Category: Donations

The Midlands Air Ambulance operates three air ambulances which help to save lives throughout the West Midlands, Staffordshire and Shropshire by making sure that patients reach hospital within 60 minutes of injury (the vital ‘Golden Hour’) which sees their chances of survival dramatically increased.

With over 38,000 missions flown its one of the busiest air ambulances in the country but receives no Government or National Lottery funding and the £6 million which is needed each year to keep its three Air Ambulances operational is donated entirely by the public and local businesses.

Tettenhall Rotary has been a regular supporter of the Air Ambulance’s work and President Ian was joined recently by Club members Chris Kraushar and Gerry Turner in a visit to their Cosford base to see their operations at first hand and to present a further donation to help the Air Ambulance to continue their vital work.

Each year the Club recognises the pivotal role played by our first President, Malcolm Bason, by the presentation of the Malcolm Bason Award in his memory.

The award is made by the Club’s Presidential team to recognise the contribution of a member Rotarian to the ongoing development of the Club. This years award is made to Club Communications Officer David Cave. A professional photographer by trade David gives freely of his time and skill to help to promote the work of the Club and of our partner organisations and as a former Foundation chair he has been instrumental in the success of past GSE team visits and in ensuring that our Club met the Gates Challenge as a further step towards the eradication of polio.

As part of the award the receiving Rotarian is entitled to nominate a charity or project of their choice to receive a donation of £250 in Malcolm’s memory. David asked that the donation be given to help the work of Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research a charity which is dedicated to research into blood cancers, including leukaemia, lymphoma and myelom.

A Leukaemia survivor himself David can testify to the valuable work carried out by the Charity but for which he would not be with us today.

The Wolverhampton MS Therapy Centre has been helping local people affected by the disease for over 25 years now and Rotarians have been involved in its work from the very beginning.

The Centre operates a Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber which helps to relieve the extreme fatigue which sufferers feel. It also offers a range of physiotherapy and reflexology services designed to alleviate some of the more distressing symptoms of the disease and to help sufferers to cope a little better with everyday life.

The Centre has recently acquired additional premises which it is in the course of developing to provide further support for its users. President John and Community Service chair Roger Timbrell had the pleasure of visiting the facility themselves today in order to see first hand the work which is being undertaken and to show the Tettenhall Club’s support by presenting Centre Chairman (and Wolverhampton Rotarian) Peter Williams and Centre Manager Brenda Smith with a cheque for £2,000.

The donation represents part of the money raised by the Club during our Sleigh collections over the Christmas period when over £6,000 was raised to support local charities. The Centre will use the money to buy additional equipment for their new premises.

Back in July Jerry Hobbs, a long standing member of the Rotary Club of Wolverhampton and Vice Chair of the management board of Compton Hospice,  joined us to talk about the Hospice’s recent development and the £3.3 million investment which has now led to the introduction of 18 private suites for patients later in the year. These suites will have the facilities to ensure that patients can be treated with dignity during their time with the Hospice.

Following Jerry’s inspiration a number of Rotary Clubs in Wolverhampton came together to commit to raising an additional £60,000 over the current Rotary year to fund one of those suites which will be named the Rotary and volunteers suite. Our own Club committed to raising an additional £10,000 towards the cost of the Rotary Suite.

Thanks to the support of the people of Wolverhampton and South Staffordshire for the Club’s Auction of Promises and Big Band Night we’re pleased to have made good on our commitment and tonight President John was joined by Nick Owen to present Compton Hospice with cheque for £10,000.

Our commitment to Compton Hospice doesn’t stop here though. Thanks to the support of Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club on the 12th February members of the Club will be collecting on behalf of the Hospice outside of the Molineux Stadium prior to the West Bromwich Albion match and a few months later on the 12th May we’ll be at South Staffs Golf Club for our Charity Golf Day again raising money for the Hospice.

2010 year saw the sad passing of the Club’s founding President Malcolm Bason following a long illness at the age of 80.

In recognition of Malcolm’s pivotal role in helping to establish the Club and to honour his service to the community during his many years of membership the members of the Club established the Malcolm Bason Award in his memory.

The award is to be presented annually by the Club’s Presidential team to recognise the contribution of a member Rotarian to the ongoing development of the Club. The inaugural award was made earlier this year to Club member Jim Murphy for the work which he had undertaken to develop the Clubs internet presence during the previous year.

As part of the award the receiving Rotarian is entitled to nominate a charity or project of their choice to receive a donation of £250 in Malcolm’s memory. Jim asked that the donation this year be given to the local Scout Association towards the cost of purchasing a new cook tent for use by the many Cubs and Scouts groups within the area whilst on camp and the balance of the £500 cost was made up by an additional donation from the Club which was this evening presented to local Scout leader Sara Lambert by President John and Nick Owen.

Scouting provides young people with adventurous activities and physical, intellectual, social and spiritual opportunities to help them to achieve their full potential in life. With over 400,000 members the Scouting movement is going from strength to strength but in order to build on its success it desperately needs more people to volunteer to help local groups and it has recently launched a flexible volunteering programme to make it easier for people to volunteer.

As a result of the Club’s Christmas fund raising Tettenhall Rotary have been pleased to donate three thousand pounds towards Compton Hospice’s Capital Appeal fund.

This is an exciting but challenging time for the Hospice as they start work on a major £3.5 million refurbishment project which will see shared bedrooms and communal bathrooms replaced with single en-suite rooms for all of its in-patients. Therapy and consultation rooms will also be refurbished to enable the Hospice to offer greater privacy, dignity and choice for those in need of their services and to help move nearer to their aim of making the hospice a true home-from-home.

Compton Hospice focuses not only on patients medical and physical needs but also on their psychological, emotional and spiritual well being. The works funded by the contribution of the the Club and the thousands in Wolverhampton who regularly support its work will allow the Hospice to provide patients with the facilities and care which they so desperately need at this time.

Our grateful thanks go to all in the Wolverhampton who supported our Christmas Carol Concert and Sleigh collections and in particular to David Gregory, Manager of Sainsbury’s in Perton, and to James Martin, Dealer Principal of Stratsone Jaguar in Wolverhampton.