Eccles Rugby Club, for whom Christopher Tickle was playing when he tragically died after a scrum collapsed, has turned to the Duke of Edinburgh’s Awards scheme (DofE) to honour him.
DofE offers young people the chance to experience a wide range of activites, offering physical and mental challenges designed to develop the whole person in an environment of social interaction and team working.
Christopher was posthumously awarded his DofE Gold Medal last year and the club, feeling it was a fitting way of paying tribute to his action-packed life, has become the first to enter the scheme. They have already helped a group from their U15s to earn their Bronze Medals while plans are in place for a girls team to follow suit as the young men prepare for their Silver programme.
Click here to find out more about the Club’s successes and its plans to become an award centre, which would see it open its DofE doors to any young person in the Eccles RFC area wanting to participate.
The Christopher Tickle Fund, set up in honour of a 23 year old rugby player who died after suffering a fatal spinal injury on the field, has marked its first anniversary with a burst of fundraising!
The fund, which has already raised thousands of pounds for The Nicholls Spinal Injury Foundation in Christopher’s memory, has recently been supported by a weekend of events at his rugby club in Eccles, including the Club Dinner at which Foundation Patron Ieuan Evans was guest speaker.
Further events planned for this month include a fundraising cricket match and sponsored walk of Helvellyn while referee Nick Christodoulou, who took charge of many of Christopher’s matches at both colts and senior level, has entered the London BUPA 10k run.
Click here to make your donation to Nick or for more infomation about the Fund’s anniversary activities, call Anna in the Foundation office on 01933 664437
Preparations for the Fifth Witshire Celebrity Golf Event are hotting up with a number of teams already signed up for this year’s fundraising weekend, no doubt keen to win a luxury car!
The annual event, being staged on 21st/22nd August at The Wiltshire Golf and Country Club, Royal Wootton Bassett courtesy of Eddy and Jennifer Shah, hopes to exceed the £72,000 raised for the Foundation last year.
Sam Clarke is captain of the Grange Jaguar team which is again kindly donating a Jaguar XF for a hole-in-one. “I’ve always enjoyed playing and supporting this event and mixing with the stars! It’s got a real buzz about it - from delicious food at the dinner, to great golf to raising money for such a good cause. It’s worth every penny!”
Entry for a team of three (to play alongside a celebrity) including the Gala Dinner is £1,500. To register, please call Anna on 01933 664437
A song written to raise both public awareness of paralysis and money for The Nicholls Spinal Injury Foundation has been given a boost thanks to the launch of a new video.
Obstacles, performed by the specially-formed group ‘Littlemen’, is one of three EP tracks co-written by Nick Allen from Wiltshire who has himself been in a wheelchair following a serious motorbike accident more than thirty years ago. It has already raised many hundreds of pounds for the charity.
Says Nick “Obviously I have a deep understanding and empathy for those who have suffered the same injuries as me and I am desperate to help find a remedy, which is not yet available. I hope that visitors to youtube will enjoy watching the video which I believe adds to the poignancy of the lyrics and which I hope will help to raise awareness of these conditions and the heartache that goes with it.”
To purchase a copy of the fundraising EP priced at £3.95 (inc. p&p) please visit www.littlemenmusic.co.uk and click here to watch the video.
Preparations are in full swing for the fifth Celebrity Charity Golf Day which will take place at The Wiltshire Hotel, Golf & Country Club, Wootton Bassett on 21st and 22nd August 2011
As in previous years, the charity dinner on the Sunday evening will offer golfers the chance to bid for some fantastic auction prizes – including trips to some of the world’s finest hotels and restaurants – followed by the golf on the Monday.
Teams are now invited to enter by contacting theclub@the-wiltshire.co.uk or by calling 01793 849999. Entry per team of four is £1500
Last year’s event, which saw celebrities including Heston Blumenthal, Michel Roux and Jimmy Tarbuck swing their clubs, raised more than £70,000 for the Foundation, enabling it to continue to fund research into finding a cure for spinal injury.
