2 machines. Fantastic idea! 

As always, thank you for another year of outstanding support, you really are making a difference to our communities.
​
Louise, Samantha and Lee
Team NGNPUK.

What a summer we are having. Fabulous in every way. As ever, our problem is never to get people to support us – it’s keeping up with it all and at the same time preparing for future events. We are never bored.

August was no exception:
 
Bags:
Material Girls, who meet at the Eastrea Centre once a week and have made some beautiful Syringe Driver bags (take a look at our gallery). They are so bright and colourful and will be very gratefully received. Thank you also to Anna foster for dropping them off to us. We are so lucky to have such wonderful community spirit! These were all made in just one morning. Well done everyone!

Shirley Short also both made and delivered lovely syringe driver bags this month. Thanks again. Shirley.
 
Collections:
Our little pink collection boxes are steadily and steadfast bringing in the pennies.
Thanks as ever to staff and customers at the Muffin Oven in Whittlesey. Another £45.04 towards our great cause.
 
Events:
For the second year running we spent a sunny afternoon by the river in Wansford, being entertained by Wansford Ukulele Folk  (WUF, for short..) and enjoying our picnic bags full of goodies, in Paul and Elin Styles’ garden. A lovely afternoon which on the day raised £1033.00. As tickets are limited to 50, this is a very generous bunch…The last £67.00 was raised by any means in the following days, so enough was raised for another syringe driver. Thank you so much to all who attended, donated and helped. A specal mention to Barry Veni, who made a fab garden table from a pallet, sold it and donated the money to the cause.  Hope to do it all again next year.

A great surprise:
Wow is all we can say! We received a letter from the Peterborough senior citizens forum who have unfortunately had to close their forum due to lack of support. Their constitution stated that any monies they had must be given to charities or groups that will benefit the general public and they chose to send a donation of £2250!! to NGNPUK. We cannot thank the forum enough for their generosity. This donation will buy 2 more syringe drivers which will help so many more people when they are most in need. Massive thanks.
 
Thank you to the Rotary club of Peterborough Ortons for their donation of £25 to NGNPUK. The Werrington Rotary club sadly closed and bequeathed their beautiful bell to the Ortons club who offered to make a donation to a charity of the Werrington clubs choice. Many thanks to both clubs.
 
Cake bake:
Big thanks again to Lindsay Halbert for organising a cake bake at her work (Royal Sun Alliance). You may remember Lindsay raised a whopping £200 for NGNPUK earlier in the year. We have just received another cheque for £200 from Royal Sun Alliance who have kindly matched what was raised which is fantastic. A big thank you all round.
 
Whittlesey festival:
Our local Whittlesey Festival is a big event for us and we have been busy getting donated sweets etc for our stall this year. More about that next month.
Thank you to the lovely district nurses who cover the Whittlesey, Thorney, Eye and Stanground areas for your donation of filled jam jars and sweets for the Whittlesey festival. Also to Sue Shore, Valerie Griffiths and Marion Godfrey for your goodies!
 
Thank you to Jan Mawby for your donation of soft toys which will come in very handy for a future teddy tombola.
 
In Memory:
We would like to say a heartfelt thank you to the family, friends and work colleagues of Justin Housden for their very generous donation of £1171.75 in his memory. Justin sadly passed away unexpectedly in February this year from complications after surgery and it was his families wish to donate any money raised in his menory to NGNPUK. We received a lovely letter from Justin 's employer Advanced Handling with a cheque for £871.75 and another £300 from Justin's partner Emma which was raised by family and friends in lieu of flowers at Justin's funeral. This donation will make a huge difference to people locally in need of palliative care in their own homes and will allow us to purchase a complete syringe driver and lock box. We would like to thank everyone for their generosity. We will be thinking of Justin's family at this very sad time. Thank you once again.
 
Thank you to Mr and Mrs Somers for the donation we received in memory of Terry Cooke.
 
We would like to say a big thank you to the friends and family of Elizabeth Atkins who sent us a very kind donation of £117.30. These donations make a huge difference to us and help buy more syringe drivers to help many more people in our local communities. We will be thinking of Elizabeth's family at this sad time.

Louise, Samantha and Lee
Team NGNPUK.

Hello again..

​Even in the midst of a heat wave things are happening. As most of us are enjoying the weather and the feeling that we are on Mediterranean holidays every day, people are still working hard to support this so worthwhile cause. Without the incredible support from all kinds of people and organisations, we would never be able to do what we do. Here’s this months stars…
​
Burghley Family Trust:
Thank you to the trustees of the Burghley Family Trust who have donated £1100 to provide another syringe driver to the Wansford area.This will cover Wansford, Laxton, Tixover, Stibbington, Barnack, Sutton, Collyweston, Stibbington, Pilsgate, Castor and Ailsworth, Wittering and all surrounding towns and villages. Massive thanks to the Trust for the generosity and as ever this machine will make such a difference to so many people during its working lifetime.

More beautiful bags made:
Thank you to everyone at the NHS retirement fellowship group for inviting Samantha along to collect the beautiful Syringe Driver bags you have made. These will be gratefully received by patents and their families. Samantha updated the group on our progress to date while she was there.
 
A big thank you to Jennifer Swan for the smashing syringe driver bags you made for us and also huge thanks to Simon Parr- Black from Orlando's in Whittlesey for donating some beautiful material for Jennifer to work with. 
 
Also thank you to Shirley Short for the lovely syringe driver bag and the tags you donated. It makes such a difference to have these bags to put the Drivers in.
 
Whittlesey Business forum - 5 Mile sponsored walk:
It was a great turn out for Whittlesey Business Forums 5 mile sponsored walk on the 8th July. Thank you to everyone who came along and managed to complete the walk in the heat! Massive thank you to the Business Forum for such a well organised event.  On behalf of the Whittlesey First responders and ourselves, thank you very much for supporting our charities.
  

Eye Charity run 12th July:
Massive thanks to everyone who baked a cake or donated a crate of beer for the Eye Charity 5 Mile run! Thanks also to everyone who came along tonight to help sell everything and generally help out. You all helped us raise £238.73 on tea and cake alone! Huge thank you to you all!

​There were a lot of comments about the cakes being a really great spread so thank you to all you bakers out there ! Take a look at the gallery for photos of the night.

Finally, a big thanks also to the Eye community Runners for organising such a fab event and choosing NGNPUK as the charity to benefit on the night.

The total raised was an amazing £1000, and will help so many people.

March Rotary Club
Thank you to Karen Coppin for inviting Louise along to talk to the March Rotary Club. It was lovely to meet everyone. Thank you to the club for your donation of £50 into the syringe driver fund and for helping us to spread the word.

It is just as important to spread the word and awareness about the availability of syringe drivers as it is raising money to supply them. We still come across many people in the community who have never heard about syringe drivers and the difference they can make to both patients and their families in such very difficult times.
  
Above and beyond:
Big thanks to Kim Fountain who gave up chocolate for lent and donated all the pennies she would have spent on chocolate during that time into the syringe driver pot. Thanks Kim and well done ! I dont think it’s something we could do….
 
Generous Radio Cambridgeshire listener:
Thank you to the Radio Cambridgeshire listener who sent in a donation for NGNPUK. We received the postal order for £50 today. There was no name or information but we wanted to thank whoever it was. These thoughtful donations make a huge difference and help us to buy more machines for the wider community.

Uhhh Cake…
Big thanks to Lindsay Halbert for organising a cake bake at her work (Royal Sun Alliance) and raising a whopping £200 for NGNPUK! That's a fantastic amount. As you know we all love a piece of cake (or two) at NGNPUK.  What can great way to raise some money…
  
A very big thank you to the contributors to these little pink collection pots:
Thank you to the regulars of The Letter B pub who put their spare change (and a few notes ) in the NGNPUK collection tub. You raised a whopping £122.47!

Also, thank you to the staff and customers of the Muffin Oven in Whittlesey who raised a fantastic £45.04 in the NGNPUK collection tub. Thank you xx

Finally, thank you to Sonia Ciriello for her donation of £141.77 made from the charity Christmas Disco back in December.
 
The lovely Trikers:
As mentioned in last month’s blog, the amazing Trikes R Us Rally in Ely, raised a whopping £1100.00 for us.

Take a look at our Gallery to find a picture of the cheque being handed over to our Samantha and Lee. Thank you so much! A lot of fun was had!
  
Thank you to the Freemasons.
It was lovely to meet David Redden and Mick Warren tonight and receive a cheque for an amazing £1400!

This very generous donation was given to NGNPUK from the Chicheley Lodge of Freemasons and the Provincial Grand Charity of Northants and Hunts Freemasons. Huge thanks to the Freemasons.

This will buy the first new syringe driver for the St Ives area which is covered by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Foundation Trust. This will be a very welcome addition in that area.

Thank you once again !
 
HAVE YOU GOT ANYTHING HIDING IN THE CUPBOARD….?
Well schools out for summer and our thoughts are turning to the Whittlesey Festival in September. Our jam jar tombola was a real hit last year and we hope to do it all again this year.

We would really appreciate any donations if anyone could help. We are looking for a jam jar's filled with something suitable for children (they don't have to be filled to the brim just a few bits and bobs would be ok) sweets, colouring pencils, keyrings, craft bits generally anything you think a child would like.

Or maybe you would be willing to donate a bag of sweets for us to use in some of the jars we have been collecting over the last year. We would be most grateful of any help anyone could offer.

Thank you once again everyone for your continued support
                                                   
In memory:
Thank you to the family and friends of Derek Osler who donated £300 to NGNPUK in his memory.

Derek had a syringe driver in his final days and was able to remain at home with his family by his side. We received a lovely letter from Derek's family and will be thinking of them all at this very sad time.

​Louise, Samantha and Lee
Team NGNPUK.

Hi All, 

We hope everyone s enjoying the good weather.  It's been a while since we got our last update out and we've so much to tell you about...

It's been a very exciting few months for us. Our first ball took place and it was a little nerve-racking having never done anything this big before. We were approached by Victoria Marshall who suggested the idea and it all went from there. Much more about the event a bit later.
The other reason for this being an exciting time was the delivery of 22 (yes that's right!) new drivers and lock boxes!!
 
As usual, lots of thanking to do. Whatever the amount or support, the thank you is the same. It is all in the same cause and contributes to making such a difference to so many people.

Amazing result:
You might remember the lovely Wendette Christian who took part in the PACTRAC Peterborough Duathlon in Castor on 29th April and fundraised for NGNPUK. This was a gruelling event but despite the freezing cold weather Wendette ran 4 miles followed by an 18 mile bike ride and then a further 2.5 mile run!

The total amount that was raised was an amazing £1435.25!

Thank you to Wendette and everyone who sponsored her this will make a real difference to people in the communities and will enable us to purchase another machine outright. Thanks also go to Wendette’s employer Royal Mail who fund matched £200 towards the final total.
 
Anna and Karen will be running the Perkins Great Eastern Run this year and are hoping to raise enough money for a complete machine. They have set up a Facebook page where you can follow their progress and give them plenty of support and encouragement. https://www.facebook.com/groups/2091757164174464/permalink/2266330023383843/
 
Delivery:
It is always exciting when a box arrives and it contains new syringe drivers and lockboxes! This time it was 22 of them. Never in our wildest dreams did we think we would be ordering a batch like that when we first started this journey.
These new machines were to be handed over to the district nursing teams week along with in excess of 300 handmade bags :)
There would be 15 new syringe drivers to cover the Greater Peterborough areas and an amazing 7 for our Fenland neighbours which will be the first donation to these towns and villages.

