Zedward - A Thank you from Lauren's Mum

Unfortunately did not have the pleasure of Zeds company, but dropped him a few quid. Well done everyone, and good luck Lauren and Lauren's mum.
 
Congrats Number5 & Taz on a job well done, some excellent adventures/pictures/donations and well done on keeping the momentum going :thumbsup: :happyclap: :happyclap: :thumbsup:

Best wishes also to Lauren and her family, and fingers crossed for some future good news. I, for one, will be keeping an eye on the update page, and I'm sure I won't be alone.
 
Looks like the big boy will be with me for wet and windy christmas day! I will be heading over to Lyme Regis in dorset again on Tuesday the 27th December if anyone can help Zedward on his journey back east

*Update*
My brother has said he can take Zedward back to Surrey with him, so if someone there can get him, he will be available from wednesday next week. I won't ask him to keep ahold of Zedward too long so if noone can help, he will remain in the south west with me.

Come on folks, lets get him to Lauren for the new year!
 
Well Everybody,

Myself and Taz would like to thank everybody who participated in the 2016 Forum Charity, namely "Zedward"

I have today transferred the final payment to Lauren from the second leg of the run (August to December), where he managed to raise another £701:46p net of fees. (The money only just came to me from justGiving this week)

Zedward is currently with Vonlipvig, down in Cornwall and I will arrange to get him back home shortly, where I intend to look after him until Spring, when I then hope to take to finally meet Lauren to hand him over to her in Surrey. I will let you all know when this will be and if anyone wants to make a hoon of it, I'm sure that will be fine. it will just depend on Lauren's health and location at the time.

The whole venture was a huge success. I know that those members who briefly 'fostered' him thoroughly enjoyed it, members met other members that they would not have done otherwise and a young girl and her family benefited immensely, not only from the financial help, but also from knowing that people care.

Please follow Laurens updates on her just giving page : https://www.gofundme.com/laurenstummy

We raised £2,534 which was a great effort. I know a few of you went the extra mile and either took him to some wonderful locations or pulled in all your contacts to get him in places where the public would never manage, but for me, there were a few memorable photos that popped up during the year and here are just three.

Firstly, the winner for physical effort was from Bish, who dragged him all the way to the summit of Snowdon early one morning in May !
Zedward Snowdon.jpg

The winner of the 'stupidity award' was DaveR885 who set the pace by not only dragging Zedward to the pub, but also his girlfriend !
Zedward Tintern.jpg.

And imagine the faces of the people on the platform when this train arrived, courtesy of Smartbear !
Train.jpg

Well done everyone, ...now what were your favourites ?
 
So many, Top of the Seven bridge was probably high up there. :exitright:

Good effort one and all.
 
Great job,and the pic on the train is hilarious :thumbsup:

Great effort from all involved in here,including those who gave so Generously at the 2016 National meet Raffle,as always :) :thumbsup:
And Especially to Number5 and Pete/Taz....Well done folks.
Hope Lauren gets the ops she needs too.
 
Pleased to hear the fund money is now available to Lauren so it can help her get better :)
Zedward enjoyed his time at London Underground & may be forwarding an application to be a tube driver in the future :P





Rob
 
:ilz4f: :ilz4f:
Great work Number 5 and Taz also everybody who took part !
Never seen as many double takes and smiles as I had with the big fella on board :D

Good luck Lauren :thumbsup:
 
metal licker said:
:ilz4f: :ilz4f:
Great work Number 5 and Taz also everybody who took part !
Never seen as many double takes and smiles as I had with the big fella on board :D

Good luck Lauren :thumbsup:
X1 I could not have put it any better. :thumbsup:
 
Brilliant effort from everybody involved and best wishes for Lauren and family and I hope Zedward enjoys his retirement. I enjoyed my day chauffeuring him around Cornwall with Buzyg and RJBaz not feeling at all strange carrying around a 6 foot bear. :thumbsup:

My fave photos of Zedward from the day.

