Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page. As you can see I am running the Royal Parks Half Marathon on Sunday October 11th 2009 in aid of Smile 4 Rich.

Why Smile4Rich? In July 2002, 15 year old Richard Bowler collapsed whilst training with his local football club. He was rushed to the Intensive Care Unit of QA Hospital in Portsmouth where he was found to have suffered a massive brain haemorrhage. Sadly, he never regained consciousness and died the following day. Following news of his death, hundreds of his friends at Brookfield School in Sarisbury Green, Southampton, left messages on a ‘memory board’ in the school grounds. One such message ended with the words ‘Smile 4 Rich’. Family and friends were devastated by the tragedy and vowed that some good should come from Rich’s death. In the following 18 months over £29,000 was raised for local projects and charities, including donations of over £8,000 each to the Wessex Neurological Centre Trust and the Portsmouth Hospital’s Rocky Appeal raised at a Smile4Rich Fun Day in December 2003. (The programme for the 2003 Smile4Rich Fun Day can now be downloaded from the eNewsletter page under the Fundraising menu)

In April 2004 it was agreed that Smile4Rich would become the ‘public face’ of fundraising for the WNCT and the trustees approved the launch of the Ambulance Appeal. It is now the Wessex Neurological Centre’s preferred charity partner and is committed to providing increasing levels of funding, both via public appeals for focussed projects such as the Ambulance and PVT appeals, but also to further our understanding of a wide variety of neurological conditions and how best they can be treated.

Details of the new appeal are below and is where your generous donations will go.

The Fluorescence Enhanced Neurosurgery Appeal

Any procedure involving surgery on the brain is, quite obviously, an extremely complex procedure. The key to ensuring a positive outcome for the patient is for the neurosurgeon to have as complete a picture as possible, not merely of the tissue he or she is working on, but the effects on surrounding tissue. In neurovascular surgery, for example when repairing vessels damaged by an aneurysm/ haemorrhage, the ability to clearly monitor the effect on blood-flow in adjacent brain tissue is crucial to ensuring a successful outcome. At present, surgeons at the Wessex Neurological Centre rely heavily on the use of micro-dopplers which give an audible indication of blood-flow. However, this method provides only very localised information to the surgeon.

Fluorescence Enhanced Neurosurgery (FEN) offers a completely new way of visualising blood-flow in the brain which provides the surgeon with far superior data than is currently possible. Prior to surgery, patients are injected with a contrast dye which, when viewed through a neurosurgical operating microscope equipped with the FL800 Fluorescence system, enables the surgeon to see exactly how blood-flow in surrounding vessels is affected by his/her actions. Having this real-time information will eliminate the need for on-table angiography, reduce the likelihood of repeat surgery being required, and reduce the possibility of either a recurrence of the bleed or of a post-operative stroke.

Surgeons at the Wessex Neurological Centre perform vascular neurosurgery on hundreds of patients per annum. By equipping one of the Centre’s operating theatres with a new, state-of-the-art, operating microscope fitted with the FL800 Fluorescence system, most if not all of these patients will benefit. Of course, such technology is expensive and it is estimated that around £200,000 will need to be raised.

 

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now.