I organised a `World cup sweep` at work. £3 a go ~ £30 for the winners, £12 for second place and £6 for third place. Just for fun with no profits going to anyone.

Well, would you believe it, but my mate Kevin had Germany & Spain in the draw and he has kindly donated half of his prize money to JAYs.( the rest has gone to paying his lotto fees that I run, lets hope that he wins that as well !)

Kevins Mom has M.S and so does his Mother-in-law, so he a connection with M.S but even so, it was a nice jesture.

A big thank you to Kevin for his kind donation.

Thanks to everyone who donated their loose change at Cofton nursery, we raised £41.80

We really enjoyed Bromsgrove carnival, with a great atmosphere and some beautiful weather.

We raised £424.38 have a look at the pics in past events

Thanks to everyone at the Wine Cabin who donated their loose change in the shaker, £10.78 was collected.

Had a good day at the Elizabethan market. Details in past events.

Thanks to everyone at the Queen Vic in Barnt Green for donating their loose change in the `Shaker`. £49.02 was raised.

We was invited, along with other fund raisers, to London by the M.S. Society to the Institute of Neurology to see the new scanner that the Society has installed there just for research into M.S.

The £1.4million, high-field 3 Tesla scanner will enable a new programme of dedicated imaging research into the debilitating neurological condition multiple sclerosis.

The new scanner is more powerful than previous ones and will allow much better images to be taken of the effects of MS throughout its course.

It was also nice to meet other fund raisers, the people behind the research and of course the people from the M.S Society, to put a face to the voice.

I thought I may get a little bored at the technical stuff but found it all very interesting. The enthusiam from the researchers was infectious, they explained their perticular fields in easy terms, from stem cells to looking at grey matter in the brain. We definitely needed more time to look around.

The Institute also cordinates the research with other M.S. Trusts/Societies here and abroad, so the research is not duplicated and all our hard work as fund raisers is not waisted.

A great day.Thanks.

 

	Lunch at Mables
I had the Kiev & Yvonne the toasties	Talk about the scanner
Showing the images of brain.The scanner also looks at the spinal column.	A different view of the brain. There are three types of image they can use to look for lesions on the brain.
We was not allowed into the room as we would have had to take off anything that contained metal. It could have damaged my camera.	The researchers. The guy on the end is showing how powerful the magnet is with his ID necklace.
A researcher from Italy and Gulan	Me, Gulan, Help?!, Hannah & Yvonne
We got talking to the barman in `Skinners`about where we`d been that day and about our fund raising, he said "wait there, i`ll see what we`ve got down the celler" Thanks to Sam for donating glasses, T-shirts & a football prizes for our tombola.	While sam was down the celler, we got chatting to Michael who had just came in and before you know it Yvonne had twisted his arm to donate his bottle wine to our cause. Thanks Michael.

Had a interesting talk by Roz a `Dog listener` . Details in past events.

Thanks to everyone who dondated their loose change from the News agents on the Birmingham rd. £12.67

And everyone over the weekend at the Cofton Nursery plant sale. £24.18

Sadly the Red lion in Bromsgrove has closed and they have one of our `shakers` in there. I don`t know if any money was in it, but looks like we may have lost it, unless someone else takes it on.

I asked the Lord mayor of Birmingham if JAYs could be one of his chosen charities this year, this is the reply.

Malt whisky tasting night.

We had a great night samplng malts, with some very interesting ones.

We made £40

Thanks to everyone who came along.

The Bluebell walk went very well, raising £102

Pictures in past events.

All on a diet now after the cake break. .

Click the picture to see the pics.

We had a nice surprise today. A group calling themselves The Monday Fellowship came for a tour around Cofton nursery. They enjoyed the talk and tour around the nursery and wanted to leave a donation.

The manager refused, saying he was please to give to tour and hoped everyone enjoyed it, after they insisted, he said if the wanted to make a donation then they could donate to our charity.

So thank you very much everyone from the Fellowship for the £25 donation.

I`ve been listening to Marlo Donato palmelee music on myspace and I`m really enjoying the music.

Listen here

Paid for the liabillity insurance today, cost us £150 for the year and up to 15 events.

Unfortunately you have to have it these days. The Court Leet who organise the Elizabethan market insist you have it and have to show the certificate as proof.

Marlo Donato Parmelee account of living with M.S

Click on the picture.

Had a meeting today, with Lesley from the Victoria inn in Barnt Green. She would like to do some events with us, so that will be great.

She`s suggested a coulpe of events, a car boot, a race night and maybe a gala/fete.

We`ll let you know how things are going.

Went to the Rockfords club in Headless cross for a beer festival on Saturday. Had a great day sampling real ales in a lovely club. I was told that they choose a charity each year and raise funds for them. So I will put our name forward for that and finger crossed.

Some more real ale pump clips on E-bay that I`m selling for M.S.

E-bay

The M.S Society told us this week that unfortunatley they cannot insure our events due to cut-backs. So I`ve asked a couple of insurance firms for quotes for the year and i `m waiting for the results.