We would like to say a MASSIVE THANK YOU to EVERYONE who has helped make this possible. The word about what we are doing is continuing to spread which means more areas are now being helped.

Whatever you have done to help it has and is making a huge difference to people in palliative care in our local communities. This would not be possible without everyone's help and continued support so THANK YOU.

The Greater Peterborough areas will now have 54 extra machines to share which we have been told should be enough. Originally the whole area was sharing just 19, less than one per surgery.

The Fenland areas will have 7 new machines. Originally they had 27 Machines covering 18 surgeries.  To give an idea of the area one surgery in Wansford also covers people in Laxton, Tixover, Wittering, Collyweston, Stibbington, Barnack, Sutton, Castor and Alisworth.

Huge THANKS to everyone who has helped make this happen it's a massive achievement and takes the total number of machines donated locally in the last 3 years to 61. This seems incredible when we look back and remember it took a year to get the first one.
 
 
Bags and tags:
It was lovely to be invited over to the Yaxkidz club in Yaxley to collect the 14 syringe driver bags the children had made. Thank you to all the children (the youngest was 8 years old) and everyone at the club especially Sandra who taught the children how to sew. They all really enjoyed making the bags which were handed over to the district nursing teams with the new drivers.  Thank you to Lorna Carpenter for the handmade tags you donated for the syringe driver bags. 

A big thank you goes to Jan Sharman who took along her sewing machine and all the details about making syringe driver bags to the Friends of St Mary's Church Arts and Crafts Exhibition in May. Jan managed to explain how to make the bags as well as handing out lots of instructions and our charity leaflets which is great news.

Thanks also to Julie Taylor at Making For Charity for sending us some starter packs and Lee at Interior Goods Direct in Wakefield for the material.

Big thanks go to Sandy, Pauline, Nicky, Maureen, Ann, Helen, Trish, Shelagh, Gwen and Jan Sharman for the beautiful syringe driver bags you all made. They will all be very gratefully received. 

Thank you to Karen Kelley for your donation into the Syringe Driver fund, also to the Whittlesey Singers for their donation of £50.

Big thanks to everyone who popped their spare change into the collection tub at Quinns in Whittlesey. It contained a whopping £92.33!

Well done and thank you everyone. These amounts really do add up and make a big difference.
 
Fantastic amount raised in Farcet:
Big thanks to the lovely Dawn and Martin Bristow from Farcet who have raised and AMAZING £2137.46 over the last few months.
 
You may remember Martin ran in the London Marathon for NGNPUK in April. As well as running all those miles Martin and Dawn organised a very successful Breakfast morning at the Farcet Salvation Hall where they sold cooked breakfasts and had stalls in selling various bits and bobs. Martins Company, Hanson Brick, also donated a £500 fund matching amount into the total which gave it a real boost.
 
Massive thanks go to Dawn and Martin and everyone who helped them in any way. This will buy 2 more machines for the local areas. What great community spirt! Thank you everyone.
 
Burghley Family Trust:
Thank you to the trustees of the Burghley Family Trust who have donated £1100 to provide another syringe driver to the Wansford area. This will cover Wansford, Laxton, Tixover, Stibbington, Barnack, Sutton, Collyweston, Stibbington, Pilsgate, Castor and Ailsworth, Wittering and all surrounding towns and villages.

Massive thanks to the Trust this machine will make such a difference to so many people during its working lifetime.
 
Eye 5 mile race:
We are pleased to announce we were the chosen charity for the Eye 5 mile charity race on 12th July :)
We needed to supply 250 bottles of beer for the winners and would also we will be selling Tea, coffee and cakes after the race on the night, we were also looking for volunteerrs to help man water stations or with tea and cake sales.

THANK YOU to Shelly Anderson, Rosemary Mason, Anita Trickey, Jonathan Dale, Leannn Fitzjohn, Judy Wilson, Helen Waters at Quinns, Jason Mockett, Karen Mcfarling, Trudy Spridgeon and Jenny Palmer for your very kind donations of beer for the Eye charity run!!! We really cannot thank you all enough!  We are so grateful for your support.
 
A chance to say thank you in person:
It was lovely to meet everyone at ERT a few weeks ago to personally thank them for their donation to purchase a syringe driver and 10 toolboxes for our local district nursing teams.  It was good to update everyone on the progress of NGNPUK and how the machine they donated last year has been out helping so many people.

Big thanks to the Outreach team and everyone at ERT for their continued support.
 
THE Ball:
Wow what a fantastic night! We raised a whopping £4670 at the Summer Ball. So many people to thank.
Now we have had a few days to recover, we wanted to say a few heartfelt thankyou's to some very special people who helped make the night a success.

• Big thanks go to Nicola Owen from The Bloom Room in Peterborough for lending us her beautiful table centrepieces.
• To Elin Floe Styles for making the fab tablecloths and setting up all the tables on the day as well as organising the stunning palms for the vases.
• To Victoria and Stuart Marshall for having the initial idea and for all their hard work organising everything from printing the tickets to obtaining the raffle and Auction prizes.
• To our good friend Ben Oliver for giving up his Saturday night to come and take photos of us all.
• To Michelle and Mark Gale for the bottles of wine for the star game and
• To every individual or business who donated a prize we are so very grateful. We will be writing to thank everyone who donated in the near future.
• Thank you also to the staff at the Great Northern Hotel who looked after us all so well and
• To the fantastic Gary James Disco who kept us dancing all night.

Finally to everyone who bought a ticket and came along to support us and help us raise that amazing £4670! Same time in 2 years maybe?

Reminder:
Just a reminder that the Whittlesey Business Forum's Annual charity Walk is taking place on Sunday 8th July. Entry is £5 for Adults and £1 children. It is and lovely 5 mile walk and starts off at the Archery club in New Road Whittlesey. No Gain No Pain have been lucky enough to have been chosen as one of the charities to benefit this year along with Whittlesey First Responders.

If you would like to obtain sponsors (this is not compulsory) as well please get in touch and we can get you a sponsor form. You can view the route and register at http://www.whittleseybusiness.co.uk/sponsored-walk/. We look forward to seeing you there.
 
Shelly's 50k Bimble:
The lovely Shelly Anderson has set herself a huge challenge for September 2018 and will also be raising funds for NGNPUK . Shelly along with one of her sisters and some friends will be taking on a 50k walk around the peak district! They have to complete the walk within a maximum time of 17 and half hours and there will be a lot of walking up hill! Shelly and her sister will be doing the walk in memory of their lovely dad who needed a syringe driver to keep him comfortable at home.
 
Trikes R Us:
Huge thanks go to the Trike R Us Club from Heckington who raised an amazing £1100 at their annual Trikes R Us rally in Littleport this year and donated it to NGNPUK.

Lee and Samantha were lucky enough to be invited along to a meeting and were presented with a cheque to purchase a syringe driver for the local communities in the Fens which will cover Littleport and surrounding areas.

Trikes R Us hold their annual rally in Littleport and their chairman Ged Kettle wanted to find a charity local to the area so that they could help the people who support them each year. Massive thanks to Trikes R Us for their generosity.
 
In the news: some clarification.
As you may have seen there has been a lot in the press this weekend about the use of the Graseby MS16A and the Graseby MS 26 Syringe Drivers which has come about due to the Gosport War Memorial Hospital Enquiry
.
We feel we just need to clarify that NGNPUK have only ever purchased the Mckinley T34 syringe driver as this is the machine mandated for use by the CPFT (Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Foundation Trust) in our local area. Once we purchase the machines they are handed over to the trust for the district nurses to use in the communities, they are all serviced annually by the manufacturer to ensure they remain safe and are fit for purpose. All our District Nurses are trained in the correct use of these machines.
 
It appears from the press there were two types of Graseby models which delivered drugs in different rates, these machines may have been easily mixed up and caused some patients to receive a higher dose of medication quicker however this is only what we have read in the press and we are sure the NHS will endeavour to find out exactly what happened.
 
As you all know we are all very passionate about what we do and believe that the use of a syringe driver to control pain in end of life care is vital. We have all personally seen the difference they make and receive many letters from families who had relatives that were able to remain at home and comfortable with the help of these little machines.

We hope this helps clarify things and everyone will continue to support us in getting more of these vital machines out into the communities.
 
In memory:

Thank you to the family and friends of Stuart Dunkley who have sent us a wonderful donation in his memory. We received donations earlier in the year in Stuart’s memory from the Independent schools and Gymnastics Association and these donations will go a long way to helping us purchase another machine.

We would like to say a massive thank you to the friends and family of Arthur Coe who have sent us a very generous donation in his memory. Arthur sadly passed away recently and benefited from the use of one of the new machines that have been donated in the communities. Big thanks to everyone who donated this will go towards another machine that will be able to help so many others.

We would also like to thank the family and friends of Peter Goodale from Newborough who have sent us a donation in his memory.
 
Peter’s family wrote to let us know how Peter was looked after at home with the help of Hospital at Home the District Nurses and one of the donated Syringe drivers.

They wanted to say how much they appreciated the use of the Syringe Driver and sent us this donation to help us continue to help others. These donations are making a huge difference and allowing us to help many more people over a wider area now. We will be thinking of Peter’s family at this sad time.

We would like to say a big thank you to the family and friends of Terry Cooke who sent us a donation in his memory today. Terry was able to be at home with his family and friends in his final days with the aid of a syringe driver.  

These donations are making a huge difference and allow us to help many more people over a wider area. We will be thinking of Terry's family at this sad time.

That’s brought us up to date for now well done if you read to the bottom.

​Louise, Samantha and Lee
Team NGNPUK. 
.

​
NGNP Blog – February
Cold and miserable February weather does not hold back the generosity of local people who are constantly doing all kinds of thing to support our cause and donating both money and precious time. It all mounts up to help us provide crucial help to people in our communities who are at very sad and difficult times in their lives. This is why we strongly believe in “thank you!” – You are all the reason we have been able to hand over 39 Syringe Drivers so far.

Creating awareness of what a Syringe Driver is, when it is used and where it could be available is a very large part of what we do and we always grab the chance to come to groups and clubs to spread the word. Thank you to everyone at The Sudbury Court Coffee Morning for letting Louise come along and talk to you. She very much appreciated the warm welcome and interest shown.
 
NGNP SUMMER BALL
Summer may still seem a very long way away, but the organisation of our biggest fundraising event to date is in full swing. We were approached by Victoria Marshall, from Whittlesey with the idea of holding a summer ball. This is a new event for us but as you all know, we are not known for turning down fundraising ideas and we are working with Victoria to get everything ready and sell the tickets.

The event will take place at The Great Northern Hotel, Peterborough on Saturday 16th of June and is a black tie evening. A delicious 3 course meal, a live band and DJ are included.
HOT OFF THE PRESS…-Half the tables are already sold….
 
SADNESS AND LIGHT
It is always with sadness we thank people for donations made in memory of loved ones.

Sharon Yarrow
We would like to say a big thank you to the family and friends of Sharon Yarrow who sent us a very generous donation which was collected at Sharon's funeral.
 
