A Wheelie BIG Thank You!

This year could have been so different...

It has been a difficult and painful year
With Eilidh being diagnosed with
SMA
But we have survived
& perhaps
Grown stronger too.

We have been humbled by peoples'
kindness of spirit
and
generosity.

We have been carried high
by the love
and support

of family and friends.

Thank you to each and every one of you who has donated

or sent words of comfort or wisdom.

You have made this year one to remember:

and we are remembering it not for the pain that it has brought us

but for the love and support that we have received ...


And we'll leave the last words to Eilidh...

Here's to 2011!
May all your dreams and wishes come true...

Postponed...

We have taken the decision to postpone the Wheelie Good Night Out - it wasn't an easy decision but we feel that it is the right one with limited tickets sold and unpredictable weather being the reason for postponement.

We are currently looking at dates in April and May and will keep you updated...

It will be a great night... Promise!

Winners....

At last, the draw has been drawn!

Winning Tickets from tickets sold by the following super sellers...

Louise Gray
David McVittie
Ruth Aberdein
Alan Laidlaw
Alison Crawford
Rhona Fleming
and David's mum...

Winners will be contacted in the next 24 hrs.

Congratulations to all the winners
&
thank you to everyone who bought tickets...

A whopping £2664 has been raised!

Raffle Update

... just a quickie to let you know that we are still waiting for 145 tickets to be returned which Royal Mail seem to have in their possession... will hopefully, fingers crossed draw the raffle on Monday... no further tickets have been sold since thursday and te final total is in...

a

staggering

&
utterly
fabulous
£2664!

Wow-wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Thank you to all who bought tickets...
Thank you for supporting The Whizzy Wheels Fund...

Raffle will be drawn on Monday
and Winners will be notified thereafter

Tackled!

Scotland won again this weekend against Samoa and Mr Whizzy Whiskers was close to the action throughout the match. 

John was rated a 7/10 by The Scotsman ... 

again, it must be down to his superbly gentlemanly and distinguished mo!

 tight squeeze!
Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images Europe

John's Just Giving page now stands at an amazing £525!!! 

What a hairy total!

There are still 2 days in Movember so if you would like to sponsor Mr Whizzy Whiskers and his Mo... please click here...

Peigi's Bake & Buy

Peigi and her little helpers at Frew Terrace baked and baked and baked over the weekend to create a truly scrumptious display of cakes and muffins, tablet and no-tray bakes to sell yesterday...

By the end of the day only crumbs were left...

But delectable tasty morsels had been replaced by a truly magnificent box of donations...

And the total?

A fabulously tastyand yummy £218.60 and not to forget the 5 cents too!

Thank you to all the Nigels and Nigellas who baked their little socks of and helped raise some money for the Whizzy Wheel Fund and a special thanks to Peigi for being a wonderful friend...

Thank you

xxx

Update... Wheelie Wild Night!

The final total is in...
a
staggering,
a
whopping,
a
humongous

£2962!


Once again, thank you to everyone for helping us raise this money. 
We really cannot thank you enough!

So...

...if you can do your sums...
and I am sure that you can...

you might be as excited as we are...

yes, your sums are correct...
it's mind-blowing, isn't it?
Totally and utterly
out-of-this-world!

In just under 8 weeks -
yes, it's only been 8 weeks... 8 weeks!
can you believe it?
We certainly can't!

So what am I talking about?
The Grand Total of course...

The
totally
amazing
& inconceivable
Grand Total
tonight
stands at

£20,290!  £20,290!  £20,290! 

We are actually speechless...

We believe in people.

People are kind and so very generous!

And now we can order Eilidh's Whizzy Wheels...


WHOOOOOOPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

The Wheelie Wild Night Out

Friday night was the night!

NAG were out to paint the town red...

The Tunnel was the venue...

Cheesey tunes spun by the DJ...

Shapes being thrown on the dance floor...

Raffle prizes galore...

And monies monies monies raised!

