Any ideas for fundraising for my granddaughter's operation

harrigran not every family is fortunate enough to have savings of that magnitude.

Ditto. And please don't be upset by the one witless comment.

themaggiejane1 thank you for providing the link. I've made a donation and wish Bella all the very best of luck and hope the surgery is successful

It will be NICE again won't it (or NASTY as some people call it).

The National Institute for Curtailing Expenses

I think they fund this operation in Wales but not in England jingls.

I think I would want to know a bit more about this if I was going to donate. Like, why can the operation not been done on the NHS? There must have been reasons given.

I suppose if you can get this post/request (and lets face it, it is a request for donations - nothing wrong with that)on enough forums like this one, you might be able to raise the money.

Good luck.

@TheMaggiejane1

Your granddaughter is beautiful,I hope others will look at your justgiving page.

@ Harrigran,

Very few people can lay their hands on £50,000 without selling their home.
What on earth are they to do then?
We treat drunks and addicts,but cannot find the funding to allow a child the basic joy of walking,running ,kicking a ball.

@TheMaggiejane1

It is shameful that Bella and other children are ignored.
The NHS patients charter states that everyone is entitled to treatment in order to have a decent quality of life.
I think the ability to walk is a fairly basic quality of life.
Though many poo-poo papers like the Daily mail,they are very good at fundraising.
They successfully raised funds for a little girl some months ago who was unable to walk and was refused NHS funding....she is now going to ballet classes.
It may be worth a try.

We have friends who did a huge amount of fundraising for the local NICU after their son was born extremely prematurely...around 25 weeks. This is the young man I mentioned in my earlier post. He's almost 21 now and at university despite some mobility issues. His dad always said that you need to hit people with big fundraising events as a series of small ones can result in 'giving fatigue'. Their most successful events were big ticket only black tie dinners with a good speaker. Sometimes speakers will do it free for a good cause and the venue can be 'persuaded' to offer a decent discount on the meal. A top notch auction with really good items is a must at the dinner. These things take time to organise but you can raise thousands especially if you get the local press and business community on board.

maggie don't let this make you lose your focus. I at no time read your OP as asking for donations, as you say, you are asking for ideas. The justgiving page provides additional info to your post.

harrigran I haven't asked for any contributions, I've asked for ideas. Aren't you lucky to have the money to afford it! I would give her both my own legs to do it! You've really made my very angry and extremely upset.

harrigran I'm pretty sure using savings is a given! Very few people will be able to give £50k! What world are you living in?

Harrigran That is fine for some, but I suspect the majority of us do not have sufficient savings to pay out £50K in one go.

I do not think this is the place to ask for charitable donations, it could open the floodgates to scammers. As a family are you not able to raise the money from savings? If my GC needed an operation I would use my savings to fund it.

granjura I would think that asking GNHQ to set up an official link to a charity might be difficult for them to do for legal reasons. They are essentially a business.
It would probably be ok for a GNer to promote a registered fund.

Yes I think they're approaching the rotary club thanks you Bagatelle. The link has always been there granjura. It's very sad that we have all had be become so suspicious nowadays isn't it, but I completely understand what you're saying. There are some very horrible people around!

Sorry I seem to have missed the crowdfunding link in the OP- or was it added later?

TheMaggieJane- I of course believe you- but just mentioned if fundraising is done via GN, then they should check it (hugely sadly there have been scams on Forums before ) -

Could GN admin please set up an official link/thread for those of us who would like to contribute to the fund please.

Local Rotary club? The Crowdfunding page says they're in St Neots's and St Neot's Rotary looks active; they might be able to give you some pointers.

rotarystneots.org.uk

maggiemaybe has also pointed out to me that once you see my GD's name on the Justgiving page you can google her name and there are lots and lots of articles on the Internet about her being a flower girl at her Auntie's wedding which was reported first in the Daily Mail and then was picked up by press all over the world. It was a very exciting few days!

Lovely idea about the cinema grannyknot we will approach the local cinema. granjura my daughter is trying to send a report over to me, but to be honest most of them are completely ununderstandable (I'm not sure that's a word). If you follow the link to the Just Giving page you'll see that there are lots of comments from people who know us, parents with children in her class ( she goes to a lovely mainstream school) as well as teachers, relatives and friends. I think you can tell from the page that we are well known and genuine! There is also a link to the FB page we've started up which has photos of Bella and her parents.

Oh Maggie so sorry to read your OP (((hugs)))

There have been two families locally who gave had to fund this operation themselves. It is not right. Our NHS is failing these children.

Some good ideas above. You do need to get your case out there, in you local papers, radio, etc.. Perhaps something like Walk a Mile for Bella might catch on. Is there someone in the family with good organisational skills, and the time to work on this?

The Waitrose idea is a great one too. And perhaps GNHQ could come up with a suggestion or a sponsor or something. It means so much ... doesn't it?

Sorry meant to add, you may have to take a "little and often" approach. For example a local mum where I live has a very poorly child and she will constantly promote fundraising efforts, e.g. raffles for spa days, golf lessons etc. etc., having approached local businesses.

Hi Maggie so sorry to read your story and that no funding is available.

If there is a cinema in the town where you or her parents live, a suggestion is to approach the management and ask that the venue + a film be donated, choose a family favourite film and sell tickets to friends and family, advertise it all over town, get a write up in the local paper. Funds are raised from ticket sales and when I've been involved in similar in the past, the cinema management have only asked for a small fee to cover staff coming in for an extra shift.

Local businesses can often be very good allies when it comes to fundraising.

Yes Katek she has Botox every year. It involves 6 very painful deep muscle injections. She then has to be in plaster splints for 2 weeks. She is supposed to have intensive physiotherapy after that, but that never seems to happen. She has had various results with Botox. One year she walked about 5 steps completely unaided but it wore off after a few weeks. It is a very short treatment and can only be done once a year. It does help to ensure that the muscles don't get tighter over the years though, whereas the SDR operation offers permanent results. Harrigran we have been told that there is no NHS funding in England at all for the op. Up until last year there was funding available but it has all been withdrawn. I suppose it might be different in Wales, I think they get free prescriptions there as well.