Rita Davey
Thank you to the friends of Rita Davey who sent donations in her memory. Rita was a much loved friend in Peterborough U3A writing life stories group who will be greatly missed by all who knew her. Rita was a kind and caring person who always helped others. Many thanks to you all for thinking of NGNPUK at this very sad time.

Mandy Reynolds
We would like to say a huge thank you to Mandy Reynolds for the very kind donation of £800 sent to NGNPUK in memory of her mum.
Mandy also sent us a lovely letter which read - My mum passed away on 21st December 2017. She had cancer.  Mum had a syringe driver for the last couple of weeks of her life, we was so grateful to get one we couldn't have managed without it, I am sending you this donation to help with getting more machines.
Huge thanks to Mandy and her family for this donation which will go a long way to helping buy another Syringe Driver.
 
Noel Darby
We would like to say a huge thank you to the family and friends of Noel Darby who donated £1303.60 to NGNPUK from the proceeds from Noels funeral. This will enable us to buy another complete machine and lock box for use out in the local communities.
You may remember Noel and Joan celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary last year and asked for donations instead of gifts which enabled us to purchase a machine that is out there helping people now. Sadly Noel passed away recently, he will be greatly missed by all who knew him
 
SYRINGE DRIVER BAGS:
As the drivers are in constant demand in our communities, so are the bags we provide for them. We are therefore always looking for people to sew them for us and are very grateful for fabric donations too.
 
Big thanks to Jo Hunt and Elin Styles who made beautiful syringe driver bags for all ages.  Sadly any age group may need a syringe driver and all kinds of patterns and colours can be used. We can supply instructions and material just let us know if you would like some. They are very simple to make and make a huge difference to patients and families. This is evident from feedback we often receive and many families keep the bags after their loved ones have gone.
 
RAFFLE PRIZES:
Throughout the year, we hold a vast amount of raffles and prizes are always welcome. Big ones, small ones… soft ones and bottled ones. Again, people remember us and donate all the time. As always, we thank everyone on our FB page and here are this month’s:

• Thank you to Phil and Emma Booth for the donation of alcohol for our future raffles they will come in very handy.
• Thank you to Jo Hunt and Kim Fountain, Sarah Mather, Leeann Fitzjohn and Tracey Hancock for the lovely raffle prizes!

 
 COLLECTION TUBS:
Our bright pink collection tubs are doing really well and thank you, as ever, to all the landladies and lords, shop owners and other esablishments who have agreed to have them.
Thank you to everyone at Quinn’s Bar in Whittlesey who popped their pennies in the collection tub. It contained a whopping £61.30. Thank you to the customers at Fen Wah who also raised another £15.99t.
 
PUB QUIZ:
On Tuesday 6th March the Letter B in Whittlesey were taking part in the world's biggest pubs quiz night. This event took place in pubs across the UK between 4th and the 8th March.
 
Anything raised at the Letter B on that 6th will be donated to NGNPUK. 

Thanks again as ever, to Bruce, Denise and everyone at the Letter B for supporting us. We really do appreciate all the efforts and hard work you do to support us!
  
RUNNING NEWS:
We are excited to announce that we have a runner in this year’s Virgin London Marathon on 22nd April.

Martin Bristow from Farcet will be running on behalf of NGNPUK

​To buy a place in the Marathon costs charities ££££ so we were so happy that Martin approached us and offered to help by running with his ballot place.

Martin sadly lost his mother in law Hazel to Alzheimer’s last year. Towards the last week of her life Hazel benefited from a syringe driver at home to help with agitation and to manage other symptoms.
We were lucky enough to meet Martin and his family at our Christmas fayre in November where we had a chat about the marathon and a few other fundraising ideas.
If you would like to read Martins story or to donate click on the link below. Please show Martin your support if you can, 26 miles is a long way to run!
https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/martinbristow
 
ALSO,
Wendette Christian who is one of the Werrington jogger is taking part in her first ever Duathlon and raising money for NGNPUK.

Wendette will be running 4 miles, biking 18 miles followed by running a further 2.5 miles. No easy task especially as it is both running and biking up the famous "Love Hill" in Castor and its surrounding areas.
 
The event takes place on 29th April and if you would like to read Wendette's story and offer your support by sponsoring her please click on...

https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/wendettechristian1
 
OTHER DONATIONS:                                      
We would like to say a huge thank you to Hazel Brewin for the very generous cheque we received this morning for the full amount to purchase another Syringe driver to be shared in the Greater Peterborough areas.
This machine will help so many people and will be a welcome addition to the ones already out there.
We would like to say a massive thank you to Jamie and Anish Keshwara from Nisa in Whittlesey for their very generous donation of £500 into the syringe driver fund. Jamie and Anish won an award through the national lottery and picked NGNPUK as their chosen charity to receive the funds. Donations like these make a huge difference helping to provide more machines for people in our local communities.

Thank you Tammy Fulcher Roan for your donation of old £1 coins. We can still bank them if anyone has any lurking around or any old £5 notes. 

Thanks to Barb Fryer for your PayPal donation of £20 we received today. Barb runs a Facebook page called Bargain bits+Auction and sold some items and donated the proceeds to NGNPUK. Thank you Barb and everyone on the Facebook group for this donation.
 
So, another busy month full of activities and great people!
 
Finally, a special thankyou to Elin Styles, who is now helping to produce our blog.  Thanks Elin :-)
 
Louise, Lee and Sam
Team NGNPUK
 

Happy new year to you all…
 
Wow it’s so hard to believe that we’re now into 2018! We are so full of hope for the upcoming year and the opportunity we all have to make such a difference in our local communities.  It’s the right time to bring you up to date with how we closed 2017. As you can probably guess, it was a very busy time.
 
The return of Captain America.
Following on from CA’s appearance at the Perkins Great Eastern Run, we were approached to see if we could arrange for the great man to make a little boys dream come true at his 6th birthday party.  We were delighted to be able do this and we hope Finley had a great birthday. We’d also like to say thank you to Finley’s family for their donation into the syringe driver pot and to the parents who agreed to let us use the photos taken at the party.  Take a look at our Gallery at Finley’s superhero party with the big man himself.
 
SHSCC – class of 86
Big thanks tp everyone who recently attended the SHSCC class of ‘86 30 year school reunion at Childers on 14 October 2017.  Louise and Sam were in attendance and in a lovely gesture, they hosted some of our collection tubs and raised a whopping £80.54.  A great night was had by all.
 
NGNPUK Christmas Shopping Event
As we mentioned a few months ago, we were fortunate to have a couple of special ladies offer to run an early bird Christmas shopping event at the Eastrea Centre on the 5th November. Massive thanks to Lisa Hedges and Nicky Bedford for organising all the stalls. Thank you Shelly Anderson for baking some lovely cakes for us to sell. Also big thanks to Ray and Nelda Thrower for manning the raffle which was really busy! Also the lovely Kim Fountain who became Santa's Elf for the day and a final thank you to all the stallholders for their  raffle prizes.
The event was a great success, with over 30 different stalls as well as Tea and cake provided by the NGNPUK Team as always.  We raised and AMAZING £577.62!!!!

Why not take a look at our gallery for the event.

Christmas NGNPUK Style
In addition to the Early Christmas shopping event, we were fortunate to have various events running over the Christmas period and we hope that you had a great time if you attended one of them.

Charity Christmas Disco
Thank you to Sonia Ciriello who organised a charity Christmas Disco for several Charites amongst which we were lucky enough to be included. Those brilliant causes were Lung Disease, NGNPUK, MS & Bloodwise

Rudolf’s Rapid Reindeer Tour
A special thank you to Woodbine Reindeer Hire for choosing to collect for NGNPUK this year.  They attended many Christmas fayres and events with their beautiful Reindeer. We were lucky enough to meet some of the cast at the Stamford Christmas fayre, but sadly couldn’t fit one in our pocket to bring home.

NGNPUK Traditional Reindeer food.
Our Glitter free and wildlife friendly reindeer food went on sale in time for Christmas Eve to sprinkle to make sure Rudolph and his friends found your home.  It was sold at £1 a bag and we had outlets in Whittlesey, The House of Hair in Stanground (thank you Lesley) and also in the Thorney area, (thank you Trudy!) If anyone would be interested in helping us sell some reindeer food in December 2018 let us know :) Big thanks to everyone who bought a bag, you helped us raise £101 for the syringe driver pot!

Another big thank you to Sarah Bassam who created ten beautiful angels and sold them on behalf of NGNPUK raising a whopping £120! 

Christmas card donations.
We are thankful to have had several donations in lieu of sending Christmas cards this year. This is a lovely idea and ensures that each Christmas greeting goes to support a patient and their family. 
Thank you also to Tracey Hawkins, Claire Hatter, Lesley Hamilton Hirniak, Kim Fountain and Richard Greensmith for donating your Christmas card money to NGNPUK again this year.

A huge THANK YOU to EDP Insulation Group Limited who sent us this lovely message along with a donation of £1000!

At Christmas we make Charity Donations in replacement of Christmas Cards. We have chosen to support No Gain No Pain and believe the work you are doing within our community is invaluable.

To help even more we received the following message from Jessica Brown -

We heard about you through Facebook and were shocked to learn the limited availability of syringe drivers before NGNPUK began, I guess this is something people aren’t aware of until you or a family member require them.
We feel extremely lucky we are in a community with so many more now accessible.
I’ve attached a copy of our Christmas letter that went to 185 of our customers who are spread nationally. Hopefully this will help raise additional awareness for the great work you are doing.

Thank you so much to everyone at EDP! We hope all your staff, friend’s families and customers all had a Happy Christmas.
 
Delivering talks
We’re now lucky enough to be asked to speak to various groups about what we do, and recently attended a meeting of the Werrington Rotary (21st Nov 17).

Thank you to Shelly Anderson and the Peterborough Werrington Rotary for inviting Louise along to explain about No Gain No Pain and syringe drivers.

Also, thank you to Dorinda Richardson for inviting us along to the NHS retirement fellowship group meeting at St Andrews Church Hall, Netherton, again to talk about No Gain No Pain and syringe drivers. Now even more people are aware of what we do and why.

If you would like us to come at talk about the charity and what we do, feel free to drop us a line.  The more people we can talk to, the bigger impact we can make in our communities.

Perkins Great Eastern Run update
A quick update to let you know that all the sponsor money is now in from the Peterborough Great Eastern Run, Sam and Lee managed to raise an amazing £443.92 in total for the Syringe driver fund.

We make that just over £34 a mile so well done and THANK YOU to everyone who supported our very own Wonder Woman and Captain America!

While we’re talking running, a big thank you to Werrington Joggers who have chosen NGNPUK as their supported charity this year!
  
More donations.
It’s so nice being able to thank people for their contributions and donations so while we’re at it, we’d like to say a big thank you to:

• Sara Savage and all the customers at hair by Sara who put their pennies in their NGNPUK collection tub and raised £32.69!
• Jason Mockett for the very generous donation for us to buy an extra 10 extra collection tubs.
• Karen Kelley, one of our most dedicated supporters for the pink and purple serviettes as well as the organza bags for us to make our reindeer food from.
• Lucy Morton for taking one of our collection tubs along to her events and  raising an amazing £90.71! Thank you to Lucy and everyone who put some pennies in the pot
• All the staff and customers at Westfield Nursery in Whittlesey for all your loose change which put another £15.96 into the fund. 
• All at Quinn’s Bar, whose NGNPUK collection tub raised a total £49.57. Thank you everyone, the pennies really do add up and make such a difference!
• The Muffin Oven, Whittlesey, whose staff and customers raised a whopping £74.51!
• Peterborough Northern Star Red under 18 football team for the very generous donation of £325.  This will go a long way towards another Syringe driver to be used in our local communities

We now have a collection tub at from Sweet Memories on Peterborough Market (Stall 53 Peterborough Market) thank you Ann-Marie for asking for one. There is now also a collection tub in Fen Wah take away In Whittlesey too.
 