It`s sad that in this day & age you have to take out insurance because your scared of the`where theres a blame theres a claim` culture. If it`s too much to insure, we may have to call it a day, oh well .

To put it into context, a few years ago we got insurance for the Elizabethan market for £50, that`s 50 tickets to sell before you start to make a profit, that was for a week. Great we said, it will cover the carnival as well, no they said, the carnival is in a different location, so another £50 was paid.

Sad to say but the D.D.S.S club has called in the recievers. We have had many a great night there rising funds for M.S and before that, with the B.R.S.S.

We would like to say a big thank-you to Clive for allowing Jays the use of the club and all his help and generosity.

Collected £48.50 from the shaker tin on the bar at the Queen Vic in Barnt Green. Thanks to everyone who was so generous.

What a week, had a call yesterday from a guy called pip who ran a dragon boat race events for charity and was wondering if we would like to put a team in.

Need a crew of 20 and he would like us to raise at least £1,700. Entry fee was £350.

Then today I get a call from a guy called Gordon who does drag racing for M.S.

Sounds very exciting, his girlfriend, Kaz, has M.S, shes a about to start racing after catching the bug for drag racing.

Have a look at their web-sites, the are very positive people and are doing a great job for M.S. Also on the links page.

Drag racing for M.S

Kaz

Will I get a call from a dr tomorrow?! ..hope not unless he`s got a cure!

We have booked a place in the Bromsgrove carnival, were we will be running the duck race again and we will also have a tombola. The Carnival is a week later this year on the 10th & 11th July.

I`ve put some information about young carers web-sites on our links page.

Help, Call centres, Support, Grants, Comps , etc

Have some time to waste? I`ve added a games button with some games to play when you have a spare five minutes. Some are quizs and some a stupid but addictive time wasters, have fun !

 

Luxurious Christmas cake raffle

The winning raffle number for the Christmas cake was a white ticket number 668

It was won by a very happy Mrs Fielding.

Thanks to everyone who had a go and thanks also to Janet for the kind donation of the cake.

Recycle

You can recycle your old Phones and ink cartridges at a company called eachone counts and they will give the M.S. Society £3 for your phone and £1 for any old ink cartridge. log on to their web-site for a free postage bag and details.

Fashion show cheque

We would like to thank Ann and everyone involved with the show for their help in raising a fantastic £1,300 for M.S

Brandon helping the cause

We had a phone call from a lady called Cheryl saying that her son Brandan was organising a cake sale at his school, Lickey Hills and he would like to donate the money to Jays & M.S.

Brandan wanted to raise funds for M.S because sadly his grandmother passed away aged 53, a couple of years ago after suffering with progressive M.S.

So he asked the schools permission, organised his friends, Ryan, James, Ben & Brandon into baking cakes to sell and helping to sell them.

They held the sale over two days and I think they wanted it to last even longer because they enjoyed it so much. One lad even made a 126 cakes to sell.

The school was very generous and very hungry because Brandan and his friend raised a staggering £58.30

Well done Brandan and his mates, a big thank you from Jackie, Tony & Yvonne.

Fashion & Hair show

A interesting night of and fashion. Thanks to everyone invovled.

We will find out at the end of the week how much was raised for JAYs.

I`ve put some photos of the event in past events.

A good friend of ours, Lucy, ran in the Birmingham half marathon on Sunday 11th October.

It was her first half marathon and she did it in 2 hours and 13 minutes, which she said she is " Dead chuffed with ".

So far she has raised £53 with a bit more stil coming in.

Well done Lucy and thank you.

Recieving the cheque from Diane Carr & Chairman Judith Jagger

We had a lovely surprise when Diane Carr, councillor for Barnt green, put JAYs forward to be one of the charities at this years Barnt Green festival. We were pleased to be accepted and on Monday 27th July we recieved a cheque for a fantastic amount of £1,000.

Unfortunately we were committed to the Duck race at Sanders park so we could not help out, maybe next time.

We would like to thank Diane for putting our name forward, the Barnt green parish council and everyone at the festival for raising this fantastic amount for M.S

Barnt Green parish web-site

The winning number for the duck race is 178.

It was won by mr Ian Wheeler, who kindley donated the winnings to JAYs

Mr Wheeler collecting his winnings and then giving them back to Jackie.

Pictures in the past events for the Elizabethan market.

New web site charity for young people with M.S

lots of info click here

We made £36.40 at work and the lickey hills cafe made £53.39 so thats a grand total of £89.79

A big thank you to everyone who brought a cake or donated towards the cause. Also the girls for baking the cakes and the lickey staff for doing a grand job of selling the cakes.

Caylie, Claire & Steward ready for the cake break at the Lickey Hills Cafe

Carol and her lovely Lemon drizzle cake, that wont be lasting long.

Got our first cheque from Buy@ today for £27.07 and all for nothing really. All you have to do is click the buy@ logo just to the right and a percentage of whatever you spend goes to J.A.Y.s. what could be simpler?

