Our first story is about Liz Dallimore who designed and organized a quilt on the Many Faces of Lupus which she hopes will raise money for the Lupus Clinic at St Thomas' Hospital, London.
Liz writes:
This quilt sybolizes the many different aspects of lupus. The individuality of the sufferers and the way the disease affects them. It also stands for the love, friendship and support we have found at the list sites mentioned on the quilt. It is a quilt of hope, unity and kindness to all. It would be fantastic if it achieved knowledge to everyone about lupus.
Here is this magnificient quilt:
Our second story, is also from the Dallimore family. This about Lottie Dallimore, who is 11 years old.
"My name is Charlotte Dallimore and I am eleven years old. I live in Biggin Hill and go to Charles Darwin School. I wrote a letter to my Headteacher, Mr Higgins, concerning a non-school uniform day dedicated to Lupus and then he passed my letter on to the school council. I waited a few months and then I saw an add in our school paper saying: "12th of June Non-school uniform day all proceeds going to St. Thomas Lupus Unit". I waited a couple more weeks and the school council asked if I could come and collect the money on Wednesday the 3rd of July after lunch. I now have the money and have raise 500 exactly. For my first fundraise I think I have done extremly well.
Thank you for your support."
We also think you have done brilliantly Lottie. In the photograph below, you will see Lottie. On the right is Lady Sally Neubert, a Trustee of the St Thomas' Lupus Trust.
I'm a 19 year old student studying computer science at Brunel University, Uxbridge, Middlesex. I'm hoping to complete a 10,000 feet jump out of an aeroplane on the 21st September, 2002. After initially leaving the plane, I will free fall (plummet!) to earth for about 45 seconds reacing speeds of 126mph before the parachute is deployed.
The event is going to happen at headcorn Parachute Club, which is near Ashford in kent. I'm hoping to raise over £500 for lupus, which is the condition my mother has got.
This money will be used to help a lot of people who can't get adequate treatment from their local GP or clinic.My name is Ben Dallimore and I'm going to be doing a charity skydrive to raise money for the Louise Coote Lupus Clinic at St Thomas' Hospital, London.
We wish Ben every success in his courageous endeavour to raise money for St Thomas' Hospital Lupus Unit.
If you wish to contribue to Ben's efforts, please go to http://www.lupus-forums.org.uk/discus and click on the Publicity and Fund Raising forum for details how your £1.00+ can help save lives!
Thank you for your support!
Ben's Skydive Diary!!
At 3pm on the 28th September 2002, I completed my skydiving challenge! It starts a lot earlier than this though...
7am: Got up and prepared myself for the challenge; Remove all jewellery, DON'T gel hair, wear lightweight clothes!! 8am: Left Biggin Hill for Headcorn Aerodrome. 9:30am: Arrive at Headcorn Aerodrome, and immediately taking into my training session. Various jokes are being made by the trainer about instructors packing their dirty washing instead of their parachutes. A few murmurs of nervous laughter from everyone. 9:45am: Training consisted of being told to do what the instructor said and to arch your back as far as you can. I'm feeling a little bit apprehensive about the training at this point! Now we have to wait... 10:45am: ...and wait... 11:45am: ...and wait... 12:30pm: My name has been called and I'm on the next tandem flight! Due to fly in 30 mins! Phone parents to come back from Maidstone. 12:45pm: All kitted out in my jump suit, "Biggles hat" and Perspex goggles, not to mention the harness that was to save my life. I look a fool! Parents arrive back from Maidstone. 12:50pm: Disaster strikes in the form of a massive rain cloud swooping in over the aerodrome. Told we can't fly until cloud cover is a lot less, so I'm dressed up like a freak and have to wait... 1:50pm: ...and wait... 2:50pm: ...and... the clouds have finally dispersed enough for us to jump! I meet my instructor, John, and he leads me to the plane. 2:55pm: Plane leaves the runway. The look of terror on my face seemed to be apparent to all the professionals, even though I'm heavily disguised by Biggles hat and goggles! 2:57pm: Surely we're at 12,000ft up? It certainly seems high enough for me! But we only at 9,000ft...
3:00pm: The door opens and people are throwing themselves out. Are they MAD? Then John asked me to stand up and walk to the door... Am I mad? Get to the door and immediately looked down at the clouds so far below me. Just as I'm thinking "What on earth am I up here for?", John pulls my head back and lets go...
3:01pm: AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!! 120mph+ going straight down. I don't feel like I'm falling though. Went through some cloud and FRROOOOMP! The parachute opens hoisting the harness up into some painful areas!! 3:02pm: John asks me to remove my goggles. I can see for miles! He then asks me to stand on his feet and support myself while he loosens off the straps. I drop down underneath him so he can see where we're going. 3:03pm: John decides to play swings and roundabouts. We're swinging down in circles lower and lower. He tells me to lift my legs up when we come in to land. 3:04pm: Tried to hitch my legs up as high as possible, but it wasn't high enough. I landed before John, consequently fall over, consequently he lands on top of me. 3:30pm: Collected my certificate of achievement! Totally exhausted! I would just like to say a big thank you to everyone that has supported me and sponsored me! In total, based on early estimates, I managed to raise about £500 for the Louise Coottes Lupus Unit at St Thomas' hospital, London. Special thanks go to Dave Brush for his help with the message board collections, my aunt Jackie and her husband Ian for sending sponsor forms all over Bank of America, to my parents for their support and waiting around all day for me to jump and to Ros for advertising this on the web! I really hope this money benefits all of you on the message board in some way. I'm sure it will! Very many thanks and best wishes to "Lupies" everywhere! Ben Dallimore