Sadness and light.

Kevin Bassam
We would also like to say and huge thank you to the family and friends of Kevin Bassam who raised an amazing £1310 in Kevin’s memory. Kevin needed a syringe driver in his final days and we were overwhelmed to receive this massive donation.

This has enabled us to purchase another syringe driver for the local area. Kevin was well known around Whittlesey and will be greatly missed.

We would also like to say a big thank you also to Kevin and Janet Bassam’s neighbours, Mr and Mrs Green who very kindly donated a cheque for £200 to NGNPUK from an auto Jumble they held. Also, a special thank you Barbara Plum for the donation all the way from Whitby in memory of Kevin. 
 
Pauline Barham
Another big thank you to Brian Barham for donating the £350 raised from the sale of his lovely wife Pauline's mobility scooter. Pauline sadly passed away recently and will be greatly missed by all who knew her. This donation will go a very long way to helping us purchase another syringe driver in the future.
 
Vera Mead
Thank you to the friends and family of Vera Mead who donated £253.20 to NGNPUK in her memory. Vera was able to remain at home with her family with the use of a syringe driver that had been donated in the past. 
 
Babs & Ken Allen
More thanks go to Barbara and Ken Allen for their donation of £60 to NGNPUK. Babs and Ken celebrated their Diamond wedding anniversary! Congratulations to you both.The couple asked for donations to charity instead of gifts. Thank you to you both and to all your friends and family.

Brian Watts
We would also like to say a big thank you to the family and friends of Brian Watts from Thornhaugh for their very generous donation. We were lucky enough to meet Brian at the Ukulele garden party in Wansford earlier this year. Brian was so interested in what we were doing he set about organising a fundraiser for NGNPUK. Very sadly he was taken very ill and passed away suddenly.

We are all very sorry for the loss of Brian and send our thanks to his family and friends.

Juliana Margit Cooper
More thanks to the friends and family of Juliana Margit Cooper for the very generous donation we received in Juliana’s memory.
Louise had the pleasure of meeting one of Juliana’s daughters who told her how her mum had the use of a syringe driver at home in her final days.

Margaret explained how her lovely mum reached the grand age of 94 and was not an ounce of trouble. Our thoughts are with Margaret, Elizabeth and all of Juliana’s family and friends at this very difficult time.

Thank you so much this donation which will buy another machine in the future and will help so many others.

Thorney Live Charity Music Festival
Finally we would like to say a huge thank you to the Thorney Live Charity Music Festival and all it organisers for the cheque we received for £1403.63! This will purchase another syringe driver for the communities to share in the future.

The Thorney Music festival has raised over £60,000 for charities over the last 22 years! What an achievement! Massive thanks to everyone involved and everyone who attended we are so grateful to have been chosen as one of the charities to benefit this year and we hope you continue to do amazing work for another 22 years!

Driver bag feedback
We received some lovely feedback regarding the bags, so if you have spent the time making one for NGNPUK this is the difference they can make.

A nurse rang me today because a patient with a syringe pump had passed away. The daughter was very upset, the nurse gave her the bag- one of those beautifully made ones NPNGUK gave us - that had held the pump and said keep this for memories of your Mum. The daughter cried some more and said it was the best Christmas present and she will keep it by her bed.

Thank you so much to all those needle workers who made bags. Your time is just as valuable and important.

Biggest Handover to date.
On the 23 October 2017 we embarked on one of our proudest achievements to date.  With the help of all our supporters, we were able to place an order for a whopping 21 Syringe drivers all to be used in our local communities! The split for the machines was:

• 8 additional for the Whittlesey areas 
• 3 additional for the Wansford areas and 
• 10 for all local areas (33 surgeries and all their patients) to share.

These 21 tiny little machines will help so many people during their working lifetime. 

We also be purchased 31 clear plastic lock boxes which will provide 10 spare as unfortunately these boxes do tend to get broken by the nature of their daily use. A syringe driver cannot be used in the community without being in one of these locked boxes.

Additionally we ordered 50 toolboxes to keep the syringe drivers and all the equipment needed in patient’s homes safe. These boxes have been a huge hit with the nursing teams and help make sure the driver is easily identifiable as a piece of medical equipment that needs to be returned in addition to keeping all items together.

Last but by no means least we had over 230 handmade material bags to donate made by so many of you all out there.

Thank you ALL so much for your continued support.
 
Handover day
Finally, when the day came, 17/11/2017, “Handover Day”, the NGNPUK team met with the CPFT team at the Peterborough City Care centre to formally handover the donation.

All straight out for use in our local communities to help people remain at home in end of life care. This brings the total amount of new machines donated so far to 39!!

A massive thank you to EVERYONE who had ANYTHING to do with helping make this happen. It really goes to show how communities pulling together can achieve great things and make positive changes which will help real people out there day in day out.

Thank you to all the pubs, clubs, companies, individuals and families who have helped with donations whether financial or with raffle prizes, jam jars for tombola’s, packets of sweets, crafts for events, bottles of wine for our hampers or ferrying stuff from a to b for us.

Thank you to all of you who have given up your time to help us out with events and all who have helped spread the word about these events and most importantly what these little machines do and how they help so many in their time of need. Whatever you have done you have played a part in making this happen. It is making a BIG difference in the communities, we receive so much feedback from families who are so grateful their loved ones had one of these machines.

We would also like to say a massive thank you to all our wonderful district nurses out there doing the doing on a daily basis. Without you these machines would be useless, your care and compassion is outstanding.

Together we are making a difference! Massive thanks everyone let's keep in sharing
 
Fenland Journey
Due to the huge difference that has made in the Greater Peterborough area so far, we have been asked if we can also help our neighbouring Fenland areas who are struggling to increase their syringe driver numbers. We would like to try and help as we believe no matter where you are you should have easy access to one of these machines should you need one. The Fens currently share 27 machines across 18 surgeries.

These surgeries cover the communities in March, Wisbech, Doddington, Soham, Parsons Drove, Sutton, Littleport, Burwell, Chatteris, Haddenham, Manea, Ely and all the surrounding towns and villages. This is another very large area.  Take a look at the map in our gallery here

We were planning to wait until after the festive season to announce our plans to help but it was brought to our attention that Ely is struggling right now. This may seem miles away from places like us and March and Wisbech, but these areas all share their machines so if Ely struggles so do the other areas linked to it.

How can you help???
Please continue to share our page and help us spread the word in as many of these areas as you can.
If anyone out there would like to help by fundraising or any pub, clubs or organisations can help please get in touch with us. If you know anywhere that would take copies of our leaflets, please let us know.  Are you aware of any grants or funding that we may be eligible for in any of these areas?
​
Together we have made a huge difference in the Greater Peterborough area, let’s see if we can help these other local areas and make a difference too.
 
Louise, Lee and Sam
Team NGNPUK
 

Hi All,
 
It’s seems to be such a familiar phrase for us to be saying, but we’ve had yet another busy month at NGNPUK and it’s hard to believe that Christmas is on the horizon…
 
Donations
David Coles
We’d like to start off by saying a massive thank you to all our supporters, as without you all, we would not be able to make the difference to the friends and families in our communities who benefit from the use of syringe drivers.  The impact of what we are doing is so real, and is especially poignant when we received feedback from people who had direct benefit.  Examples such as the family of the late David Coles who sent NGNPUK a very generous donation to enable us to purchase another Syringe driver to be used in and around the Thorney area. We received a very heart-warming letter from David’s family explaining how he had use of a syringe driver for the last weeks of his life and how it helped him immensely. The driver gave him a lot more time to complete what he needed to and he was eternally grateful. Our thoughts are with David’s family at this very sad time and we thank you all for this amazing donation which will help so many others
 
The Letter B
One of our biggest supporters have been Bruce, Denise and the regulars of the Letter B in Whittlesey.  From our early days, Bruce and the folk there have championed our cause in their own fundraising efforts. Bruce called to invite us to a small presentation evening to hand over a cheque to us.
 
Lee attended the evening and was overwhelmed to receive a cheque for an amazing £4420!  To say we were beyond amazed is not an understatement!! This extraordinary amount was raised from their annual B to B 54 mile cycle ride as well as their charity quizzes (which are brilliant and a must attend event) and various other events. This donation will purchase 4 more syringe drivers which is amazing!  However, this was just the beginning….
 
We were also presented with a cheque for £1000 which was donated from the Whittlesey Round Table complete with fund matching from Forterra (London Brick).  This was such a wonderful gesture from 2 pillars of the Whittlesey Community.   Thank you to everyone at the round table and Forterra for the fund matching because all the donations really do make a difference!  Surely this was it……
 
Nope, lastly but by no means least we were presented with a cheque from the “41 club” for a whopping £621.42!   Thank you wholeheartedly.  The 41 club is made up of ex members of the Round Table once they have served their terms in the Round Table.
 
We really cannot thank everyone enough who did anything to help make this all possible. These were all much unexpected donations and they will help make a huge difference to people in palliative care in and around our local areas. These machines are used every day and we are now getting many more messages from families whose loved ones are benefiting from them.
 
 
Jane Tomlinson Community Giveaway
We were also hugely excited to receive more great news as NGNPUK were one of five charities chosen to receive £1000 from the Jane Tomlinson fund the charity which partners with the Peterborough Great Eastern run as part of their community giveaway scheme. We were so excited Sam and Lee attended a presentation and press call at the Peterborough town hall to accept the cheque.
This money will be used to purchase a syringe driver to be shared in all our local areas. Opportunities like these also help us to spread the word in communities further afield, through the help of the PGER and the local media. As we also mentioned, Lee and Sam were going to taking part in the run so it was a nice little connection for us.  A huge thank you to the trust for awarding us these funds.  A link to the story is below.
http://www.janetomlinsonappeal.com/…/peterborough-charitie…
 
Also, while we’re at it, we’d also like to say a huge thanks to the lovely Sonia Ciriello from Eye for her donation from her WI talk.  A very thoughtful donation.
 
Perkins Great Eastern Run, 8th October 2017
Following on from last year’s effort by our very own Sam, it was decided that Lee would also run this year to support Sam and to raise a bit more awareness and sponsorship.  It was also though that doing this in fancy dress might be a fun thing to do, and so our search for a theme began…
 
We set up some “MyDonate” pages as this is a very cost efficient way to ensure all the donations received go into the syringe driver pot and began the training program (in cases running at 4am), fitting in between work, family and charity life.
 
You may have come across our intrepid runners, and might have needed to double take, especially as you may have come across them during full dress rehearsal!!
 
As you can see (take a look at our gallery) the Superhero theme, Captain America and Wonder Woman topped our list although Lee was disappointed not to get the chance to get his legs out in Sam’s shorts!!
 