VooDoo

Great set from the guys. Check out the pics on past events.

Picture of Max with the favourite malt on the night.

Some lovely malts once again.

Nice to see the event well attended and a profit made. Go to past events for the pictures.

Well done girls.

Well done to the girls for raising a fantastic £1,260.64

Well the girls bravely did the parachute jump in perfect conditions and throughly enjoyed the experience, even wanting to go again straight after!!

To sponsor the brave girls at Justgiving

 

A bit of interesting news.

Disabled parking bays set to become legally enforceable.

25.02.09

Jackie Baillie's bill to impose fines on anyone parking incorrectly in a disabled bay was set to become law after it was passed by Parliament yesterday(26 February). This means that anyone caught abusing a disabled persons' parking bay will be fined £30, rising to £60 if not paid in 14 days.

Matt D`Netto

Check out Matts web-site, I think he needs our support. Matt is raising funds for M.S the hard way.

Here`s our first cheque from Whitebox for all the searches we`ve made through our Yahoo search box. £46.99.Please use it as much as possible

This beautiful Christmas cake was won by Mr Gary Macmanus.Thanks to Gary and everyone who had a go on this raffle, also a big thank you to Janet Morgan for making and donating the cake. We made £127

We handed over a cheque for £10,000 to local BBC newsreader Suzanne Virdee, who recieved the cheque on behalf of the M.S Society. Thanks Suzanne for coming along. Also a big thank you to everyone who has supported us in one way or another to get to this fantastic amount, without your support this would not have been possible.

Look whos been in `pick me up `

They have done a feature on our curry night fund raiser.

A couple with M.S and a love of music got together to produce this album about and for M.S sufferers, also the profits are going towards M.S. Have a listen and see what you think.

Broken feather Myspace

Broken Feather web-site

 

A interesting article in the Mirror paper.

After our host for our last guestbook closed down we have found another one.

Please take a moment to leave us a message and let us know how we`re doing.

 

Yoga for M.S

Check out this site for people with M.S to learn about yoga, it`s taught by Sue Lee.

Purchase a DVD, mention J.A.Y.S and Sue will then donate 50p to us for each one sold.

I have also put a link in our link page.

 

Have a look at this web web-site of a M.S sufferer who is a little `extreme` in his raising of funds for M.S.He is also in our links section.

His name is Ray Sabbatini and is the founder of Multiple Sclerosis Extreme.

"I might have MS but, MS doesn't have me"! Stay Strong, Ray

Extreme website

Winter Warmers

Warm front provides grants for insulation and heating improvements to householders in England who are in receipt of certain benifits, including Disability Living Allowance (DLA). Grants are given up to £2,700 ( £4,000 if oil-fired central heating is involved.

To find out if you qualify for a grant call: 0800 072 9006 or visit www.warmfront.co.uk

 

TEN QUICK FACTS ABOUT MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS

· An estimated 2,500,000 people in the world have multiple sclerosis - including 85,000 in the UK - it is more common in countries further away from the equator

· MS is the most common potentially disabling disease of the central nervous system affecting young adults in the Western world

· Every week around 50 people in the UK are diagnosed with MS

· Diagnosis is usually between 20 and 40 years of age - rarely under 12 or over 55

· Three women have MS for every two men

· Prognosis is uncertain - ranging from benign through 'coming and going' to severely disabling

· Common symptoms include pain, deadening fatigue, problems with sight, mobility and co-ordination

· MS is not hereditary - but there is a slightly higher chance of getting it if a relative has it - and it is not contagious

· There is no cure for MS but there are now drugs which can modify its course for some people and many symptoms can be successfully treated or managed

· MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) is giving neurologists better understanding of MS, helping diagnosis and research into treatments

According to the Aprils editition of the Readers Digest

Caucasians with the highest levels of vitamin D in their blood are 62% less likely to develop MS than those with the lowest amounts.

That was taken from - Harvard school of public health

Want to know more about Vitamin D - Click here

 

Is this too good to be true, an egg to help M.S. sufferers.

Click this link

Yippee...We have reached our £5,000 target that we set ourselves.

This week we handed over the cheque for £5,000 to Mr Chris Diggines, the chairman of the Worcester & District branch on behalf of the M.S society.

We would like to thank everyone who has helped, donated and supported us in raising this great amount.

With the money raised, half will go towards research and the other half towards local specialised nurses.

With your continued support we hope we can achive this fantastic amount again.

We`re in the local papers.The Standard, Advertiser & Birmingham evening mail.

Click on the pictures to read the story.

 

New card for M.S. sufferers

People with multiple sclerosis often need help quickly and find it difficult or embarrassing to explain why.

A discreet new ‘assistance card’ from the MS Society explains that a person has MS,

reassures that it is not infectious and describes everyday situations where help could be given.

For more info and to order a card, click here

Oh No, my fifteen minutes of fame.

Jackie sent this photo of me at this years carnival to `Pick me up` magazine.