Exact figures to be confirmed, but....

in the region of £2600 was raised by the Wheelie Wild Night Out!!!

Oh, my goodness!!

Well done to the Fun' Raising Crew and everyone who attended - you are just immense!

Coffee Time

A wee surprise today...

Friend's of "wee Ellen", aka Eilidh's granny, Irene and John Ballentyne held a Coffee Morning...

"Everyone gave generously and willingly" to Eilidh's Whizzy Wheel Fund and raised...

a
totally
&
utterly
spectacular
£170!

A BIG thank you to Irene, John and their coffee morning friends...
we really are very grateful
xx

Mr Whizzy Whiskers!

Scotland BEAT the Springboks yesterday!

Whoopeeeeee!

And Mr Whizzy Whiskers,
aka John Barclay,
aka No.7,
aka Mr Flanker,
was named Man of the Match!

WhoopWhoopWhoop...

Go on, John! We are so very proud of you...

lineout won!

And he has raised £380, through The Turbo Trust, so far on his Movember Quest...

Keep up the good work, Mr Whizzy Whiskers!

And Finally...

on a night of many posts...

The Grand Total on a Sunday Night in the middle of November is....

£17,230!

I actually cannae believe it!

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

Another surprise!

This afternoon Ian Chisholm, a friend of Rock Chick Grannie, donated a fantastic

£315 to the Fund. 

Ian works for F.B. Taylor and Amec and he organised a whip-round for us at work.

Way to go, Ian!

You rock!

Thank you from all at Whizzy Wheels Central!

A fantastic surprise...

I heard a letter drop through our letterbox yesterday and went to pick it up.
I didn't recognised the handwriting:
I opened it quickly.

A card and a folded piece of paper...
A note from a friend's mum:
St Cadoc's Golf Society raised £300 for Eilidh's fund...

WOW!

and she is planning to beat her husband's total over the next few months with another donation...

How totally inspiring!

How A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!

and so, so very humbling too...

So a huge BIG thank you to mags' mum and dad - Patricia and Michael - and their friends and buddies too.

Evelyn's Baking Sale

Evelyn's scrumptious and yummy baking sale recently raised

a sugary sweet
£188 for The Whizzy Wheel Fund!

How truly scrumptious...

Thank you x

A quick grand total...

a
mammoth,
a
hu.mon.gous
£16,427!!

A late Sunday Total...

Sorry, Ailsa for my late posting of the new total ;)

Consider my knuckles wrapped...

I won't beat about the bush...

I'll just announce it...


A staggering,

A magnificent,

A stupendous,

£16,079!

What else can I say?
Nothing; I'm utterly speechless...
Thank you
xxx

"Be brilliant together" - Logica Donate

A little letter arrived from Logica on Saturday...

Excitedly, I opened the envelope...

and

Whooooooopeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

£650

a cheque from Logica's CEO!

Brilliant! Brilliant! Brilliant!

Thank you, Mr CEO, we're now £650 closer to our target.  And thank you to Sally again - you made all of this possible x

Mr Whizzy Whiskers

Mr Whizzy Whiskers, aka John Barclay, rugby player ex·tra·or·di·naire for Glasgow Warriors and Scotland, has pledged to grow his Movember Mo - for those not in the know, that's a moustache! - for Eilidh's Whizzy Wheels!

Wheyhey, John!

Sponsor him by following this link

http://www.justgiving.com/john-barclayswhizzywhiskers

He will hopefully, depending on selection, be appearing in the SRU EMC Autumn Series 2010... proudly sporting his mo which, in 2009, took on various guises through Movember...

So watch this space!  We'll keep you updated with pictures...

THE Total!

THE Whizzy Wheels Fund Total stands at a
mammoth
£15,090 tonight!

If I could have fireworks and an orchestra playing at this moment, I would!

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this HUGE total...
We stand in awe of you.
xxx

Another Fishy Donation...

Yatta, Fish's Tour Manager, has donated half of his wages from the St Mary's Weekend to the Whizzy Wheel Fund...

