Saunders Solicitors LLP Annual Quiz Night, London  Saunders Annual Quiz Night this year donated its takings to the Laurie Engel Fund. Legal clerk Helen Leadbeater is an old friend of Hilary and Matthew's and saw during Laurie's illness how that time was made even more comfortless for them and Laurie by the depressing and inappropriate conditions of the hospital wards where he was treated.

Quizmaster Iain Wilson set the questions, tactfully leaving out anything about the law and concentrating as usual on large carnivorous mammals. The takings included donations from the partners of Saunders and also from the chambers of  David Wolchover and Chris Van Hagen at 7 Bell Yard, making a total of  £550.

 

Christmas Collections A special thank you to the Beddard family of Ross-on-Wye – Mel, Tony and Abi.  Their son Matthew died of cancer at the age of 13 in 2005, after being treated at Birmingham Children’s Hospital.  They held a Christmas disco in memory of Matt at his school, John Kyrle High School in Ross-on-Wye, which raised £618, and a Christmas fancy dress disco that raised £871. They went carol-singing in Goodrich (£436), and held a cricket day at Goodrich earlier in the year (£405). Some of Matt’s friends, Jess Mutton, Luke and Ellie, did a sponsored run (£480); and HSBC donated £500 under the ‘£1 for £1’ scheme, making a grand total of £3310.

Many thanks as well to the Oat Street Unitarian Chapel, Evesham, to Olton United Reformed Church, Solihull,  to Aston Fields Middle School, Bromsgrove and to the School Improvement Service at Herefordshire Council for donating their Christmas collections to Laurie’s fund, amounting to £1000 altogether.

Motorway Challenge for Laurie Our friend Sarah Bierley, who lives in Shropshire, had a phobia about motorways, and had never driven on one.  She decided this was the moment to do it, so ‘on a drizzly November afternoon, with the windscreen wipers flicking back and forth, I discovered the meaning of motorways.  Not exactly the piece of cake I had been encouraged to believe, more like boiled cabbage with the hint of something nasty lurking inside.  Anyway, it’s done – 4 miles along the M54 to the local service station and back again.  People have been very generous.  Never has such a short trip yielded such an extortionate mileage rate.’  The drive raised just over £400 for the fund: many thanks to Sarah and everyone concerned.

 

Christmas Party for Laurie Simon Reid, dear old friend of Laurie’s cousin Rachel, organized a giant party in aid of the fund.  It was called The Longest Night Before Christmas.  Simon writes:

"The people behind the legendary The Longest Day festival (www.thelongestday.net) brought themselves and their brethren to Hidden in Vauxhall to scythe through the cold winter air with a little summer attitude. A heady mix of live music and DJs ran for 10 hours, and left all 360 attendees exhausted but warm, grinning and begging for more...which there will be...soon...once I've had a little lie down ...."

The party raised £1000.  Thank you Simon and all your guests.

 

An Evening with Michael Parkinson, Birmingham Rep, 12 November Over 800 people packed the Birmingham Rep to enjoy Parky’s marvellous show, in which he shared memories of his unique 50-year career in sports journalism and TV.  He showed clips of some of his most dramatic interviews, ranging from Mohammed Ali and Billy Connolly to Dame Edith Evans and Jakob Bronowski.  He  recalled the hazards of dealing with characters as diverse as Robert Mitchum, Nelson Mandela, Peter Sellers, Fred Trueman and Dickie Bird; and answered questions with great good humour.

The show began with the short documentary film made by David Raibin about Laurie and the need for the new unit in Birmingham; and one of the stars of the film, 17-year-old Zara Free, together with another BCH patient, 13-year-old Alex Godding, like Laurie a pupil at Fairfield High School, went backstage to chat to Michael Parkinson afterwards.

Matthew spoke briefly about the remarkable people we have met in the course of the past year’s fund-raising, quite a few of whom were there on the night.  There was also a large contingent of staff from Birmingham Children’s Hospital.  Some of Laurie’s friends shook fund-raising buckets at the end, and altogether the event raised more than £15,000.  This is the first large-scale event we have held in Birmingham, and undoubtedly it will have made many more local people aware of the campaign to build the new ward.

Huge thanks to the Birmingham Rep for lending us the theatre for the night; and to all the staff who managed every detail of the show with such patience and efficiency, helping to make it such a huge success.

Above all, thanks to Michael Parkinson, who so generously offered to do the show in the first place.

Parky with Zara Free and Alex Godding

 

Quiz at Roosters Restaurant, Palma Nova, Mallorca, 11 November Ian Morrison, who used to be co-author with Matthew of The Sportspages Almanac, organized a quiz night for the fund at his local restaurant.  It was a roaring success, with a record 20 teams competing.  Altogether it raised just over 3,000 Euros – more than £2,000 – for the fund.

The winning teams were:

1st The Fum Duckers 56 points
2nd Monty & Mushtaq's Harem 55 points
3rd The Chums 55 points
4th Dim, Dumb, Daft and Dopey 54 points

Many thanks to Ian and everyone concerned.

 

Derwent Valley Lunch, 1 November The fund's most lucrative event yet was organized at the Savoy Hotel, London, by the property company Derwent Valley plc. More than 450 guests attended a lunch and raised a staggering £285,000-plus towards the Birmingham unit.

Derwent Valley were already generous backers of Teenage Cancer Trust. But by coincidence Simon Silver, one of the company's founders and directors, was a school friend of Matthew's, and resolved to hold this event for Laurie's fund.

The 41 other companies taking part included agents, architects, builders, designers, surveyors and lawyers, many of whom in conjunction with Derwent Valley have already donated their services and expertise in the creation of Teenage Cancer units.