We got a few laughs along the way and I'm pleased to report there were no wardrobe malfunctions.  The event went off without a hitch and they even managed a few “tweets” while on the run.  There are some great photos in the gallery along with others from all of our events.
 
As they came along the home stretch, Wonder Woman uttered those words "never again".  These are the same words she muttered last year ;) 
 
Captain America and Wonder Woman caused lots of amusement on the way round! A huge thank you to everyone who cheered them on and to everyone who put pennies in their bucket.
They collected £78.31 in total on the way round, as well as a total of £443.92 in sponsorship. Well done to everyone who took part and a big thanks to the organisers of the Perkins Great Eastern Run for a fantastic event.
 
Kevin Bassam
As we mentioned earlier, the feedback we get from families who benefitted is the fuel that drives us on, and with mixed emotions it was lovely to hear from the family of Kevin Bassam who contacted us today with these very kind words at a very difficult time for them.
 
Hi,
My Dad passed away on Friday 22nd September. His passing was made easier through the use of a syringe driver donated by yourselves which we will be eternally grateful for.
Thank you for setting up this charity, without it my dad’s last days wouldn't have been as easy as they were with your donated syringe driver.

A big thank you to everyone who supports us in anyway, we cannot overstate the importance you all play in helping these families at a very tough time. Thank you to Kevin’s family for letting us share this message and our thoughts are with them at this difficult time.
 
Joan and Noel Darby
We received a very kind donation from Joan and Noel Darby and got to wish them a happy 70th wedding Anniversary on 27th September 2017.

To celebrate this major achievement Joan and Noel did not want presents or a party but instead very generously donated £1100 to buy a syringe driver for the Wansford Surgery to be used locally. What amazing and thoughtful generosity.  They are a truly amazing couple and we hope they had a very special day.
 
Speaking of parties, we also received a visit from the lovely Janet Smith who recently held a party in memory of her son Ian who would have been 40 this year. Ian needed a syringe driver during his battle with a brain tumour 6 years ago, we were overwhelmed to receive a cheque from Janet and Alan for £1200 and a further cheque from her employers at Whittlesey Nisa Jamie and Anish Keshwara for £800!

This will purchase 2 more much needed syringe drivers to be shared in our local communities which is amazing news. Thank you so much to Janet, Alan and her family, Jamie and Anish Keshwara and everyone who attended Ian's party at the Ivy leaf Club.
 
John Lewis Community fund
This month also saw Louise meet Emma Valerio the Community Liaison Coordinator at John Lewis to collect a cheque for £660. We want to say a big thank you to Emma, John Lewis and everyone who voted for us with their little green tokens in their coffee shop!
We loved seeing everyone's selfies so thank you all for sending them too us (they’re on the gallery). This money will be spent on a syringe driver to be shared between all our local areas and makes such a difference to so many people.
 
Conker season
A big thank you to the lovely Martha Atkinson, aged 7, for donating the £12 she made from selling conkers to NGNPUK. How it’s lovely to see children getting involved.
 
We’d also like to thank Michelle Fountain for her donation to the syringe driver pot.  It really does all add up!! :)
 
Stuart Anderson
We recently received a lovely donation from the family of Mr Stuart Anderson who sadly passed away. Along with the donation we received a letter which we would like to share with you all:
 
Please find enclosed a donation of £350 to NGNPUK from the family and friends of Mr Stuart Anderson. Dad sadly passed away on 9th September and it was his request that any donations would be divided between yourselves and the RNLI. My mum has asked me to say thank you for all your hard work raising so much money for such an important cause.
 
We battled with the Lincolnshire district nursing team to have a syringe driver in the home ready for when dad needed it, but we were lucky in the end and the correct medicine was given in the kindest way preventing any undue suffering in his final day.
 
Mum's hope is that you would be able to continue providing this equipment for the local communities and maybe able to help the population of Crowland (only 7 miles from Peterborough) but many many more in nursing care due to the long distances the nursing staff in Lincolnshire have to travel out of hours.
Many thanks again for your kindness in our chats. On behalf of Rachel Anderson and all our family and friends thank you.
 
At the moment our focus is to help the greater Peterborough area which contains 33 surgeries locally.  Crowland doesn’t fall under this area but comes under Lincolnshire, even though it's only 7 miles away.
 
It seems the district nurses in this area still have to travel a long way to collect syringe drivers which is hard for them and families.  Hopefully this will change one day and we hope that we’re able to demonstrate the difference this makes to the patients and their families through the great results we have all been able to achieve.  Of course if we can help in any way, we will, after all, we’re all one great big community!
Our thoughts are with Stuart's family and friends and we thank them for their donation and for getting in touch at such a difficult time.
 
More syringe driver bags.
Louise was invited to spent the afternoon at the Peterborough Association for the Blind (PAB) craft group in Stanground following on from a meeting we had earlier in the year with Nina Lutterer at the Family service at All Saints Church in Paston.  We gave a brief talk about the aims of the charity and a mutual opportunity arose.

Nina explained that she worked for the PAB, and that she ran a craft group for the members to have a cuppa and a natter while doing a bit of knitting.  The group have now started to make beautiful syringe driver bags for us.

Louise met some truly inspiring people there, people who face lots of daily challenges that we all probably take for granted, they all had such a positive outlook.  A wonderful story of one charity helping another.

On the subject of driver bags, another big THANK YOU to Diane Munday for her beautiful Syringe Driver bags!
Diane has made 42 bags in total and we love the pockets that have been put on some. These will be very well received by the District Nurses, patients and families. Thank you also to Jacqueline for playing taxi and dropping them off to us

Don’t forget, if you would like to make a few bags we would be very grateful, they can only be used by one patient so they are always in high demand.  We have a very simple pattern (so we’ve been told) from the lovely Julie from Making for Charity available to download on our website here.
Julie and her charity travel all over making bags for people to use when they have a syringe driver.  Such a brilliant charity

More next month

Louise, Lee and Sam
Team NGNPUK

As promised, heres the second part of our huge catch up!!  Enjoy! 
 
Lions Awareness day 100th year Celebrations - 19th August Peterborough Cathedral square
We were invited to join the 100 year celebrations at Peterborough cathedral square alongside Peterborough Association for the blind.  Sam and Elin had a lovely day talking to the public and raising awareness about what we do.  Huge thanks to the Whittlesey Lions for inviting us along.
We’d also like to say a massive thank you to McCains and Melanie Gowler for providing our leaflets and to Elin Fløe Styles and Eileen Nixon for helping on the day.
 
 
Thorney Music Festival –
We’d also like to thank the organisers of the Thorney live Music festival on the 28th August, to all who attended Thorney and all the wonderful musicians who gave their time for free, helping to raise a total of £4185.90 for Cancer Research UK, NGNPUK and Thorney Ex-servicemen’s.
 
Perkins Great Eastern Run – Lee and Sam
You’ve heard it here first folks!  Our very own Captain America and Wonder Woman will be taking part in the Perkins Great Eastern Run in Peterborough on 8th October raising money for syringe drivers.
Please pledge your support to our elite team if you can I think anyone willing to try and run 13 miles in outfits like those deserves a medal. No Gain No Pain ;) xx
 
As a charity we have chosen to use BT's MyDonate service as they do not charge a monthly fee unlike other online giving pages. It's just as easy to use and more money goes into the syringe driver pot.
 
Junior Quiz – Postponed
Due to time constraints we have sadly had to cancel our junior mastermind quiz planned for October. Thank you to Childers in Whittlesey for being so understanding who were letting us have their function room for free. We hope to do one in the future. Xx
 
Crowland – Diver urgently
We were contacted by a family desperate for a syringe driver and advice for their loved one. The family lived in the Crowland area which is sadly not covered by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Foundation Trust which we are currently helping.
 
This is one of the main reasons we are trying to help other local areas. Crowland is not a million miles away from us and no one should have to wait. The family were enquiring to buy a driver for their loved one and then donate it to us afterwards as they were so worried about not having one when it was needed. We are pleased to say that after a few conversations, the family were able to exert some pressure and confirmed that a syringe was on the way to them which is a huge relief to everyone.
 
Whittlesey Festival – 11th September
 
This was our second year at the Whittlesey Festival and the first time on Market Street.  It promised to be a great day and we had undertaken a large amount of preparation.  Team NGNPUK had been busy organising our Jam Jar Tombola, and we were so fortunate to have so many lovely people fill a jam jar for us. 
 
A huge thank you to all of you Jam Jar donators (too many to mention, but you know who you all are), it was lovely to see so many thoughtfully filled jars with sweets and toys, pencils, crayons and even some money.  It was just as much fun looking for their winning jar!!  In total we received nearly 200 jam jars.
 
We also had to prepare to say goodbye to our new furry house guest.  The secretly named Panda was getting ready to move to his or her new home if someone could correctly guess the name.
 
It was fair to say that many people tried, however only one could prevail and that was Ebony who is now the proud owner of our beautiful panda Amanda.  Take a look in our Gallery to see that gorgeous first meeting of Ebony and Amanda…  We’re pleased to hear that Amanda has settled into her new home very well.
 
Another huge thank you to everyone who came to see us at the festival, trying to whack the rat and trying to guess Amanda's name. Another special thank you goes to Karen Kelley for donating Amanda the Panda to us.
 
We raised a whopping £258 and none of this would be possible without you all.
 
Donations galore.
We’re very lucky to have a wonderful team of people who support what we do, and without your help and donations things would be much harder.
 

• Noel and Leslie Muncey – Pencils, Booze and Stereo system
• Tammy Fulcher Roan – Car boot Takings

• Michelle Fountain
• Eileen Ladds from Castor who donated a total of £50 from plant sales and a wedding arrangement
• Heather – Sophie’s Tea room Customer.

This lovely lady met Louise and Mason at Sophie’s Tea room in Yaxley and fate transpired them to have to share a table. They had never met before but ended up sharing a table and having a lovely chat and putting the world to rights.  Heather gave us a donation for the syringe driver pot.  All these donations however big or small really do make a huge difference.

Thank you Heather it was lovely kindness.
 
 Finally for this long blog instalment, keep a look out for our NGNPUK Christmas Shopping Event
 
5th November @ The Eastrea Centre, 12:00 – 15:30.
 
Pop along before the Fireworks
 
Big thanks to Lisa Hedges and Nicky Bedford for organising this event. So far they have over 30 stalls all selling something different. We will be there of course selling tea and cake and there will be a raffle too.
 
https://www.facebook.com/events/1122711511162507/
 
​Louise, Lee and Sam
Team NGNPUK

Wow, what a summer, it’s hard to believe our last blog was back in May, and we’re so excited to bring you all up to date to what’s been going on over the summer… So much good news and fortune for the team at NGNPUK and it truly beggars belief at the generosity of people in both their time, money and consideration to our aims of helping our local communities.  So where do we start:
 
Park Lane School fete.
After the whirlwind preparation that was the NGNUK Quiz night, we were going to take some time aside to do the boring admin type of things that we need to do, however, we were given the opportunity to attend The Park Lane school fete, whereby we put together a plant sale and a “name the bear” competition.  It was a lovely day and we met some great people and overall it was our delight to hand over Olly the bear to Rosie, the competition winner.
 
