All the news you missed...
What a climb!!
03 June 2009
Hats off to Nick Moglia for a fantastic and exhausting Three Peaks Challenge which he completed in aid of SpecialEffect.
Nick climbed Snowdon in 3hrs 30mins, Scafell in 3hrs 35 and Ben Nevis in about 5 hrs 20, but were hampered by severe traffic delays and not at all helped by a bus with a speed limiter set at about 55mph! This meant they were at the top of Ben Nevis within 24 hours, and down in 25hrs 40.
Below is a picture of Nick on the summit of Snowdon:
... and on the summit of Scafell ...
... and the whole group on the summit of Ben Nevis:
What a walk!!
22 May 2009
Walk4Matt was a fantastic success with all the walkers getting to Twickenham after a gruelling week where rugby legends including Martin Johnson, Jason Leonard, Dusty Hare joined the team. A huge, huge thank you to everyone who participated or supported the walk in any way. Attached is a picture of SpecialEffect's part time fundraiser Nick Streeter with the trophy and below is an interview with our inspirational patron Matt Hampson that was shown on Sky News.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHaYG5p9VjM
WALK4MATT LATEST!!
11 May 2009
Walk4matt is up and running! Or walking, at least. By all accounts things are going fantastically so far, although with rain predicted towards the end of the week, things might soon be going swimmingly. All our very best wishes and thanks go to all who are involved in any way!
SpecialEffect's Nick Streeter reports: "Somehow I managed 37 miles on Friday and Saturday as part of www.walk4matt.org and unlike the big fella below I didn't get a blister! My motto of "mind of a champion, body of a darts player" has paid off despite walking like John Wayne this morning!"
Pictured below are (left to right) Mick Donegan of SpecialEffect, England rugby manager Martin Johnson (who walked the first leg of the walk), Bethan Dennick from Chipping Norton Rugby club who is doing the walk, and Nick Streeter, SpecialEffect.
The link below takes you to an audio YouTube clip of Mick Donegan, SpecialEffect Director, talking to BBC Radio Oxford about Walk4Matt. Nick says "Mick is doing all 110 miles and the clip has pictures from the launch on the first few days on the incredible walk (over 4 marathons ) that will end up at Twickers in front of 80,000 people with Matt Hampson and the walkers being presented to the crowd. Many of you getting this email have been on challenges like this with me before and I can't tell you how great this one is, so make a date in your diary to join me next year!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKAnnCUamGo
Austin's Angels Back Walk4Matt and SpecialEffect
26 April 2009
SpecialEffect's local women's rugby team the Witney Angels, stars of Austin Healey's big tackle series of ITV, are pictured below at Twickers with a few of the England players. They will be holding a pub crawl / collection through the town of Witney on May 2nd to support the walk. A massive thank you to Andrea Thomas and the girls!
Football legend onside with SpecialEffect
19 April 2009
Manchester United and Northen Ireland football Legend Norman Whiteside has helped launch a year long charity partnership between Hellenic Premier League club Witney United and SpecialEffect.
Mr Whiteside, who was appearing at the club's annual sportsman's dinner, posed with club and charity officials and autographed items for the charity to auction throughout the year long partnership, which will include a ladies and men's six-a-side competition on the 23/24th of May and a FA Cup Final day charity tournament on May 30th. Other initiatives will be announced during the year, with all monies raised supporting SpecialEffect's work enabling young people with disabilities to play computer games via specially-adapted technology.
Mark Reid, Witney United spokesman said:
"We are delighted to help such a unique local cause and would urge others in the area to do so, please do contact the club if you would like to get involved in any way"
A better result than United!
9 March 2009
A team of SpecialEffect Volunteers last weekend battled the freezing weather to collect for SpecialEffect's Game for Helen project at Oxford United Football Ground. The eleven volunteers; Ed Dorling, Stephanie Chapman, Giles Stevens, Carl Enright, Andrew Cobb, Keith Streeter, Kirsty Cooke, Jennifer Hunt, John Burton, Nick Streeter and Sally Donegan collected before the Oxford United match against Torquay United. Between them they raised a staggering total of £552.34!!! The SpecialEffect team would like to thank all the Oxford United fans who generously gave to SpecialEffect, and the total amount raised just shows that a bit of loose change can go a very long way!
Our volunteers win national award!
19 February 2009
The SpecialEffect Games Roadshow project for young people with disabilities in Oxfordshire (initially funded by Fox FM and the V Charity) has won the Best IT Volunteering Project (Innovation category) at the National IT Volunteering Awards and a £500 prize! This is a huge boost to such a small charity as we seek to achieve our long-term dream of every disabled child in the world (you can't fault our ambition eh!) being able to play a computer game. Big congratulations to Mark Allen, our nominated volunteer, and all the team!
