Fundraising Hall of Fame

Lots of patients, family members, supporters and staff have been actively involved in supporting our appeals and the Fundraising Hall of Fame is here to thank and acknowledge the most active.

If we have left you out please accept our apologies – and get in touch so that we can add you in.

Nikki Wood
Ex-patient Nikki Wood organised a quiz at the Maypole Sports and Social Club in Harlow and was overwhelmed by the success of the evening. Not only did 26 teams enter the quiz, but all the raffle and auction prizes were donated. Prizes included a golf day for four people, signed football memorabilia and a hot air balloon ride. “I was delighted when I added up the final total from the evening,” said Nikki. “I was determined to raise as much money as possible for the
National Hospital. It was a real buzz to see the event go off so well, feedback has been brilliant and i’m already planning next year’s event!”
The evening raised £2,531 to support the two wards where Nikki was cared for in October 2008.

Dean McConnon
Last year Dean McConnon came up with the idea of ‘Charity Rock’, a concert featuring young, talented musicians from his community. Dean told us: “My mother-in-law was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour last year. She battled bravely for six months but sadly passed away in October. It was extremely hard to understand
why her condition could not be treated and I wanted to do something to help change that by supporting the Development Foundation’s Brain Tumour Unit Appeal.” The event was held on Saturday 17 January and the line-up included local bands Anubis, Us & Them, Purity and Up Boy, Down Boy. It was a wonderful success and raised £1,100 for the Development Foundation.

Darren Roberts, Nick and Steve Tidball
Darren Roberts and his friends Nick and Steve Tidball chose to fundraise for the Development Foundation after winning a competition to become the Adventure Racing Team for Men’s Fitness magazine. Together they will be sponsored by Men’s Fitness and Berghaus as they take on three ultra marathons in one year. Their challenge begins with the Namibia Ultra Marathon in April, followed by the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc in August and the Jungle Marathon in Brazil in October.

Amanda Luke, Yvonne Griffiths, Giles Wheeler and Annie Forsdick, all members of staff at the Nikki Penny Neurophysiotherapy Clinic in West Sussex, took part in the Edinburgh Marathon Hairy Haggis Team Relay on Sunday 31 May. Together they will share the 26.2 miles distance in support of the Development Foundation.

Sam Hart
Thank you to Sam and Team Hart (Ian Anderson, Claire Erskine, Robert Anderson, Neil and Paul Rosewarn and Steve Lightburn) ran the Hastings Half Marathon in March 2008 raising nearly £6,000 for the NHDF after his sister Lettie was a patient at The National.

Mike Clear
In March 2008, Mike emabarked on the 'Marathon des Sables', a six day/230km endurance race across the Sahara Desert in Morocco, along with 700 other people. And if that wasn't enough they had to carry their food and equipment over sand dunes and rocky ground, in baking temperatures. Mike raised over £6,000.

Gareth Parry
After two of his friends were treated at The National, Gareth raised £1,000 for the Development Foundation. He cycled the British Cyclosportive, 120 mile bike ride which followed the route of the first stage of the 2007 Tour de France, from Greenwich to Canterbury.

Maureen Steward
"I didn't think I could fundraise when I saw the runs and things other people did." says Maureen Steward. That was before she started selling plants on the grass verge outside her bungalow. "I used to give my cuttings away, and then I realised I could raise money for The National where my son, Jason is treated for epilepsy by Professor Duncan," she explained. Maureen has raised nearly £2,000, which is even more amazing when you realise that passers-by leave the money in a collecting box - it's all based on trust.

Ecuador Trekkers

Parveen Akhtar
Ann Calder
Ian Calder
Ron Gainsford
Gina Gillan
Steve Mackenzie
Orla Mckee
Rinaldo Mollura
Michael Powell
James Sheward
Jenny Shields
Andrew Usiskin

India Trekkers and Cyclists

Surinder Basuta
Hannah Bensley
Maria-Luisa Chacon
Graham Fryatt
Marcia Vasconcelos, Evelyn Frank
Nicola Gainsford
Ellie Macchiarola
Tania Macchiarola
Jenny McDonald
Eleri Price-Strickland
Harriet Whinney


Trek Chile Fundraisers!

