Royal Marsden flat has had a revamp

As many of you know, back in 2015 we purchased a flat, close to The Royal Marsden Hospital, for the soul intention of allowing patients and their families to stay while receiving treatment.

When we moved in, we renovated the Royal Marsden flat from top to bottom, painting throughout and installing new furniture. Many families have used the flat since and while we don’t get to hear about all of them (due to us handing over full use of the flat to The Royal Marsden Hospital) when we do it makes us proud to know that the money we’re raising is truly helping on the front line. It’s comforting to know that the flat is been being put to good use.

So we thought it would be a good idea after 5 years to upgrade the place slightly, adding in new decor and carpets throughout. This also is coupled with the fact that Regency Grove are funding the flats internet each month, providing patients and families with that much needed connection while they’re away from home. We hope that you agree that it’s definitely cosier than it was before and we’re really happy with the new look. Let us know if you agree!

Amazon Shopping donates 0.5% transaction to us

A request to all of you that shop with Amazon, please can you nominate Emma’s Bubble Trust as your chosen charity when purchasing goods. It is a simple process – log on to www.smileamazon.co.uk and then sign in using your usual details, you then select us as your chosen charity.

We will receive 0.5% of your total purchase each time you access Amazon through the Amazon Smile route. They make it really easy with an add on to your Browser!

As you can imagine fundraising has been almost non-existent this year so your nomination is very much needed.

Thank you in advance for your support and enjoy all of your purchases.

Matt Rose shaves his head!

A huge thank you to Matt Rose who decided in lock down to shave his head during lock down and donated £323 to the charity.

We were really touched by Matt’s story of why he decided to raise money. Turns out we had helped to support his family when his brother was having treatment for Stage 4 Hodgkins Lymphoma at The Royal Marsden Hospital in Sutton. Being from Saint Leonards-on-Sea the journey to the hospital was an hour and 20 minutes on a good day, so having the ability to rest up at our flat helped his family to stay with his brother later and have a home away from home.

You can see before and after pictures of Matt’s head shaving below! Thanks again Matt.

before
Matt’s hair before
After

A sad loss for us all

As many of you already know we very sadly lost someone very dear to us on 21 April 2020.

Caroline Welford was a valued member of our events committee as well as being a very dear friend.

She has given her time and support since our charity was started and has played a huge part in all of our lives.

We shall miss her smile, her generosity and her great sense of fun. Caroline was truly a very special lady.

Our love and condolences go to Colin, Tom and Sophie who she loved so much.

Thank you to everyone that has donated to our charity in Caroline’s memory, it means so much to us as I know it would to Caroline too. 

She will always be that bright star in the sky with a special twinkle and will always be in our hearts. We will miss her terribly 

Rest peacefully lovely lady.

Alison’s Tribute to Caroline

Alison Cutts ran her own marathon on Sunday 26th April as a tribute to Caroline.

Alison upon completing her run.

She ran 26 miles around her garden in “lockdown” and has raised an amazing £1350 

Alison and Caroline were very close friends and what a wonderful way to pay tribute to someone so dear.

Thank you to everyone who has supported Alison and who has donated to our charity, it means so much and will help us to continue supporting teenagers with cancer in so many ways.

Alison you are a star and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

A special lady running for a special friend.

M&S fundraising

The brilliant people of Ashtead have managed to raise £720 through all of the events that have been held there since we became local charity. We want to say a huge thank you to all each and every one of you.

Marks & Spencers Ashtead Local Charity

It’s with pleasure that we’re able to announce that Ashtead branch of Marks & Spencers has adopted Emma’s Bubble Trust as their local charity of the year.

The team at M&S voted unanimously to have us as local “charity of the year” after visiting us at the Ashtead Village Fair earlier on in the year.

In terms of events we’ll be at the store once a month running various raffles, as well as hosting pink days and other sporting events. Not only this but we have Emma’s Bubble Trust charity pots on each of the tills in store.

So whether you’re popping in for bread and milk, or exploring the extensive beer and wine section in store, please make sure to donate any left over pennies from your shop!

Thank you in advance Ashtead!

The Entertainer donates £1000

The Entertainer Group donated £1000 to Emma’s Bubble Trust as part of their penny round up campaign.

After discovering the charity online the Camberley branch of the Entertainer decided to adopt the charity.

The donation will help to keep the flat at The Royal Marsden running for a whole month. The flat supports teenagers and their families that are receiving treatment at the Oak Centre for Children and Young People.

Emma’s Bubble Trust want to say a huge thank you to all staff at The Entertainer for all of their support and the donation.