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Cracking work!! Well done to everyone involved! I would have liked to have taken zedward out and about but unfortunately it just didn't work out for me in the end.
 
I thought I'd share with you an email received from Lauren's mum, Jo this week, providing an update on Lauren's condition and expressing her sincere thanks for all Zedwards help in 2016.

It just makes you realise how much 'normaility' we take for granted:

Subject: Re: Lauren

Hi Alan and Pete

I hope you all had a brilliant Christmas and New Year.

Firstly may I thank you and your members for your fabulous support over the summer and beyond. Our whole family have been kept amused by the photos and adventures of Zedward and it has been brilliant how your members have taken time out of their busy lives to let Zedward hitch a ride.

We had a difficult but lovely Xmas. Lauren was, and still is, an inpatient in hospital though only needs to be in hospital for 14 hours overnight to receive her feed infusion. The run up to Xmas in hospital was lovely, they really pull out the stops and Lauren's bed space resembled a santas grotto - Christmas lights, tinsel, helium balloons etc.

We managed to get a night off on Christmas Day night which was really timely for both Lauren and I. We had a brilliant day, lauren played us Xmas tunes on her sax whilst we ate lunch, topped off by a night in our own beds!

I am typing this whilst waiting for a call from Kings College Hospital, which will be the next part of our journey to get home. As currently the only way to get nutrition into Lauren is via her blood stream, we have been waiting for a transfer to Kings so that I can be trained on how to administer IV feeds safely from home. She will also have a Hickman line placed in her chest whilst we are there as the picc line she currently has in her arm is now beginning to fail.

Lauren is feeling well at the moment and has even put on 4 kilos, without doubt because her stomach and intestines are being bypassed. My first priority is to get her home after almost 4 months in hospital - with any luck, after a few weeks at Kings this will be a reality! She will need to undergo further testing and trials of tube feeding again in the coming months to try and work out whether Lauren's condition can be attributed to pseudo obstruction and if so what can be done to alleviate the symptoms.

What has become apparent is that this area of GI specialism is limited within the UK, and we are currently investigating the possibility of contacting overseas specialists if indeed the UK are unable to help further. The pacemaker surgeon is still in the wings, but really needs to be sure of the functional problems within Lauren's intestine before he can proceed.

Lauren is very much enjoying feeling better at the moment - a long way from perfect, but so much better than she has felt in the past year. She is still remarkably positive and focussed and is still working hard to try to keep up with her studies. At home we are currently knocking through her bedroom wall to give her direct access to the bathroom so that Lauren will be able to manage when connected to her drip stand at home. A far from ideal situation but made so much easier by Lauren's cheeky and 'just get on with it' attitude. Obviously at the back of my mind is the likely hood of her contracting sepsis and the potential that this method of feeding has to damage her liver. Longevity wise, we really haven't covered how long she can be maintained this way, but we have been told it is life limiting - hence the motivation for us looking abroad for assistance.

I will keep in touch, and will get around to writing an update on our funding page - they seem to have removed or disabled the ability to add offline donations at the moment, but as soon as the functionality returns I will add you fantastic £701.46 to the total.

Apologies for such a long and waffling email. The main message here is that of massive gratitude.

Much love and thanks

Jo, Sam, Holly and Lauren. xxx


I don't think there's much more that needs saying, but I'm just glad we found such a worthy cause for the 2016 Forum Charity. Thank you everyone.
Alan & Pete
 
Wow a powerful e-mail. The realities of life and the ability of people to just get on with them. Good to read Lauren is feeling well. Long may that continue.
 
buzyg said:
Wow a powerful e-mail. The realities of life and the ability of people to just get on with them. Good to read Lauren is feeling well. Long may that continue.

+1
Well said
Shames me to think about some of the stuff I've moaned about today!
 
A little late as I have been away a while, but another big thanks to number5 and taz for organising and pulling off such an ambitious plan. The result was fantastic.
Again, the email puts it all in perspective. Best wishes to Lauren and family.
 
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