After the success of our last handover of syringe drivers and in particular, the new kit boxes, we were asked if we could provide another 9 boxes for the remaining syringe drivers that the Nursing team held. It made such a difference for them to be able to take a fully loaded kit box, which helped to deliver the message of the charity, and also helped patients and their families recognise the importance of looking after the equipment as well as helping with the successful return of all the drivers to date.  A huge thank you to Irene and Graham Lawrence, Carol Dilorio, Janet Smith, Sue Trenter, Jo Hunt and Julie Taylor for providing these Kit boxes.
 
Donations
We also continue to be privileged to receive donations from people, and in particular those from families who’s loved ones have benefited from the use of a syringe driver.
Thank you to the family of Andy Griffiths for your amazing donation of £1011.70 from Andy’s funeral.  This is enough to purchase a syringe driver outright and will help so many people in his memory.
 
We’d like to thank the lovely Whittlesey singers for their wonderful donation of £500 which will go towards providing syringe drivers to the local community.
 
 
We were also lucky enough to receive a number of donations from other kind folk, such as Louise Jenkins from the Whittlesey Lions club, who organised a charity golf day.  We were invited to the 19th hole to talk about what we do and about the aims of the charity. The Lions raised an amazing £1100 on the day which was boosted by Louise’s employers Lloyds Bank through fund matching by another £500.
 
Our story and work is now getting recognised in other areas covered by the district nursing team, and articles such as the one about our Oundle handover being put into the Village Connect magazine which has a circulation of over 20K homes is certainly helping.
 
Sunday 2nd July - Paston Lent Lunches:
We received an email from the lovely Rev Mark Bridger from All Saints Church in Paston to say that his parishioners and he were looking to do something for a local charity and NGNPUK had been brought to his attention.  He was planning a series of “lent lunches” to raise funds and on Sunday 2dy July, we were invited to come and speak to the congregation about what we do and to receive a cheque for £468.62 raised across a series of lunches held during lent.  We had a lovely day, and met many wonderful people with stories and offers of help. 
 
NGNPUK collection tubs
By now, you may have seen our collections tubs dotted around Whittlesey and a few other local areas.  We’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has taken the time to drop a few pennies in.. They really do add up.  We’d also like to thank all those everyone who has offered to hold one of our boxes.  You can find one in the following locations:

• Quinns Bar
• The Railway restaurant and pub
• Parkers Newsagents
• Peterborough City Care centre
• Westfield Nursery
• Sarah Savage’s Hairdressers

 
We’d also like to thank the trustees at Buckles solicitors for their donation of £1000 on the 26th July that can be used to provide a syringe driver to the local communities.
 
We’d also like to thank the Thorney Post magazine for their donation of £50 into the syringe driver kitty.
 
Closer to home…
If you have been following our journey for a while, you may have learned from our story that the original intention was to provide a syringe driver in memory of Louise’s dad David, who sadly needed a driver at a time when they were more difficult to get. 
 
Over time we have had feedback from families of patients and nurses about the difference these devices made, and sadly Louise’s lovely Nan, Mavis Henson, became very ill very quickly at the grand age of 101yrs old, and needed a syringe driver to help her remain at home with us which is where she wanted to be.
 
When we handed over those machines, we didn't for one minute contemplate that it may again be a member of our family needing one. 
 
We would like to thank the wonderful district nursing team who were so kind and caring to us all, they really are amazing, also the hospital at home ladies. We are so lucky to have such fantastic people out there looking after patients at the end of their life.
 
Thank you Nicky Taylor and colleagues, Diane Carpenter, Vicki Sims, Esther McLaughlan and Sally Page to name just a few. Again thank you to EVERYONE who has helped us so far to provide these invaluable machines for people like Mavis to benefit from.
 
It’s not just us….
Team NGNPUK are not the only ones who have been hard at work this summer raising money and awareness, but some other wonderful people have been doing the same.  On Saturday 15th July, we were lucky enough to pop down to see Bruce Roan and the regulars at the Letter B set off for their annual B2B 54 mile bike ride.  It was a glorious sunny day and the riders looked in fine form.  We were quite envious and really fancied pulling on our cycling shorts but unfortunately we had other matters to attend to.
 
The afternoon of the 15th also saw our first event for Wansford near Stamford.  One of our wonderful supporters, Elin Fløe Styles and her husband Paul, opened their home and garden for a rock concert with difference.
 
Elin is a member of the Wansford Ukulele folk (WUF) and organised a Garden Party which saw the WUF perform an afternoon of ukulele classics to a picnicking audience down by the river. It was such an amazing event, the weather stayed fine and the photos and video are a must see… Take a look at the gallery for a taste of the day. 
 
We would like to say a HUGE thank you to Elin and Paul for organising such a fantastic day. Thank you for opening up your beautiful home and garden in Wansford for everyone to enjoy and a special thank you to the WUF for putting on such a brilliant show.
 
The day was a massive success and they raised an astounding £1010 which will buy another syringe driver!
 
Special mentions and thank you to Satish and Heena at Wansford post office for supplying the welcome drink and malteasers, Sainsbury’s for the Doritos, Kings cliff Bakery for the rolls, Joan and Alan Bolton-Frost for the pork pies, Angela Roberts for the smoked salmon, Barbara Jones, Jane Hein, Jennie Gatheral, Jo Roberts, Molly Turner and Sheila Presland for the cakes, The Black horse Nassington, The Paper Mills, Mandi Veni, John Hale, Sue Kirk, and Jane Hein.
 
We though the amount raised was incredible, however a few days later, Elin delivered another £90 to NGNPUK making the total amount raised from the Ukulele Garden party an impressive £1100!!!
 
This is enough to purchase a complete syringe driver and lockbox for the Wansford area. This syringe driver will be shared between Wansford, Thornhaugh, Water Newton, Laxton, Tixover, Wittering, Collyweston, Stibbington, Barnack, Sutton, Castor & Alisworth and all surrounding towns and villages. Each machine can help so many people. Well done to everyone involved!
 
Finally, a big THANK YOU to everyone who bought a ticket and came along. We hoped you had as an enjoyable day as we did.
 
Excelcare
One of the nice things about doing what we do is the chance to meet so many lovely people.  During one particular handover at Aliwal Manor, we came to the attention of the owner of Excel Care, the owners of Aliwal manor.  During the summer, and to celebrate the 50th Birthday of Mr Ertosun, the founder of Excelcare, the staff of all 10 of Excelcare homes, visitors and some of the people living in the homes completed a sponsored 50 mile “exercise” bike ride and raised a whopping £1600. 
 
The owner, Mr Ertosun was extremely proud to have a donation to such a valuable charity made on his behalf.  Mr Ertosun had earlier this year raised well over £10,000 for another charity by walking to base camp on Mount Everest.
 
The money donated will buy 1 and a half syringe drivers for the local community and was handed over by the staff at Aliwal Manor in Whittlesey, the local Excelcare home.
 
We were blown away to be invited to receive a cheque from the Excel Care team, and thank Mr Ertosun and everyone involved for their kindness and generosity.
 
Syringe driver bags:
Not everything we do is about syringe drivers, and there are still plenty of ways to get involved.  One of the nicest ways to contribute if you have the sewing know how is to follow the easy to make syringe driver pattern on the website.  This is exactly what the Fitzwilliam Quilters have done and we’re delighted to have received 150 bags that have been lovingly crafted and will go into a patients home when the time is right.
 
These thoughtful gifts tell the patients and their families that someone is thinking of them.
 
John Lewis – Community Matters
The final date for the dropping in the tokens was 31/7/17.  A massive thank you to everyone who popped a token in for us at John Lewis coffee shop! You helped us raise a staggering £660 for which we will be picking up a cheque (and maybe a piece of cake) shortly, 
 
This will go a long way to providing another syringe driver to be shared by all out local areas.
 
We were pleased to receive a donation from the family of Steve Marriot, as well as a lovely card for the district nursing team that were able to pass on the 27th July.  These nurses do an amazing job out there and really do take care of families at a difficult time.
 
As you can see so much has been going on. As well as all this we have been busy behind the scenes with all charity paperwork and all the ins and outs that come with running a charity. We have been preparing our first annual report for the charity commission which we will be sending off shortly.  As well are writing a few articles for magazines and answering letters and emails coming in. It’s been a busy few months!
 
That’s the end of part one of this mammoth blog part two to follow! 

​Louise, Lee and Sam
Team NGNPUK

Hi All

Yet again it's been another crazy month with so much happening and so much to update you all with, but we'll start at the hotly contested NGNPUK quiz night held at St Andrews Hall on Sat 6th May.

Quiz Night 2017 
Last year when we decided to do our very first quiz, we learned so many lessons for the next time we considered doing another one, but the best by far, was to prepare the questions early.... one round a month, 10 questions.. easy!!! Well, it MAY have been if we had followed our own advise instead of leaving it all to the last minute.  We planned on the same style format which then left us a flat out mad rush for the last couple of months to get everything prepared.  At this point we'd like to thank Google!! ‘Nuff said!!

The night went really well and it was a close run thing between all the teams and lots of fun was had by all. The baking fairies had been up to their usual tricks producing some scrumptious cakes and we made a whopping £603.51 on the night.  We'd like to say a massive thank you to everyone who donated something for the raffle. 
A special mention and big thank you to Melanie Gowler and the team at McCain for printing all our quiz sheets. This was a huge help to us xx

We had an amusing Sunday morning reading through the answer sheets and from the feedback such as below suggests the balance of questions was right :)

"A big well done to everyone who helped organise and run the quiz tonight! We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves again. ☺ Hope you've made loads of money! X"

John Lewis community matters.
Amongst the chaos of planning the quiz, we were able to pop into John Lewis for a coffee (and cake of course) and to also pop our tokens into the NGNPUK tub.  
 
Every 3 months John Lewis support 3 great causes, one of which this time is NGNPUK.  Take a look at our selfie gallery, and if you get the chance, pop along and give us a helping hand by dropping your tokens into the NGNPUK tub, and how about sending us those selfies? :).  The opportunity exists for the whole of May, June and July!

We'd like to thank Vicky Johnson; Andrea Lindley; Pauline Huett; Natasha Shiels; Anita Exton; Paul and Natalie Markham; Jason Mockett and everyone else who has dropped in a token for us.  This all goes towards a syringe driver that can be shared amongst all areas.
 
Donations
We’re fortunate to be in the minds of many people and we’d like to say a big thank you to Enid Leckie for the kind donation we received and to Christine Nicholls from Gifts galore for donating some raffle prizes to us for our events.

Mayors Charity
We were extremely honoured to have been one of the charity’s selected by the outgoing Whittlesey Mayor to receive a very generous donation of £900 towards a syringe driver.  We were invited along to the Town Council to receive the cheque and to have some photos with Mayor Alex Miscandlon and it was a wonderful opportunity to thank the town council.

A big thank you to Mayor Alex Miscandlon, Sue Piergianni and the rest of the Whittlesey Town councillors for thinking of us. This community really does amazing things!!

Really making a difference.
It is sometimes easy to forget just how much of a difference we're making to the wonderful district nursing team who are out in the community every day doing such an amazing job.  It is touching to receive feedback from them, but as demonstrated below, it really does help them deliver the best care possible:

"Hi, I have seen your posts over the last few days and wanted to say a huge thank you for everything you are doing! I am a community nurse covering the areas you talk about and know it can be very frustrating for ourselves and patients (and their families) when we can’t get access to equipment fast enough. On behalf of myself and my colleague’s thank you it’s making a huge difference to a lot of families. It’s not an easy time and the less stress and things families have to worry about the better"

It’s even more special when we receive feedback from the families directly as we recently did below:
 
“I wanted to say how happy that you raise funds for the syringe drivers my father in law received one to use today and he certainly is benefiting from it instead of having a lot of jabs and making him comfortable. I just wanted to thank you”
 
We could not be prouder to have helped in any small way.

