Supporting a volunteer

In 2012, student nurse Emma Stenson, raised money through the Living by Giving Trust so that she could work in Lourdes with disabled and sick children. Emma achieved this by taking part (with a friend) in London field’s aquathlon on the 1st April. It involved a 400m open water swim followed by a 5km run. Emma was then able to work with children for a week in August. Here, Emma writes about this in a very unique way:

When asked to put into words,
Why I wanted to become a children’s nurse,
I found it almost impossible,
It’s an answer you can’t rehearse.

To some it seems quite strange,
A concept they can’t understand,
Why you would want to get up at 5am,
And be someone’s constant helping hand.

But maybe this is because,
The magic just cant be seen,
The moments shared with the children,
To you, on which they lean.

By taking disabled children to Lourdes,
I found my reason to live,
I went from lost and unknowing,
To wanting to nurse so I could give.

Their eyes, they tell a story,
If you look deep enough you can see,
Their little hands that always fit yours,
Whatever their size may be.

The acceptance of their futures,
And bright outlook they always show,
However dark & short it may seem,
An on looker would never know.

For, however sick & poorly they feel,
They always put up a fight,
Showing you how precious life is,
They push with all their might.

They push to see another day,
To touch the lives of many,
As anyone lucky enough to meet them,
Would lovingly give their last penny.

So, to those who ask me to explain,
Why i want to become a nurse,
I’ve decided to ask them this question,
That, I can rehearse.

Why would you not jump at the honour,
Of being that helping hand,
To a child whose body is so sick,
But whose heart you can understand?

Their time on earth is precious,
So whatever you manage to give,
Is a purpose to your life,
That gives you the reason to live.

(c) Emma Stenson

To find out more about our projects, visit our page here.

Beatrice Rogers – Team Bea

The Living by Giving Trust is deeply saddened to hear of the death of Beatrice Rogers. Those who knew Baby Bea and who saw the loving care she received from her family were inspired and enriched. Our deepest sympathy to Bea’s parents, sisters, wider family and friends. As a charity we were privileged to help Baby Bea, and our support for “Team Bea” will continue to help her family treasure her memory forever.

For more information or to donate to Team Bea, please see: All about Team Bea

Bea receives a new buggy

To make travelling with Bea a lot easier, it was essential for her to have a buggy that could also carry her equipment with her. Following a very generous donation from Sky Insurance, through the Living By Giving Trust, this was purchased for her and has been a massive help to Bea and her family.

Many thanks to all involved in that project.

Revisiting the St. Ignatius Soup Run

In 2010, the Living by Giving Trust provided vital equipment and apparatus to the St. Ignatius Soup Run so that the group could continue the good work it had carried out for over 20 years, which was to support the homeless. Recently, some Living by Giving Trust volunteers returned to see the fruits of its investments.

Every Saturday, sandwiches, cakes, biscuits, tea, coffee, orange and a range of other products are prepared throughout the day in Stamford Hill. On a recent Saturday at about 7.30pm, we and some other local volunteers met and made the journey together to a regular spot in Lincoln’s Inn Field in Central London to distribute all of our supplies.

Within seconds, the volunteers were flocked with crowds of people gratefully drinking cups of tea and eating sandwiches. The appreciation and goodwill was quite humbling, though it was sad to think that many people still sleep rough, partcularly with the colder months of the year not far away. Some Saturdays there are several ‘Soup Run’ groups that can turn up at this well known spot, but on this particular day we were the only ones. Within ten minutes of madness, we ran are out of everything, but were satisfied we had been able to serve everyone who wanted something. We stayed and chatted to various people for a little while longer before again making our way back to North London. A truly rewarding evening and we were still back early enough to be in the pub by 9.30!

The St. Ignatius Soup Run works to a rota, so volunteers are not expected to turn up on a weekly basis, plus there is always a lot of flexibility. If you would be interested in volunteering for this or any other cause similar, please get in touch with us.

We see ourselves as an ‘enabling charity.’ We really want to enable as many people as possible to Live by Giving and if we can give anyone the platform to do that, we would be very interested in hearing from you.

By Stephen Daly

Matched funding – 1 Week to Donate

WILL YOU MATCH OUR FUNDING?

£1 COULD BECOME £4!!!

PLEASE ACT BEFORE 17th MAY

We at Living By Giving know that our supporters are incredibly generous, and that you want your donations to go as far as possible in helping those most in need.

Confident in this knowledge, we at Living By Giving have made an act of faith in supporting a major campaign by the highly respected development agency CAFOD.

As some of you will know, this Spring CAFOD has been raising money to make clean water available to people in some of the economically poorest parts of our globe, through its “Thirst For Change” campaign.

The brilliant thing about this campaign is that donations are being matched by the UK Government. Every pound donated by the public to CAFOD’s “Thirst For Change” campaign receives a further pound from the government.

Living By Giving has given £200 to CAFOD’s campaign, which means that, thanks to matched funding, £400 will go to help bringing clean water to people.

One in eight people in the world still don’t have access to clean water. Every twenty seconds a child dies because of dirty water.

Here at Living By Giving we are so confident in the support of our donors we believe that between you, you will match the £200 we’ve donated to CAFOD. If you donate a pound for our pound, government-matched funding will mean that ultimately four pounds will go to help CAFOD’s campaign.

If you, our Living By Giving supporters, match our £200 between you, then ultimately £800 will go towards this brilliant campaign.

THERE IS ONLY A WEEK LEFT OF MATCHED FUNDING AVAILABLE SO PLEASE DONATE NOW.

Please donate now via the CAFOD website.

You don’t need to tell Living By Giving that you’ve donated – we’re really confident that you’ll match us – but you might like to spread word of the campaign to friends, perhaps via Facebook.

Please give what you can now. Thank you for being such amazing supporters.