Douglas Brown
John Brown
David Buck
Hugh Cochrane
Jackie Corby
Claire Fidler
Sally Fox
Graham Fryatt
Ron Gainsford
Joan Grieve
Roberta Munday
Dewanne Puddick



We would like to thank Ron Gainsford and his colleagues at the Trading Standards Institute (TSI), who nominated the Development Foundation to benefit from their fundraising at the Microsoft Party Night during the TSI’s Conference and Exhibition this year. Ron was diagnosed with a large macroadenoma pituitary tumour in 2003 and has been supporting the Hospital since. They raised £5,379, and we are very grateful.

Madeleine and Terry Harvey spent five days walking the length of the Dorset Jurassic coastline this June. They started the 75-mile stretch at Durlston Head, near Swanage and finishing at The Cobb in Lyme Regis. They raised nearly £1,000 to support the plans to expand the Medical Intensive Treatment Unit; in January 2006 Madeleine and Terry’s 26 year old daughter Sarah, contracted a rare virus known as Guillain-Barre syndrome, which attacks the nervous system and causes partial or total paralysis of the muscles. Sarah spent seven weeks on the life support system in the unit and we are happy to say that she is now doing well. Many thanks to both Madeleine and Terry.

Peter Tyldesley and Sue Samra - congratulations to Peter and Samra who were married on 11 June 2006. Instead of asking their guests to tick off the usual items on a wedding list, they asked them to make donations to the Development Foundation. Peter was a patient of Nick Losseff and felt that this was a fitting way to express his gratitude. Our thanks to Peter, Sue and all their friends for supporting our work by raising £1,185 in this way.

Peter Williams - Triathlon man Peter was diagnosed with MS in 2005… and says that it was thanks to that diagnosis that he is now the fittest he has been in 20 years. Peter chose to focus his energies on competing in a Triathlon in Belgium this September and fundraising for The National. After completing the Triathlon in an impressive time of two hours 41 minutes and raising a fantastic £10,000, a slightly sore but extremely satisfied Peter told us, "Completing this gruelling event was extremely important for me psychologically, after I received my MS diagnosis back in November last year. I hope that the fact I have swum one kilometre, ridden a bike for 45 and run 10 demonstrates that the diagnosis itself does not have to be an immediate disaster. Clearly things can get a lot worse for me, but until they do I plan on driving myself forward in life." Thank you very much.

We set up the Myrtle Ellis Fund under the auspices of the national Hospital Development Foundation to support the work of the National Hospital for Neurology & neurosurgery's Dementia Research centre. So far we have raised over £11,300 from a sponsored fun-run in September 2006, a 'School Days Party' in December 2006 and a coffee morning in January 2007.

For further information about the work of the fund, please contact 020 7829 8724

Neurosurgeon Michael Powell has been a very active fundraiser over many years, both for the Development Foundation and to fund special equipment for pituitary endoscopy. He has taken part in treks and marathon running and has raised over £100,000.







Neurosurgeon Neil Kitchen has raised nearly £15,000 already from this year's marathon alone, and £70,000 from previous events. He says: "My patients have been so generous over the years. They know how hard everyone in the Hospital works and understand the vital fundraising that the Development Foundation does."











Ian Calder has participated in four treks and has raised over £25,000. Lizzie Boal is a long term fundraiser and this year raised nearly £8,000 with Gwen Gonzales when they participated in the latest trek to Northern Vietnam.

David Fish has raised an incredible £42,500 by taking part in treks to Peru, Nepal and South Africa and by holding the Peru Trek Inca Ball.







William Harkness raised a phenomenal £34,842.70 participating in the 2001 Nepal trek. Rhiannon Baker raised £3,687 participating in the Nepal trek in 2001 and Alexa Coombes raised nearly £2,000 participating in the Nepal trek in 2004.

James Laban came second in the challenging 2005 Arctic Polar Race. James decided to take part soon after his department at the NHNN saved his sister's life following a severe traumatic brain injury. Along with team partner Will Morton, the 'Gentlemen Adventurers' have already raised over £5,180 of their £10,000 target for the NHDF.  

Nicky Buckingham

Nicky's Cookshop has now raised over £20,000.00 for the National Hospital and continues to raise hundreds of pounds year upon year. Nicky now sells chutneys, jams, shortbread, gingerbread as well as Valentine's, Mother's Day, Easter and Christmas cakes. A tremendous amount of effort goes into producing all these goodies and we are extremely grateful for the support.





Diana Kiverstein

Diana and the students of South Hampstead High School are committed supporters of the National Hospital and regularly sing at Brent Cross Shopping Centre to raise funds.

