We had a nice phone call at the beginning of the week from a lady called Diane, she is organinsing the Barnt Green festival. Diane told us that the committee has agreed that JAYs will be one of the chosen charities this year. The other half will go towards the scouts.

Unfortunatley we cannot be there because we have already committed to run the duck race. So if you cannot make it to the Bromsgrove carnival and can get to Barnt Green then please support the festival.

It starts at 2pm - 5:30pm, free parking

See you at the carnival in Saunders park-Sat 27th

Getting ready for the Duck race.

Stayed behind at work to make the `finish` for the race last Friday.

Monday we took it to the park to see if it would work.

The ducks swam beautifully	Barley helped shoo the ducks along!
Success, it works. Only one duck in the finish hole, so there can be only one winner.	Problem, the wear kept the ducks. Bess and Barley were confused as to what to do.

Made a board or ramp to put by the wear on Tuesday, so hopfully the ducks would just slide down and not get caught in the eddy.

Went to the park to try it out. I forgot that wood floats! DOH. Dashed home and got some bricks, result, it works.

Jackie & her Dad Brian, made the finish banner out of cloth. Looks great.

Need to paint it now.

Ready to go now, just need to sell a load of ducks!

Made a `start` for the race and went to Sander park to try it out. It fitted ok and looked like it will work. Need to try it with some sandbags but should be ok.

looking forward to the race and hoping it will be nice. The stream is flowing well, so no problems there. If it does rain, then at least it will be `Nice weather for ducks`

Details to follow about a great gig by X-changed.

What another great night of soul music from the Blues Brothers Reloaded. I will put up some pictures of the night in the past events when I have 5 mins to spare. Also let you know how much we have raised, not as much as last year due to the credit crunch, but still a profit and a greatnight to boot.

Thanks to everyone who support the night in one way or another.

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.