So that's another fantastic £100 towards the Grand Total!

Thank you, Yatta!

"Gold (Gold) Always believe in your soul"

You may well guess that the GOLD Rush total is in....

The FUN Raisin' Crew from NAG has managed to rake in £1530 of gold from friends and colleagues...

That's £1530 towards Eilidh's SnapDragon...

Whooooooooopeeeeeeeeeeee!

Now keep your eyes open for tomorrow night's Grand Total... You may well have already realised but the Grand Total is being announced twice weekly, on Sundays and Wednesdays, so as to not bore too many people and to keep you in suspense... ;)

A Goulish Total...

£ 13,492

What more can we say?

Not much really...

Eilidh is SO much closer to her Whizzy Wheels and we have you, you and you to thank for that!

So T.H.A.N.K. Y.O.U. !

Betty's Coffee Morning

We were taken by surprise this afternoon - and, by the sounds of things, so was Eilidh's Granny Ellen - by a donation from Betty (Ellen's best friend!) who held a coffee morning on Tuesday with some of her friends. 

They raised a fabulously fantastic £170...

Well done, ladies and thank you so very much!

Betty's Tea Room watch out; you have competition...

And an extra special thank you to Betty and her family, too

xxx

S.P.E.C.T.A.C.U.L.A.R Total!

Well since we last updated the total £802 has been donated - awesome!

So the new total stands at a S.P.E.C.T.A.C.U.L.A.R

£13,076!!!

WhoopWhoopWhoop!

Once again...
Thank You! xxx
From the bottom of our hearts

The Wheelie Good Night Out

Tickets are now available...

Fish Fans Donate

Haddington was visited by Fish Fans over the weekend as the FishHead's Club was in residence at St Mary's On Saturday...

Rock Chick Grannie, aka Eilidh's Grannie, collected donations from some fans and raised a fantastic

£170

F.A.N.T.A.S.T.I.C!

Many have also donated through Fish's Official Website over the past 4 weeks so...

Thank you!
Thank you!
Thank you!

4 weeks on...

... and we have made so much progress...

and there is still so much to happen...

and even more in the planning and yet to come!

It's just been so amazing!


We have until the end of November to raise the money for Eilidh's Snapdragon if we hope to get her Snappie in February, so we will continue on...

raising money and, hopefully, raising awareness of SMA and early mobility in toddlers like Eilidh and her wee friend Beatrice.


So please keep spreading the word...

And thank you all for coming with us on this journey.

xxx

News Flash!

Just took a phone call...

Allan Pratt and The Blues Council collected

a massive

£370

this afternoon.

Fantastic News...

Thank You to everyone involved and those who donated!

New Total!

Not much to say bar...

£12,274  raised to date!

Whoooopeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

How very exciting....

We are amazed really... and overwhelmed...

4 weeks into fund-raising and this is what we have achieved...

only £7634 to go!

Thank you to one and all... we are indebted to you all...

Great News...

The letter arrived from Joseph Patrick Trust today - the welfare fund of the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign...

We were very hopeful and had been waiting since they met on the 13th for news...

Eilidh has been awarded £900 towards the cost of Snappie!

Yipeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

A step closer to her Whizzy Wheels...

Thank you JPT

Roll Up, Roll Up... Get your tickets here...

Well not literally here...

The "Wheelie Great Raffle" Tickets will go on sale soon
£1 a ticket
To be drawn on Friday 17th December.
With some GREAT prizes...

1x4 Ball at Kintyre Course, Turnberry
Half a Day of Pampering at Stobo Castle
£100 Scotlandart.com Voucher
Orla Kiely Handbag
Magnum of Moet

So if you get a chance, buy a ticket and be in with a chance of winning a prize... you might win yourself a lovely Christmas present...  Go on, treat yourself!

The Glasgow Rocks!

The Glasgow Rocks, Scotland's only professional Basketball team, are to be involved in a fundraiser at Eilidh's Nursery in November.  