Esteemed neurosurgeon Prof. Geoffrey Raisman, currently leading the medical research team funded by the Foundation, has been invited to speak at the 1st International Spinal Cord Repair Meeting to be held in Barcelona next month.
The event, organised by Step by Step Foundation, is a one and a half day conference dedicated to recent advances in translational research in the field of spinal cord injuries.
Prof. Raisman will be joined by other leading scientists from around the world including Switzerland, Israel and USA for the meeting on March 25th and 26th 2011.
For further details, please visit www.spinalcordmeeting.org
The family of a young man who died after suffering a fatal injury while playing rugby are delighted to have topped the £25,000 mark in funds raised in his memory.
The Christopher Tickle Fund was set up in May 2010 to pay tribute to 23 year old Christopher and the money is passed to The Nicholls Spinal Injury Foundation to support its bid to find a cure for paralysis through the funding of medical research.
Last month Christopher’s parents Keith and Gemma Tickle and close relative Anna Slater, who runs Pink Productions, staged a fantastic tribute band concert at which around 200 people danced the night away to the likes of Girls Alouder, The Glee Club and Miss Gaga. With the addition of a raffle and an auction, the event raised over £3000 and the family would like to thank all those who supported the event and made it such a wonderful evening.
For more details of Pink Productions, please visit www.pink-productions.org
The first anniversary of the death of young rugby player Christopher Tickle will be marked later this month with a fundraising evening of music and entertainment.
The Rendezvous 1 Night Club in Astley, Manchester is hosting the charity tribute night on Friday 29th October from 7pm to 1am when acts including Girls Alouder, Take That Again and Miss Gaga will perform in aid of The Christopher Tickle Fund, raising money on behalf of The Nicholls Spinal Injury Foundation.
The Fund was set up following the death of 23 year old Christopher in October 2009 after he was injured during a rugby match at Eccles RFC and has already raised more than £20,000 in his name.
Tickets are £12.50 which includes a hot pot supper and are available by calling Keith on 07973 837020
With celebrities such as Jimmy Tarbuck, Tim Brooke-Taylor and ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ victor Chris Hollins cleaning their clubs in readiness, this year’s Wiltshire Charity Golf Day in aid of The Nicholls Spinal Injury Foundation looks set to be the best yet!
The event, which is taking place this weekend at the glorious Wiltshire Golf and Country Club, Wootton Bassett, will also welcome some of the best-loved names in the culinary world including Heston Blumenthal, Brian Turner and Michel Roux, all of whom are generously giving of their time to support the charity’s founder, David Nicholls.
Guests at Sunday evening’s sumptuous dinner, prepared by the chefs of the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, will be given opportunity to bid for some fantastic prizes including a two week holiday in Kenya, dining at some of the country’s finest restaurants and tickets for the last Grand Prix of the season in Abu Dhabi. But they’ll need to ensure that their heads are not too sore in readiness for their tee time the following day!
The organising committee are promising that diners and golfers alike will enjoy a wonderful two days and are confident that they can match the incredible sum of £75,000 which was raised last year!
Watch this space for photos of the event….!
If Graeme McDowell’s victory at the US Open has got you reaching for your clubs, why not take part in the fourth Wiltshire Celebrity Charity Golf Day and raise funds for The Nicholls Spinal Injury Foundation?
This two day spectacular is taking place at the beautiful Wiltshire Golf and Country Club at Wootton Bassett on 1st/2nd August 2010 and has already attracted some big name stars including Heston Blumenthal, Michel Roux and Lee Dixon.
The event, which includes a wonderful gala dinner on the Sunday evening – prepared by the chefs of London’s Mandarin Oriental Hotel – followed by the 18 hole competition on the Monday, costs just £1250 per team of three.
You also have the opportunity to walk away with some fabulous prizes in the charity auction, including a trip to Dubai for the final F1 Grand Prix of the season, a two week stay at one of Kenya’s finest beach resorts and dinner at the Chef’s Table at Marcus Wareing’s Michelin-starred restaurant at the Berkeley, complete with luxurious overnight stay.
To book your team, please contact Jennifer at the Wiltshire Golf and Country Club on 01793 849999