Regency Grove Consultants supports EBT as Charity

Regency Grove Consultants are now supporting Emma’s Bubble Trust, a teenage cancer charity. The partnership means that Regency Grove will take part in various events throughout the year to raise money, as well as contributing to the running costs of the apartment, provided for the family and patients of the Royal Marsden Hospital.   

Emma’s Bubble Trust (https://www.emmasbubbletrust.org) is a local Surrey charity with the aim of raising awareness of teenage cancers and helping to alleviate the suffering that teenagers and their families often have to go through while undergoing treatment at The Royal Marsden Hospital.

Founded in 2008 after the sudden and tragic loss of Emma Brandon to Hodgkins Lymphoma, the charity has funded 3 major projects to date, the latest of which is the purchase and ongoing maintenance of a flat a mere 7 minute walk from The Teenage Cancer Trust Unit at The Royal Marsden Hospital.

Commenting on the partnership, Regency Grove Director Chris Leone said:

“I was originally introduced to Emma’s Bubble Trust through a friend who works with the charity and asked if I could help provide consultancy advice associated with the acquisition of the apartment.  It’s great for us to now be able to support the charity having recently formed as a new company and really give something back in helping assist families of teenagers undergoing treatment. It’s amazing to be able to work closely with such a charity and look forward to seeing the difference that we’re able to make through our fundraising efforts and sponsorship.”.

Joy Lynch, Emma’s Bubble Trust trustee, said:

“As a small local charity it’s great to be supported by Regency Grove. Being able to work closely with the guys to come up with fundraising ideas, as well as leveraging their knowledge of the building industry to assist with the apartment is massively helpful. Every penny raised for Emma’s Bubble Trust goes directly into funding the ongoing costs, so we really appreciate all of the fundraising efforts and sponsorship that Regency Grove are helping us with. Every Moment Matters Always.”

Look out for more news on our fundraising efforts in the coming months.

10th anniversary London to Brighton

After very little training from all parties involved in this years 10th anniversary ride, Adam L, Adam W, Elliot and Stevie set out on their bikes from The Royal Marsden Hospital in Sutton riding to Brighton on the hottest day of the year.

Knowing that the ride was going to be a hot one, it was decided that with lower than usual numbers and with all riders having previously ridden the route, it would be best to set off earlier in the day, skip any major lunch stop and instead head straight to Brighton.

With Elliot on his new bike, quick progress was being made and things were going very well for the group. Slowly the temperature began to rise though as the sun came out and so a stop at the top of Turners Hill to top up on water bottles and suncream was required. It was 10.30am by this point the earliest that we had ever made it to The Crown Pub with the temperature already at a balmy 30 degrees. Sadly it was too early for the pub to be open! Alas, on we went and with the unusual sound of stomachs starting to rumble (after all we hadn’t had the usual lunch), we all decided to have another impromptu stop in Lindfield to grab a few snacks in the local co-op.

With the heat already getting to us it was yet again a quick break, with all of us now wanting to get to Brighton quickly. The temperature continued to climb and we knew at the back of our minds that we still had to do a lot of climbing ourselves. So we pedalled on to reach the bottom of the infamous Ditchling Beacon.

By this point it was hot, really hot, too hot, with the time telling us that it had just passed midday. The garmin was reading a melty 39 degrees as we began to climb, so it was a very long and hard climb to the top. The temperature eventually peaked at the top of the beacon at 39.4 degrees. This was a very different story to previous years riding, the worst of which required multiple layers of clothing and a cup of tea at the top to warm up. This year however with it being so hot and us all sweating, it was ice creams all round (thanks Paul) before we decided to set off again.

As anyone that’s done the route before, Ditchling Beacon isn’t the final climb. It’s actually a sneaky uphill just after a downill blast and past a golf course which seems to go on forever. By this point you know you’re nearly at the end of the ride though, so in high spirits we all carried on knowing that the luscious downhill into Brighton was calling.

While we tried to enjoy the final descent down towards Brighton pier, we couldn’t fully due to lots of traffic. Passing this we did have the luxury of the police providing us with an entourage on a closed road. It turned out a protest was taking place as we were arriving, which we ended up in the middle of. After we’d battled our way through, we eventually got to the pier to be greeted by Elliot’s family, girlfriend and her family too. Other partners and family had aiming to greet us too, but given the protests and the heat, parking was almost impossible, so they weren’t able to make it in time!

However they did help us to celebrate at our usual pub, Brighton Rocks, where we toasted our 10th anniversary ride, reminisced on rides gone by and all raised a drink to Emma.

#everymomentmattersalways