Careshare @ Heritage House's  manager Ellen is in the process of arranging this event which will involve the little ones shooting some hoops with the team and the staff taking on the Rocks in a shoot out...

Who says toddlers can't jump!

The Wheelie FUN' Raising Crew

There are 4 woman... or should I call them ladies, lassies or girls?...
There are 4 ladies who work with D...

Will I name them?
Will I?
YES!

Liz,
Diane,
Suzanne,
& Gillian.

And they are all working very hard to raise some pounds for Eilidh...

There's the "Gold Rush"
& The "Wheelie Wild Night" Out
& the Christmas Hamper...

They are knee deep in paper and staples as they print 3000 raflle tickets for
the "Wheelie Great Raffle"
and
Just generally spreading the word...

You are awesome!

You are great!

And we cannot thank you enough...
Will tea, cake and an Eilidh cuddle suffice?

It's 6am...

... and although it is 6am - and the birds are only just starting to sing thier beautiful chorus! - I am so very happy to announce that the total stands at a massive... drum roll please...

£10,998!

Yippeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

We were so very right to place our hope in mankind for we have been proven so right and are humbled each and every day by people's kindness, generosity and unconditional love...

Thank you!

P.S.  Sorry it's been so quiet here ... I've been away at my bestest friend's house celebrating her twins' 3rd Birthday... My friend is such a beautiful person, bestest friend and her little ones are trully gorgeous... We had a great time, thank you!

Wonderful Wednesday's Grand Total...

The last few days have been quite quiet at the Whizzy Wheels HQ but the donations still keep on coming!

Today's total stands at...

£10,548

Hooray!
Yipeeeeee!
WhoopWhoop!
WheyHey!

Thank You, Thank you, Thank You!

We do need to keep up the momentum, spreading the word far and wide.

The donations may well have started to slow down but our list of future fund raising events is growing fast...

Watch this space!

Once again, thank you all for coming on this journey with us - we are so glad that you are supporting Eilidh and her Whizzy Wheel Fund

xx

Oswald Gets in on the Act!

Oswald, a Glasgow band has pledged to organise a Fund-Raising Gig for Eilidh and her Whizzy Wheel Fund - how awesome is that!

How did this happen?  Tom, the lead singer's sister, Louise, works with D and the rest is history...

Check out their Website here 

their Facebook page

or "love" on YouTube...

More details of the gig to follow...

Super Sally!

Sally (in the middle) and team Logica

Sally Elliott ran the Royal Parks Half Marathon on Sunday in 2 hours 11 minutes and 5 seconds.

Well Done, Sally!

She said that it was "hot and hard" and that she has "lots of blisters" but that "running through London parks was beautiful".

And she raised a wonderful £385.49 (at least!) for Eilidh's Whizzy Wheels!

wheyhey, Sally!

Thank you so much, Sally and to everyone who sponsored her, too: we really are very grateful...

The Sunday Total...

... a whopping £1525 has been donated over the last 5 days...

whoooopeeeeeee!

taking our Grand Total to £9,693

wheyhey!

Many thank to everyone who has donated, especially Gruncle & Elaine who raised an amazing £329.38 at their Tea Party this afternoon with banana loaf, scones, muffins and cakes and lovely wares by Tea Jennys.  Thanks also to Tea Jennys for donating 10% of her sales to the fund.

yummy cakes!

Tomorrow expect a very exciting announcement... another fund raising event goes live...

The Blues Council

The Blues Council

Allan Pratt and his Blues Council are playing the Tyneside Tavern in Haddington on Sunday 24th October and rasising money for Eilidh.

It'll be a great session in a weekend of music in Haddington.

Thanks, Pratso for this...
Much appreciated
x

Lots of Viewers!

Hello to people viewing the Whizzy Wheels blog!

HOWDY!

The Daily Record has definitely helped promote the blog which is so fantastic - I could not have reached out to so many people so quickly... 750 pages were viewed yesterday...

So the word is very much definitely OUT!