The lunch was followed by a short film, made by David Raibin, which tells Laurie's story and shows current patients explaining why the unit is needed.

This was followed by an unusual and ingenious auction. Guests were invited to bid, not against each other for objects, but to pledge donations towards various items needed to build the unit. It raised £37,000 in six minutes.

A surprise cheque was handed to Matthew and Hilary afterwards. It was a payment from Universal Studios, who wanted to use a Derwent Valley property as a location for the new Matt Damon movie, The Bourne Identity Ultimatum. Derwent Valley held out for a fee of £40,000 to be paid to Laurie's fund.

It was an amazing occasion. Our profound gratitude goes to everyone involved - Simon, Paul, Derwent Valley managing director John Burns, chief organizer Dupe Odunsi and her team, auctioneer Richard Auterac, and all those who attended and gave so generously. Laurie would be very chuffed.

Among those present were Paul O'Connor, chief executive of Birmingham Children's Hospital, and Adam Johnson, manager of the oncology ward. They were chuffed too.

One object was auctioned at the Derwent Valley lunch: a cricket bat signed by the entire 2006 England Test squad, kindly donated to the fund by the England and Wales Cricket Board. It fetched (perhaps a record?) £5750.

Matthew speaking at the lunch	AHMM Adams Kara Taylor James Andrew International Arup Aston Chase Buro Four Buro Happold Cardales Compco Holdings Ltd Cundall, Cushman & Wakefield Davenport Lyons Davis Langdon Peter Deer Associates CB Richard Ellis DTZ Fineman Ross Fletcher Priest Simon Harris & Co Harris & Trotter Heron International Hurford Salvi Carr ISG Interior/Exterior Jackson Coles Jones Lang LaSalle DE & J Levy Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands Macfarlanes Norman Disney Young ORMS Pilcher Hershman & Partners Prestbury Investment Holdings Ltd Resolution Property plc Savills EA Shaw / HHY John Sisk & Son Speechly Bircham Slaughter and May Richard Susskind & Co Taylor Wessing Wordsearch
The auction, led by Richard Auterac of Jones Lang LaSalle, raised £100,000 towards the total figure
Matthew and Hilary Engel receiving a £40,000 cheque from Derwent Valley

 

Athens Marathon, 5 November David Owen, a former colleague of Matthew's at the Financial Times, successfully completed the Athens Marathon. Here is his report:

"As temperatures on November 4 in Athens plunged towards freezing, I was starting to get worried. But conditions for the marathon the next morning turned out to be just about perfect, even if many of the approaching 3,000 runners put on bin liners to keep warm while awaiting the starting-gun at 8.30 sharp. So much for the glamour and romance of running the original marathon course. We must have looked like an aliens' convention. Laurie would have seen the funny side.

"It was a surprisingly enjoyable experience and, although I took almost exactly twice as long as the race winner to cover the 26.2 miles, I could not believe how fast the time went. I had the odd sticky moment, as nearly everyone does in a race this long, but of course it's self-inflicted and strictly nothing compared to what those we are raising money for have to go through. That thought, plus visions of having to 'fess up to the less tactful among your colleagues and friends if you don't stay the course, is what keeps you going. And then there are the sprightly pensioners who seem to plod past you with sobering regularity. If they can do this....

"The most beautiful part of any marathon is the finish. This is certainly the case in Athens where the finishing-line is in the marble Panathinaikon stadium, which staged the first modern Olympiad in 1896. And about four and a half hours after I started, that's where I ended up, just missing the podium in something like 1900th position. Much more importantly, it looks like the generosity of my donors will raise between £4,000 and £5,000 for the Laurie Engel Fund."

Congratulations, David, and many, many thanks. You can see photos of David running in the Marathon at www.firstfotofactory.com. Select Athens Classic Marathon, and then insert his 'Startnummer' - 938. .

Run a mile for Laurie All the pupils at Tudor Grange School, Solihull, were challenged by Angus Neal, their Director of Sport, to run a sponsored mile for the Fund. He writes: 'I have been delighted by the pupils' eagerness to take part.. Indeed some pupils ran even further than a mile – as far as four and a half miles! Even wind and rain couldn't dampen their spirits.' Altogether an amazing £4061 was raised.

 

Ready, Steady, Cook Laurie’s cousins Rachel and Clare Engel appeared in the show on October 5. They weren’t allowed to wear their Laurie Engel Fund T shirts, but they were able to give the Fund a good plug.

 

September 22, Bethesda, Maryland September 22 was the first anniversary of Laurie's death. We were quite overwhelmed that so many people remembered and sent us messages and flowers and cards. A group of Laurie's friends and their parents gathered at 'Larry's Tree', a dogwood which they planted last year in front of his old school, Westbrook Elementary. They lit candles, and read from Laurie's book, and listened to Matty Groves, and reminisced about 'the funniest guy in the Fifth Grade'.

 

Canon Hill Park Bike Ride, Birmingham At the end of July in baking heat four pupils from King Edward’s Camp Hill School for Girls in Birmingham completed a two-hour sponsored bike ride around Canon Hill Park. Layla, Kate, Yasmin and Amy are former biology students of Susan Lloyd, Laurie’s aunt. Altogether they have raised about £200 for the fund. Well done, girls, and thank you to the parents who supervised.

 

Birmingham to Oxford Bike Ride, July 2 On a warm sunny morning seven lawyers who work for Warwickshire County Council set off from the outskirts of Birmingham and, despite minor hiccups such as dehydration, punctures and derailer malfunction, successfully completed their ride. They raised about £500 for the Fund. Many thanks to Barry Juckes and his colleagues.