TSB Community Causes
One of the lovely things about what we do is the impact it makes in the local communities in which we work, and we are starting to get recognition in the wider community. This makes schemes such as the TSB chosen charities a brilliant opportunity to expand on the work we're doing.

The TSB scheme allows for charities to be nominated to a local community branch, and for the staff in those branches to choose a charity to support for their fundraising efforts.

We've received loads of nominations, and hopefully we're up with a chance to be selected.  We'd like to thank everyone who nominated us and we have our fingers crossed. :)

Another anniversary
It was 2 years ago that we undertook our first ever fundraiser where Louise, Sam and Lee biked 54 long miles! It's also where we thought up the name "No gain", as we intended to lose weight, "no pain" - which speaks for itself.  
 
Our intention was to raise enough money for a syringe driver, but thanks to each and every one of you who has helped us on this journey to date, we're preparing to hand over 6 more syringe drivers bringing the total donated so far to 18 and we can't wait.
 
We really can't explain how proud we are of this achievement and what our community has delivered.

Latest handover.
All of the hard work over the last few months meant that we were ready to organise the handover of our latest batch of drivers. We were also very fortunate enough to help the nurses with a couple of other requests they had.
 
Our crafting army had produced a staggering 257 syringe driver bags over the last few months which is amazing and really do make such a difference to the patients and their families.
 
Thank you to everyone who has donated their time to make one.  There is always a demand for these bags as they can only be used with one patient, so please get in touch if you’d like to help.
 
Another big thank you to Julie from Making for Charity who helped with the pattern and lots of advice and Lee at Interior Good Direct in Wakefield for donating boxes of material whenever we need it :) xx
 
Also, a huge thank you to Lewis Leo and Hayley Smith from Craft yourself silly in Newcastle for the box of material and the letter of encouragement we received from them supporting us.
 
The next phase of the handover also included delivering 18 equipment boxes to help the district nurses keep all their equipment together when they are in people’s homes.
 
When the nurses carry a syringe driver into a patient’s home they also need syringes, needles, infusion lines, medication and charts etc. Some of this equipment can get separated in the home with everything going on. These boxes will ensure all the correct equipment will be available for the driver and will help to keep everything clean and safe. The boxes needed to be easy to use, have a handle, be hard plastic, durable and easy to clean.
 
We had a challenge getting the best value and quantity from the large retailers but thankfully Stuart at Proper Building Supplies in Whittlesey stepped in, managed sort the pricing and orders for us.  Also a big thank you to Noel and Lesley Muncey at Century Embroidery for printing the stickers, both wonderful local Whittlesey businesses. 
 
We hope they help our nurses who are out there everyday using this equipment, and you can see some pictures in our gallery.
 
Then on Friday 19th May we handed over 6 more Syringe drivers with lockboxes, 18 equipment boxes and 257 bags all for use in the local communities by our district nursing teams.
 
The handover took place at the Oundle GP surgery, where the district nurses there had seen the improvement in the Whittlesey areas and had asked for our help in raising awareness and with help fund raising.  We were pleased to be able to provide the drivers and they were shared as follows:

• 1 for Oundle covering Achurch, Benefield, Lutton, Warmington, Polebrook, Pilton and surrounding towns and villages. Our first in this area :) 
• 2 more for Whittlesey, Thorney, Eye, Stanground and surrounding towns and villages.
• 1 more for the Wansford team covering, Laxton, Tixover, Stibbington, Wittering, Collyweston, Barnack, Sutton, Castor & Alisworth and surrounding areas.
• 2 which can be shared between all areas covered by our local community nursing teams 

Without everyone's help this would not be possible so a huge well done to everybody who’s supported us and please keep sharing and talking about syringe drivers as much as you can.

Louise, Lee and Sam
Team NGNPUK

Hi All,
​
April saw the start of a new year for the NGNPUK and our first official journey into the regulations and reporting for the Charity commission.  It’s another minefield, however this has not slowed the rate at which the good ship NGNPUK sails!
We’ve had another amazing month and it’s so inspirational to see our communities coming together to make such a difference to people’s lives.  Firstly we have to say thanks to a few people:

Burnthouse Farm
We would like to say a massive thank you to the Cambridgeshire Community Foundation for the grant from the Burnthouse Wind Farm Community Benefit Fund.  We were fortunate to receive an award that will go towards purchasing another Syringe Driver for the Whittlesey area, these grants make a huge difference to the charity.

The Whittlesey Lions
We would also like to say a huge thank you to the Whittlesey Lions.  The Lions had organised a charity gold day at Ramsey Golf and bowls club.  They had chosen us as their charity for the event and both Louise and Sam were invited to visit them at the 19th hole for the winner’s presentation and to give a talk about the charity and why we do what we do. 
It was well received and everyone made us feel most welcome.  Many people spoke to us afterwards and it helped with understanding about syringe drivers and that it wasn’t a man in a van. 
The event raised a magnificent amount of £1100 which will provide another driver for the Whittlesey area and we cannot thank them enough for choosing to support us with this event.

Easter craft fayre – 16th April 2017
We had a lovely day at the Easter craft fayre and it was great to see so many of you come along.  There was a huge variety of activities including a visits from the exotic pet rescue centre.  I’m sure everyone who met the skunk wanted to take her home!!

We had a stall filled with lovely crafty goodies, and would like to say thank you to Christine Cranwell for her lovely knitted bunnies and teddies, Vicki Hallatt and her mum for the jewellery and booze, Jo Hunt for her painting pebbles and booze for our booze hamper and everyone else who donated or made something lovely for our stall.  The photos on our gallery really don’t do it justice! 

The main attraction was the hamper of booze that saw people flocking to the table for raffle tickets and we even had cyber shoppers who brought some online… very impressive!

The lucky winner was Dawn Cartwright, who needed to employ a big strong man to get it home!!
We made an impressive £205 on the day and it was a great fun, so a big thanks to Sonia Ciriello for organising the event as well as Elin floe styles, Sadie Forge and Karen for helping us out.

Stilton Cheese Rolling (1/5/2017)
We are very lucky to have friends who support what we do and we were delighted to receive an offer to do some fundraising on our behalf at the Stilton Cheese rolling festival.  As usual, we put a call out to all our supporters to see if they could help and we were inundated with kind offers.  Our supports are incredible and never cease to amaze us.
 
We have to say a special thank you to Karen Kelley who donated a roll of florist wrap and lots of tissue paper which allowed us to create our stunning booze hampers.  We were also grateful to receive bottles of wine and spirits, with a special mention to Trudy Spridgeon!! All we can say is WOW! Trudy co-ordinated and collected the efforts from the residents in Thorney who donated bottles for our crate of booze.  This kind of help really makes a difference and is a huge help to us.

We are also grateful to the community team at Tesco’s in Hampton who donated some wine for the Stilton hamper. 

The day was a massive step for team NGNPUK as it allowed us to highlight the challenge we face and to raise awareness of syringe drivers and their purpose in a new area.  The feedback was tremendous and we continue to reach new audiences which is great news!

One of our followers left a lovely comment and shared her story with us, so thank you Glenda Setchfield for that.  It just emphasises the importance of a syringe driver and the difference they make.

A massive thank you goes to Sadie Forge and Grant Tucker for their offer to run the stall at Stilton and allow us a day to catch up with some non-charity work (which is very few and far between).

ERT
We were also overwhelmed to be contacted by Andrea Barnes from the company ERT in Peterborough who have donated a syringe driver that can be used in any of our local areas. We hope this is the first of many that can be shared across all 33 surgeries on the map and will be used to help anyone in need.
Louise went to receive the driver from ERT and had the chance to talk with the community team and explain what we do.  This  is one of our most commonly asked questions and if you’re reading this and are not familiar, here’s the NGNPUK Team’s explanation:

What is a syringe driver?
“A syringe driver is a small computerised machine that can be programmed to give patients a measured dose of pain relief and other drugs during palliative care. The machines can help patients remain at home with loved ones instead of going into hospital or a hospice.
They cost £1100 each and many large areas share just one or two of these machines however together we are slowly managing to increase these numbers.
We have donated an extra 12 machines over the last two years and these have been in constant use since they were handed over. One machine can help so many patients over its working lifetime.
No one should have to wait for one of these machines. 60 seconds is a minute too long”.

A huge thank you to everyone at ERT.
 
John Lewis Ballot
We were also amazed to hear from the community team at John Lewis who were pleased to tell us that we have been nominated as one of their 3 chosen charities for May, June and July to be included in their green token ballot.  For those people who have not spent as much time in the JL café (their cake is to be recommended), it is an opportunity to drop your green token into a ballot box.  If you are able to visit, please think of us and pop your token in and send us a selfie for us to pop on the website!
 
NISA
We have just collected and counted up our first collection tub which has been in the Nisa store in Broad Street since 2nd March and it had a whopping £42.75 in! Thank you Janet Smith for organising to get the tub on the counter and a massive thank you to everyone who donated their spare change. 
We will pop one back in there after it re opens following their refurbishment.
 
Future events:
We’re gearing up for the next batch of events for the next month which includes our next NGNPUK Quiz night at St Andrews Hall.  We hope to see you there for fun and cakes!

We also were approached by Colin Martin and the team at the Whittlesey Discussion group who were planning to hold a joint music night on behalf of NGNPUK and Defibrillators for all.

It promises to be a good night, and initially we were happy to accepts, however decided to Step aside as the Defibs charity has a fast approaching funding deadline to achieve in order to do some cardiac screening for children.  We thank Colin and  the team and there will be other events for us in the future.  Good luck with the target Defibs!

It’s also our traditional plant sale season and we’ve been busy lifting, dividing and sowing. We made over £500 last year so will be hoping for the same success this year!

We would like to say a big thank you to Geordie Mountford from Stanground who has grown us over 60 lovely tomato plants and 30 trays of Marigolds as well as donating 70 Begonia corms which we are nurturing at the moment.

If anyone ever fancies sowing a packet of seeds or have a plant they are dividing please think of us as all these £1's soon add up to another syringe driver.

All the money we make from sales will go towards a syringe driver that can be shared between all the areas on the map.
​
Finally, a special mention to Irene and Graham Lawrence who spend most of their time ferrying plants and other paraphernalia between Castor and Whittlesey. Keep up the good work!  We are very grateful, so THANK YOU!


Louise, Lee and Sam
Team NGNPUK

Hi All
 
Wow, we really can’t believe March is already upon us, and by the time you’re reading this, it’s likely to be Easter (and enjoying all that chocolate!) and so much has happened since our last update.
 
Ann Lawrence…
Sadly our Sam lost her Nan, Ann Lawrence recently who also needed a syringe driver.  Ann’s family kindly donated the funds collected at Ann's funeral to NGNPUK.
 
Following on from this, Sam also donated the money raised from selling her beautiful homemade Christmas holly wreaths, which was an incredible £235.  Sam's wish is that this money is added to the funds from her Nan’s funeral and will go towards a Syringe Driver in the Oundle area who currently share just two drivers.
 
