Headstart down to a tee!

Great result from charity golf day!

A spectacular charity golf day run by the Pink Tie Club, an association of construction-related companies, in aid of Headstart4Babies took place at the prestigious London Golf Club near Brands Hatch on 25 June 2009. And what a day it was! As well as beautiful weather, a wonderful course and sumptuous food, the 84 attendees clubbed together with great generosity to raise in the region of £25,000 for our charity.

The money was raised in a number of ways, including an entertaining auction, a raffle and a table draw for restaurant pledges. Not only that, over £1,000 was raised by two sporting Pink Tie Club committee members who agreed to wear skin-tight cycling shirts for the 18 holes in the afternoon – as long as people pledged a four-figure sum. Given the weather, what a tremendous feat!

Needless to say, Headstart4Babies co-founder Philip was humbled by such a breathtaking result – comfortably Headstart’s largest-ever fundraising event – as was Pink Tie Club Chairman Ashley Griffiths, who was the key driver behind the day itself. On behalf of the trustees and all the families we will now be able to help, Philip would like to express his sincere thanks to Ashley Griffiths, Lee Rowswell, Marco Franchi, Anna Franchi and everyone at the Pink Tie Club. And it would be remiss of us not to extend our gratitude to London Golf Club’s professional Paul and everyone at the club for allowing a duffer like Philip to take part!

Philip Saich
Headstart4Babies

Taking the plunge...

We've had our first donation towards our fundraising skydive!

As mentioned in our last post, Eloise and Philip have booked to jump for Headstart4Babies at Old Buckenham Airfield on Saturday 22 August 2009. We've now had our first, very generous donation towards our target of £2,000.

Donating through our Justgiving page is quick, easy and totally secure. It's also the most efficient way to sponsor us: Headstart4Babies gets your money faster and, if you're a UK taxpayer, Justgiving makes sure 25% in Gift Aid, plus a 3% supplement, are added to your donation. So please sponsor us now! And if you can, why not come along to Old Buckenham and watch us jump for Headstart4Babies!

Philip Saich
Headstart4Babies

Welcome to Headlines!

Welcome to our first ever Headstart4Babies blog post!

We will be posting our news and thoughts here on a regular basis – and there certainly is a lot going on right now!

We have a new website – check it out at www.headstart4babies.org – which we've designed to be more modern and to contain more up-to-date information. We've also printed two new leaflets – one about the charity and one specifically about fundraising. We hope these will help you to understand what we are trying to achieve, assist you in generating funds both for us and for your helmet (if needed) and also to support us in raising awareness of plagiocephaly and brachycephaly.

On the fundraising side, Philip is doing a skydive with his colleague Eloise on 22 August 2009 at Old Buckenham Airfield, and they are hoping to raise enough money for one baby's treatment. Philip will be sharing his thoughts on the build-up to the skydive (and his reaction afterwards!) on this blog, which should make interesting reading! (And maybe his partner Karen will have warmed to the idea by the time the plane goes up!)

We also have some exciting news about our first ever gala event, which will take place on 2 October 2010 at Tewin Bury Farm Hotel near Welwyn Garden City. Tickets will go on sale shortly and will include a delicious three-course meal, wine and some great entertainment. Sally, our trustee who is organising the event, will keep us posted on developments in this area.

And finally, we recently took part in a very entertaining quiz night held in St Ives by the wonderful Penfold Trust, who very kindly donated £1,000 to us during the evening. Support like this is very much appreciated, and we were thrilled to be a part of a great evening – especially given that we didn't embarrass ourselves. There were around 70 teams and we came 26th – not bad for a bunch of old duffers!

I hope you enjoyed reading our first blog post and we look forward to blogging again soon! If you have any suggestions or special requests, please drop us a line and we'll do our best to accommodate...

Philip Saich
Headstart4Babies