It took me some time to read the article because for me it made it all seem so very much more real, but I am glad that I did read it because it was a lovely article - many thanks to Lisa!

It was so strange reading Eilidh's story in print, on paper, in a newspaper and a national newspaper at that.

I kept thinking:

"Is it us?"

"Is it our story?" 

"Surely not?" 

"It's surely happening to someone else?"

But it is happening to us and we are trully grateful for all the support we are getting, whether it be donations or in the form of offers of help. 

So, once again... a big thank you to everyone supporting Eilidh and her Whizzy Wheels...

Has the article resulted in donations?

Yes, a few have come directly from it ...

So... watch this space... the next total will be announced on Sunday night.

Have a lovely weekend, wherever you are, whatever you are doing...

In the News Today...

and here's the link to the online article

News Flash...

We are now ecstatic to announce that we have been granted £2000 by The Ceridian PayBack Foundation ...

Whoooopeeeeeee!

Taking our grand total to....
a
staggering

£8168!

Many thanks to Ceridian and the powers that be that approved the grant.
You have helped a young lady get her first whizzy wheels...

Drum roll please....

over the weekend we topped the £6000 mark...
hip hip hooray!
hip hip hooray!
hip hip hooray!

Thank you again to everyone who has donated to date...
and please keep spreading the word about Eilidh, SMA and her Whizzy Wheels!



(So the total now stands at £6,168.33 with £13,740 still to raise)

Run, Sally, Run

A friend, Sally will be running in the Royal Parks Half marathon in Hyde Park, London this Sunday.  Sally enjoys running - the maddie! - and has not sought any type of sponsorship in the past for her efforts.  But this year Sally is asking friends, family and colleagues from Logica to sponsor her with all monies raised going to the Whizzy Wheels Fund - how fantastic is that!


So a huge BIG "thank you" to Sally and to all those who donate!

And Sally, we owe you a mojito or two or three...

Update...Update...Update

The generosity continues...
A staggering £1802.37 donated in the last 48 hours
to take us to a grand total of...
£5817.33!

We are so stunned...
And everyone is getting on board with more fund raising ideas which is totally awesome!

Thank you for inspiring us to continue
and for all of your kind words and words of support...
they mean so much...

Now, there will be radio silence over the weekend...
This week has been exhausting and I need some time out...

But first it is the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign Conference in Glasgow tomorrow and Nicola Sturgeon is the Keynote Speaker who will no doubt be discussing the Mackie Report.  The Mackie Report,  which is the result of an Inquiry into the Provision of Services for Neuromuscular Disease in Scotland, emphasises that inequalities exist in the provision of specialist neuromuscular care and social care. 

I only wish that I could think of a sensible, well-thought out question to ask her.  I wonder if she will listen to what I have to say about our experience...

Tears of Joy

In all the commotion I haven't told you about Tuesday...

What a momentous day!

Eilidh's Panthera Micro arrived...

What a beautiful moment...

She knew what it was as soon as she saw Stewart from GBL Wheelchairs

and after some initial hesitation we put her in the chair and

whoooosh!

She was off...

For the first time in Eilidh's life she moved towards me, independently and under her own steam, to give me a hug...

I cried huge tears of sadness, but they were tears of happiness and joy too as Eilidh took her "first steps" to independence.  And I can tell you, mine were not the only tears shed that morning...

And since then...

Crikey, there's no stopping her!

She's turning circles, going backwards, negotiating doors, tormenting her sister, raking in bins, pulling out books from the bookcase, touching sockets, getting burnt on radiators, eating chalk... you know... all the stuff toddlers do naturally, the stuff that teaches them about their environment... and the naughtiness and intrigue that they do everything with amazes me ... and now EIlidh can have some wheeler fun too!

Joy.

Deep joy.

And you know what?  And this surprises me.  I still only see Eilidh and her smile. Just Eilidh. No chair. Eilidh is just Eilidh, but perhaps she's a little happier now too: she's finally independent.

 

I promise to post photos and perhaps a video link soon.