This driver will benefit anyone who uses the Oundle surgery and includes areas such as Achurch Polebrook, Benefield, Lutton, Warmington, Pilton and all surrounding villages.
 
Well done Sam, who still has the scars from the holly and a big thank you to Ann's family and friends for their generosity.
 
Castor Coffee morning…
Thank you to everyone who came along to the coffee morning at the Royal Oak in Castor on the Thursday 23rd Feb as it was a great success.
 
A lot more people now know what a syringe driver is and why we are doing what we do which is fantastic. We were able to hand out lots of leaflets and posters too. A huge thanks to Eileen and Jenny who were not only both up at 5am baking delicious scones, but also raised a massive £460.35 organising the event!  What an incredible achievement.
 
Also, thanks to everyone involved and all who came along it was a really lovely morning it was so nice to meet so many new people.  This money will go towards the second syringe driver to cover that area.
 
Take a look at the photos on our gallery or over on Facebook.
 
Collection boxes…
These have been a long time coming but they are finally with us.  We’re really pleased with them and think they look ace!
 
The first collection box will be going into the Nisa store on Broad Street, Whittlesey so we’d like to say a really big thank you Janet Smith for organising this with your boss.  Hopefully you’ll spot them around, feel free to drop any spare change into them as every penny really does make a difference.
 
Donations…
We would also like to say a big thank you to the family of Charles Redhead for the very kind donation NGNPUK received from them.
 
Sadly Charles passed away last year and this donation will go a long way to providing another syringe driver in the Whittlesey area in the future. Each syringe driver can help so many people.  Many thanks again to Charles family for their generosity at this sad time.
 
We would also like to say a big thank you to the friends and family of Amanda Kelley for the generous donation we received from Amanda's funeral.  Amanda was taken way too soon and is proof that people of any age can sadly need a syringe driver.  Our thoughts are with Karen and all Amanda's friends and family at this sad time
 
Indoor Car Boot – Sunday 12th March…
So we had a plan to do a small indoor car boot sale to get rid of some stuff so that Lee could get his man cave back…
 
This idea soon ballooned NGNPUK style to the point whereby it became a full on event, with us also providing Coffee and cake (spotting a theme here)?
 
We decided to hire out the Eastrea centre and sell a few pitches…… this grew to eventually 36 indoor stalls, all of which sold and unfortunately we had to turn people away!!  This health and safety stuff gets in the way..
 
We created a homemade banner from an old sign donated to us (a couple of late nights and some sharpies later), we think it turned out OK.
 
Unfortunately, the parking was a bit of a “challenge”, however the foul weather on the day didn’t seem to spoil the enthusiasm of the shoppers or stall holders and a great day was had.
 
We have to say a huge thank you to everyone who came, wow it was so busy.  We hope everyone sold all their bits or found a bargain.  Thanks to EVERYONE who donated a cake to us and to everyone who helped especially Pete and Keiron from the Eastrea centre who were brilliant.
 
Finally, a huge thank you to Pam & John Palmer who donated their stall takings to the fund.  We made an amazing £379.75p for the syringe driver pot so thank you, because without your support events like these can’t happen. 
 
We have been asked if we’d do this more regular…The answer was no… however, you’ll need to like our page of follow us to find out!!
 
Take a look at the photos on the Gallery!
 
What a lovely idea…
We were very fortunate to have received a lovely donation from a group of friends who club their Christmas present money together and donate it to various charities each year.  We have been lucky to have been chosen as one of these charities this year.  This is so very kind and we would like to thank you all.
 
Easter Craft fayre….
Unfortunately the craft fayre scheduled to be run at the Sue Ryder Hospice at Thorpe Hall had to be moved and the event changed, however the good news is that you can still see us attending at the new venue.  The details are below:
 
Easter Delights Craft Fair & Fun Day
16th April 2017
11 - 4pm
Parkway Sports and Social Club
Maskew Avenue
PE1 2AS
 
Come along to say hi, there is plenty of activities and stalls to visit and we will be raffling off a hamper of booze amongst other things on our craft stall.  
 
We’d like to say a massive thank you to McCain for their amazing donation of 2 luxury hampers that we can use as raffle prizes and a big thank you to anyone who’s donated a bottle of something or some crafty treats… hopefully everything will go to a fitting home.
 
Even more driver bags…..
A big thank you to Karen Prudhoe from Fitzwilliam patch workers and to all the various patch working groups and workshops in Peterborough that Karen visits for making these beautiful syringe driver bags.  Making bags will be one of the ongoing projects for some of these groups in 2017 which is a huge help to us.
 
The bags make a big difference to patients and their families as having the driver in a bag is a lot less clinical.  There is a constant need for them as they are not transferable between patients however many families do keep them.  Also, a big thank you to the following ladies for their continued contributions of driver bags; Liz Elliott, Eileen Stalley, Sue Cuthburt, Karyn McCarthy and Mary Christian.
 
The Letter B regulars….
Another huge thanks to Bruce, Denise, regulars and the quiz teams at the Letter B who handed over a cheque for £1100 to buy a syringe driver for the Whittlesey area which will also cover Thorney, Eye and Stanground and all surrounding villages.   It truly is inspiring the amount of generosity received by these kind folks and the community!
 
We stopped for the evening and took part in Bruce’s quiz night (highly recommended) and although we didn’t win, we had a great night!!
 
Music night
We’re pleased to have been included as one of 2 charity’s to benefit form a charity music night being held on Friday 19th May 7:30 – Midnight at Childers, Station Road Whittlesey organised by Colin Martin.
 
Acts appearing include; Holly and the Boatmen, David James Smith and Anthony Shiels.
 
Tickets available from Colin, NGNPUK or Defibrillators for All.
 
It should be a great night and we’ll see you there with our dancing shoes.
  
Time for reflection…..
Whilst beavering away like we do here, it became apparent according to our Facebook timeline that it’s been another year in our journey and what a year it’s been!
 
In our very 1st year we were plugging away and struggled to raise the money for just one extra machine for the Whittlesey, Thorney, Eye and Stanground areas, fast forward another year on there has been a huge difference :) We are now as you may know a registered charity and through spreading the word and sharing information anywhere we can we have had some AMAZING support! Wow what community we live in!   Thank you just does not seem to cover it.
 
It just goes to show how together we can make a difference! There are now a total of 11 extra syringe drivers covering our community and we have also managed to supply one to the Wansford area. These magic little machines have been in constant use since they were handed over and have already helped so many people in the time when they need it most.
 
Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to listen to us, read and share our information it helps us more than you can imagine.
 
For the future we will continue to fundraise as we do not want to be in the same situation again in years to come. It has been no secret we want to help our other local towns and villages too. This is finally starting to happen as we are now getting contacted by people in these communities to offer help.
 
We were all sharing just 19 syringe drivers between 33 surgeries at the start of this. These surgeries cover a huge area and a lot of people. Whittlesey, Thorney, Eye and Stanground have lead the way but the others are still in need and we will do our very best to make this happen.
 
With much love and thanks for everyone’s continued support.

Louise, Lee and Sam
Team NGNPUK :) xx

 Hi all
 
Another month has passed in the blink of an eye and here’s what’s been going on.
 
Firstly…
We would like to say a very big thank you to the family of Bill Allen who kindly donated the funds collected at Bills funeral to NGNPUK. Bill lived in Whittlesey all his life and this money will go towards purchasing another Syringe driver for the area in the future. Donations like this make a huge difference to the charity. Many thanks to all Bills family and friends for their generosity at this sad time.
 
On Friday 20th January we raced our human hound Jabba the Mutt (aka Lee) in the human hound race at the Peterborough Grey hound Stadium. He would receive £50 for racing and had the chance to qualify for the final which he actually managed to do! Our Jabba came second on the night and was able to bask in the glory for a whole two weeks before the final where sadly due to a wardrobe malfunction he came last :( Such a shame as there was a massive £500 up for grabs plus our Jabba had been getting up at 5am to train.  Take a look at our gallery for photos and a video of the final!
 
Another thank you to Rosemary Hayward who donated her winter fuel allowance to NGNPUK. This donation will go towards more syringe drivers in local communities :). These donations make a huge difference. Each syringe driver can help so many people during its working life. Many thanks Rosemary.
 
We put out a plea for any unwanted bottles of alcohol that people may have kicking around after the festive period. It's a long way off but we will be attending the Easter delights craft fayre at Sue Ryder on 15th and 16th April and would like to raffle a barrow of booze so we thought we would try and get organised early.
 
We also put out a plea to any crafters out there as we needed to fill our craft stall with something and we are not the greatest at all things crafty!  We have been amazed by the reaction and the generosity of people. We had a box of goodies from the lovelies at Interior Goods Direct in Wakefield as well as another box of material for making bags. Also we have had craft donations from Heidi Lowman, Chris Turner, and Penny Lewin-Watts and hopefully have more things on the way to us soon. Everyone has been so very kind.
 
We had more Syringe driver bags delivered back to us from Susan Cuthburt who had been very busy as well as Jenny Palmer thank you ladies. These bags will all be used in people's homes when they have a syringe driver. If anyone would like to make a bag or two please get in touch we can supply the material and the instructions. Thanks again Sue and Jenny!
 
Also big thanks go to Cathie Baxter-Edwards and Tracey Hawkins for donating their Christmas card money to NGNPUK. Also to the mystery person who sent a postal order to Discovering Whittlesey for NGNPUK for £25 in September. We received it in January. The first name is Paul and we can't quite make out the surname but it begins with V. Many thanks and thank you to Discovering Whittlesey for getting it to us :)
 
We received feedback from the district nurses and the 11 extra drivers that have been donated in our area (which covers New Queens Street, Jenner, Thorney, Stanground and Eye surgeries) as well as the 1 extra one for Wansford (also covering Laxton, Wittering, Collyweston, Stibbington, Barnack, Sutton, Castor and Ailsworth) have been in almost constant use since they were handed over.

This goes to show how much are needed we often wonder what would happen to all these people if the extra 12 weren’t out there.
 
We thought it was time to get organised so we have been busy booking events and venues and whilst trying to get into our shed, Louise had the great idea of doing an indoor car boot sale to shift some of our stuff! In the throes of organising that we only ended up advertising it on a group in Australia by mistake! Thank you to the lovely lady who pointed out it was a bit far to come :)  Here are some of the other events we have coming up this will give you an idea of what we are organising at the moment:-
 
Some lovely ladies called Jennie and Eileen have organised a coffee morning at the Royal Oak pub in Castor on Thursday 23rd Feb 10am-12noon.
 
Our indoor car boot sale is on Sunday 12th March – at  The Eastrea Centre - £8 a pitch in advance 10am until 2pm/
Saturday and Sunday 15th &16th April we have the Easter Delights craft fayre at Thorpe Hall, this is the biggie the one we need to fill our table for ;)
 
Everyone seemed to enjoy last year’s quiz night so we thought we would do another one on Saturday May 6th - Quiz night St Andrews Hall starts at 7.30pm bring your own food and drink. Tables of up to 8
Saturday 7th October this is a new one for us but we thought a junior mastermind quiz would be good this will be at Childers more details to follow on that later.
 
Finally for this blog a Thank you to young Alfie Forge from Stilton for donating some of your hard earned pocket money to NGNPUK.

Louise, Sam & Lee
​NPNGUK