The roadshows are back!
21 January 2009
The SpecialEffect Roadshows were such a great success in 2008 that they are back with a brand new collection of games! Last years' Roadshows were extremely beneficial to SpecialEffect in helping us assess which games worked with which access methods so that we can develop a range that works for different abilities and ages. We have been researching different up-to-date games for our systems and are very excited to have a brand new selection to try out at our Roadshows this year.
Our first Roadshow this year is for KEEN Oxford on Monday 26th January, followed by a few dates for Oxford and Abingdon PHAB clubs. We are very grateful for the help we have had so far from these two amazing clubs/organisations.
Please contact Sally at sallyspecialeffect@googlemail.com if you would like to be a much appreciated volunteer at our Roadshows.
Shown below is a picture of games being played at one of last years' roadshows.
Five Star raise a wedge for SpecialEffect
05 January 2009
Mick Donegan, SpecialEffect Director, picked up a cheque for £7,000 this week that was raised by the fantastic support of Five Star Events. Mick was presented with the cheque by Grand National and Gold Cup winning jockey Mick Fitzgerald, and Barry Yates from Five Star Events. We'd would like to thank all those involved with Five Star for their support, particularly Barry and fellow committee members Richard Pineo and Tony Buck.
Charity band night success
05 December 2008
The Charlbury Charity Band Night in aid of SpecialEffect went down as a great success thanks to everyone who turned up to enjoy the music. The three bands that played - Billypure, Bangalore Torpedoes and Easy Tiger - all put on brilliant sets and got everyone up and dancing, so our huge thanks to them for making the night such a success. We would also like to thank all the guys who made the event happen from the venue to the beer! To name a few Simon Bennett, Ian Cox, Andy Pickard, Robert Bartlett and The Rose & Crown in Charlbury. We are very grateful for all the money raised.
We're a community award winner
10 November 2008
SpecialEffect's computer games project (A Game For Helen) has been awarded a national Talk Talk Innovation in the Community Award. SpecialEffect was chosen from over 2000 entrants and received £2,000 at a ceremony conducted at the House of Lords. Pictured below are David Pagliari (Marketing and Strategy Director, TalkTalk), Nick Streeter (SpecialEffect Event Fundraiser), Barry Yates (SpecialEffect Vice President) and Lord St John of Bletso from Citizens Online.
Wine tasting a roaring success
21 October 2008
Over a thousand pounds was raised at the SpecialEffect and ROSY Wine Night held on the 10th of October at the Bell in Charlbury, Oxfordshire. Over 50 guests enjoyed the fine wines supplied by www.talkingwines.co.uk, and the canapes donated by the Bell. The auction was conducted in fine style by Bell owner Fergus McVey, who is pictured below auctioning one of the lots.
Our thanks go to all those attended, the staff at the Bell and Simon from Talkingwines.
Run like the wind
10 October 2008
SpecialEffect's Nick Streeter took part in the Great North Run to support SpecialEffect and the Matt Hampson Trust. In the process he raised over a thousand pounds, and completed the course in a time of 2 hours 49 minutes! For those who know Nick, this is an outstanding achievement. He is pictured below after crossing the finishing line.
SpecialEffect has places in the 2009 British 10k event taking place on the 12th of July. If you would be interested in being part of the SpecialEffect Running team please contact SpecialEffect Events Coordinator Sally Donegan via sallyspecialeffect@googlemail.com.
Tiger Trail Bike Ride
26 August 2008
Wendy Dignum and Nick Rush from Ipswich are doing something extra special to raise money for the Matt Hampson StarGaze appeal. It's a bike ride from Ipswich to Leicester Tigers on January 20th, which will be exactly one year since SpecialEffect was launched.
Wendy and Nick, who work for Suffolk Police, are looking for people to join them on the bike ride that has been generously supported and sponsored by Macmillan & Wright with a donation of £5,000. You can join Wendy on the bike ride by contacting her on 07938 423032.
SpecialEffect Director Mick Donegan said " We really can't thank Wendy, Nick and MacMillan & Wright enough for all they are doing to support our work"
Nick, Chris Wright from Macmillan & Wright, and Wendy are pictured here outside the North East Safer Neighbourhood Team office in Ipswich.
SpecialEffect's radio activity
25 August 2008
New SpecialEffect Vice President and Kerrang! Radio Presenter Luke Wilkins is kindly collecting pictures and signatures of famous bands who visit the station and other celebs that he meets! Luke will ask bands to sign a SpecialEffect T-shirt and a Matt Hampson rugby ball that will be auctioned in 2009. Massive thanks to Luke, who is pictured here with fellow presenter and Big Brother winner Kate Lawler.