Will Gow

Many thanks to Andrew Le Cheminant from Jersey who raised £3000 - and another £3000 for a local charity - from a sponsored head shave on 18 December 2006, following an operation under the care of Neil Kitchen in 2005. Andrew says, rather modestly, "I wanted to give something back, and people were very generous. It was a way of helping out in some small way. I'm not very good at heights, so a parachute jump was out, and this was something that made quite an impact."

A big thank you to Angela O'Connell who felt what it's like to freefall at over 120mph during a breathtaking tandem skydive! "I was more than happy to support the Development Foundation," she said. "Sadly my Mum passed away in The National Hospital in January 2007, aged 57. Myself and the rest of the family knew she had been given the best possible treatment and care by all the staff and we were given so much support in our time of sadness." Reporting back on her exhilarating day, she said "It was an amazing experience, I had such a great day and would recommend it to everyone". Good for you Angela and thanks for your support.

Alison Cook

Congratulations to Alison Cook who completed the Brentwood Half Marathon in March 2007 – and more importantly, enjoyed every moment as she raised over £1,300. “Running is something I now love, I am not fast and just go at my own pace, enjoy it and leave all my troubles behind, it is a great stress reliever. I would never have tried had it not been for ‘life’s wake up call’ (the discovery of my tumour) and wanting to raise funds for the hospital that has looked after me so well”, says Alison, who was operated on by Michael Powell for a tumour that is situated over her pituitary gland in 2005. “I enjoyed life before, but now I appreciate everything. This experience has changed my outlook and indeed my family’s outlook on life in so many ways.” In 2006 Alison raised over £1,000 in a sponsored 15 mile walk… and she is contemplating our Indian Adventure for 2007.

Nick Wright
Nick chose to raise money for the National Hospital Development Foundation in memory of his grandfather. His team came second in the first leg of the Global Challenge Round the World Yacht Race, which involved sailing non-stop from England to Argentina covering over 6,200 miles.

Daniel Coburn
Daniel completed the New York City Marathon in 4 hours 21 minutes! He managed to raise nearly £1500 for the National Hospital development Foundation.

Peter Ware
In 2004 Peter completed an arduous 100-mile bike ride and managed to raise over £1200 for the National hospital development Foundation.

Martin & Julie Brennan
The Brennans have raised over £3000 for the National Hospital! They have organised various events including a highly successful Benefit night.

Mary English
In May 2005 Mary took part in the gruelling Iron man Competition in Lanzarote raising over £5000 for the National Hospital Development Foundation.

Tanya Spensley
As well as being a fantastic fundraiser for us, Tanya has helped to create awareness for our charity, raising crucial funds for the National Hospital.

Charlotte Bolton
In March 2005 Charlotte raised over £400 for us by completing the Reading Half Marathon.

Ed James
Ed has raised a fantastic £10,000 as a result of sponsorship for the National Trail Challenge, his efforts have helped to support research into Multiple Sclerosis.

Peter Murray
Thank you to Peter Murray, who’s raised money from donors including Cherie Blair by cycling from London to Cannes. Peter’s group of 17 cyclists completed the journey in just over three days, riding in relays through unseasonally icy weather in March this year – and arrived in time to attend the world’s major international property conference. ‘The property business is a very generous one, so we raised about £115,000 in total and split that between four charities,’ Peter explains. ‘And we got such a good reception when we arrived that we may make it an annual event – we might even have riders from different countries all converging on the conference!’

Diana Comber
Diana Comber has decided to convert her chow dog Tamba and cat Sooty into media stars to raise money for National Hospital initiatives relating to dementia research. Diana, whose father has dementia, is working with landscape painter Christine Allen to produce limited edition watercolour illustrations of her pets on note cards with envelopes, presented in a decorative vellum folder with festive ribbon. Each packet of six different pet portraits sells for £3 and all the profits will go to the National. Nearly £1,200 has been raised to date.
If you would like to buy any for friends or family, contact Diana on 01276 671629 or email her at: diana@mspec.co.uk.

Rosemary Thorpe
This year, we also had representation across the water in the Paris Marathon. Rosemary Thorpe said of the event, ‘The whole occasion was amazing - a wonderful scenic route along the Seine and (unlike the other marathons I have run in) wine at mile 23 - but I was very relieved when it was all over. I think I will stick to shorter distances in future!’

We really appreciate the support and dedication of all our runners. If you are considering taking part in a running event and would like to raise funds for the Development Foundation, please do get in touch. We can’t do the running for you, but we can help with advice and support on the fundraising.