Luke said "I'm delighted to support such a fantastic cause as SpecialEffect and look forward to helping the charity to help others"
Three Peaks Challenge
12 August 2008
On the 23rd and 24th of August Specialeffect's first ever challenge participants Ross Laman and Danny Cuttell are taking part in the Event Aid Three Peaks challenge. Ross and Danny will be attempting to climb the three highest peaks in the UK: Ben Nevis (1344m), Scafell Pike (978m) and Snowdon (1085m)...... in 24 hours (and that's including travelling between the peaks)! They'll be trekking 25 miles up and down 9,000m of mountains. We've just had this fantastic email from Ross and Danny who have already raised over £300 at http://www.justgiving.com/rossdanny3peaks
Game for a laugh
31 July 2008
After reading about SpecialEffect's fundraising efforts for A Game For Helen, West Oxfordshire comedy promoter Andi Currie generously offered to give the profits from August's Lil Fat comedy club evening in Witney, Oxfordshire.
Appearing on the bill were professional comedians Pat Gallagher, Gary Leonardi and Nick Page, and the evening was compered by Tommy Greeves
Keep on running
25 July 2008
Congratulations to Ed Dorling from Witney (pictured below) who is SpecialEffect's first ever runner. He completed the British 10K in 49 minutes, 29 seconds on July the 5th.
Ed is also taking part in the Great North Run for SpecialEffect and
hopes to raise £500 for our work. Thanks Ed!
Rugby cycle event raises funds for charity
18 July 2008
On 13 June an intrepid group of 16 cyclists powered their way from Worcester Warriors Rugby Club to Leicester Tigers Rugby Club to raise money for Dan James, seriously disabled in a collapsed scrum, together with Matt Hampson who suffered the same fate in an England under 21 training session, and our own charity SpecialEffect.
Pictured below is Martin Corry, the captain of Leicester Tigers RFC, and Tigers Director Lord Digby Jones.
At the end of the day Martin Corry, Lord Digby Jones and fellow Tigers Director Peter Wheeler jointly hosted a dinner to mark the end of the events. The day had started with a Business Breakfast at Worcester Warriors Sixways Stadium when the Event Patron, Lord Digby Jones, Minister of State for Trade & Investment, chaired a Business Breakfast together with local MP Peter Luff.
The dinner, held in the European Suite at Tigers, in the presence of The Right Worshipful the Lord Mayor of Leicester, Councillor Manjula Sood, was chaired by Lord Digby Jones who took questions from the guests and an extremely successful auction reflected the generosity of the guests and sponsors. In the region of £50,000 was raised by the ride, the evening dinner at the Tigers ground in Leicester and the breakfast at Worcester Warriors.
Cameron signs for SpecialEffect
14 July 2008
After meeting SpecialEffect patron Matt Hampson at our Oxfordshire launch, David Cameron was happy to sign a ball that will be auctioned off to raise funds for the Matt Hampson Trust and SpecialEffect.
SpecialEffect on FaceBook
11 July 2008
Join our FaceBook group to see more photos and videos from our events and work!
SpecialEffect at Cornbury
08 July 2008
SpecialEffect volunteers joined the likes of Paul Simon, Crowded House and KT Tunstall at this weekend's Cornbury Festival to raise funds and awareness for our work with a silent auction. Thanks to trustees Caroline and Simon, Simon's son Charlie (pictured below with Mick Donegan), and volunteers Pam, Lucy, Justin, Bill, Sally, Nic, Harriet, Alison, and Mick for all their efforts. Over a thousand pounds was raised from the auction of items including a day with Olympic Horse Rider Mary King, a holiday in France and signed sporting memorabilia. Many thanks to all the people who visited our stand and to Hugh Phillimore the organiser and promoter of the Cornbury Festival.
SpecialEffect launches in Oxfordshire
21 June 2008
SpecialEffect celebrated its Oxfordshire launch at Eynsham Hall on the evening of June 20th. We're particularly grateful to David Cameron for attending and giving the charity his support.
Speaking after the event, Mick Donegan said, "We would like to thank everyone who came to the SpecialEffect Oxfordshire launch last Friday and making it such a successful evening. Thank you, in particular, to young Helen Oakley for coming along and helping us to launch the Helen and Douglas House Games Suite appeal, "A Game for Helen". As we said during the evening, we really hadn't expected so many people to be able to make it, particularly on a busy Friday evening, and we were absolutely delighted that so many could attend, some arriving at the last minute from a very long way indeed. The prize-winner came running through the door, hot-foot from San Diego!"
You can view photos of the Oxfordshire Launch
A Game for Helen: Download the project summary
16 June 2008
You can now download the A Game For Helen project summary as a pdf from the Game for Helen page
Photos from the Stargaze launch
12 May 2008
You can now look at Photos from the Stargaze launch at Leicester Tigers RFC in May 2008.
