KAH.org.uk

She's only gone and run it!
A huge round of applause is needed for volunteer health pro Cathy Field, who completed this year's Flora London Marathon in a time of 5 hours 12 minutes and 46 seconds. To make matters worse, she's already entered the ballot for a place in the 2010 event!

Cathy was, of course, raising money for Asthma UK, and at the time of writing has already raised over £2,500. If you haven't yet sponsored her, and would like to, visit her JustGiving page at www.justgiving.com/dr-caths-marathon-wheeze.

Whilst Cathy was running the marathon, eight interpid Kick Asthma Holidays volunteers, Cathy's parents, and three other Asthma UK-related friends were cheering her on from the AUK supporters' point at the Isle of Dogs. Click on the photo below for my photo gallery from the marathon weekend (once the gallery opens, click each photo to move on to the next one, or move the mouse to the top of the screen for a thumbnail filmstrip).

This year, it was wetter in the lake than out of it
After the spectacular weather conditions that Dorney Lake was subjected to last year, an overcast day with a slight smattering of drizzle just before the start seemed like heaven for this year's Asthma UK 10k team!

Top row first, and from left to right, we have Niknik, Lou, Dave, Sarah, Steve, Cathy and Sarah; Alan, Cathy, Kimi and Abi - seven supporters and five runners. Look closely and you'll spot the running numbers on the five who did the deed.

Special thanks must go to Dave Hayward, who managed to raise £500 by agreeing to do the run dressed as Popeye! He also created the rather spiffing T-shirts, which had a superbly apt design:

Dr Cath's running the London Marathon
It's that time of year again - but this year, my sights are set considerably higher.

In a moment of complete insanity, back in the later months of last year, I accepted a Golden Bond place with Asthma UK - to run the London Marathon 2009, on the 26th April. Without any further commentary on my continued sanity or otherwise (!!), I need your help to raise as much money as possible for AUK.

Kick Asthma jobs at Asthma UK
Please find below some information on two Kick Asthma posts currently being advertised.

Kick Asthma Assistant Managers
Asthma UK is now recruiting for the position of Assistant Manager for the 2009 Kick Asthma holidays. The position involves managing one or two of the holidays during the summer with support from Jenny Parry, Children and Young People's Development Manager. If you would like further details and an application form for the position or would like to know more then please contact Jenny at jparry@asthma.org.uk or on 020 7786 4924. The closing date for applications is Wednesday 11 March at 5pm.

Kick Asthma Nurse Advisor
Asthma UK is now recruiting for a Kick Asthma Nurse Advisor for 1 day a week, on a fixed term basis for 6 months, to help implement the highest clinical safety and quality standards on the Kick Asthma holidays. A Registered General Nurse qualification is essential for this role as well as experience of the management and care of people with asthma and sound clinical knowledge of the management of childhood asthma. If you would like further details please visit the Asthma UK website. The closing date for applications is Wednesday 11 March at 5pm and interviews will be held on Monday 23 March.

Kevin Elgie: Some Sad News
Regular message board readers will be aware of the sad news that much-loved PEAK volunteer Kevin Elgie passed away in August 2008; news of this only reached us a short while ago.

Kevin will be remembered for the masses of equipment, prizes, toys and Diprobase he brought to the holidays (sometimes going as far as to travel the length of the country on a train with six black plastic sacks of equipment as well as his luggage and a two-person dragon costume)! He was also much-loved by the children on the holidays, and a fantastic role model particularly for those suffering from eczema - it was no surprise that he was the first recipient of the Sarah Leonard award.

Kevin was found by his housemate and landlady in bed as if asleep - at first they assumed it may have been asthma, but a post-mortem refuted this and they were doing further tests on his heart. It doesn't seem as if there has been any reason found as to why Kevin died - which possibly makes it harder to come to terms with.

At the moment, Kimi is compiling an Asthma UK memories book that will ultimately be presented to Kevin's family as a record of his fantastic work on the holidays. If you have any photographs, stories or such that you would like to contribute, there is a thread on the message board.

2009 holiday dates and 2008 volunteer day feedback
The dates for the holidays and training weekend in 2009 have been announced, and we have three new venues too. The holiday dates are here, and details of the training weekend are on the message board here.

Jenny is currently planning the "taster days" that were discussed on the volunteer day, so keep checking the board and I'll post full details as soon as they are available.

Meanwhile, the feedback that we gave Jenny at the volunteer day last month is now avaialble on the message board here for those of you that either haven't received a copy by e-mail, or who would like an on-line copy they can access anywhere.

Sarah Leonard Award 2008
The Sarah Leonard Award was set up by the parents of Sarah Leonard in order to honour outstanding volunteers. Sarah was a PEAK (the old name for Kick Asthma) volunteer who died in 2002 from an asthma attack. All children on the holidays vote for their favourite volunteer. This year's nominees were:

Together with their family, Mike and Rose Leonard chose Kimi Tayler as this year's winner. Kimi has volunteered on the Kick Asthma holidays since 2004, having previously been a participant. Kimi has severe asthma and is a great role model for the children, demonstrating what you can achieve when your asthma is under control. She will be meeting with Sarah Leonard's family in the new year to receive her award.

Volunteers' Day, October 4th 2008
As in previous years, Asthma UK are holding a feedback day for all KAH volunteers to discuss the 2008 holidays. Your input as to how the holidays could be improved, share your ideas and discuss what worked would be appreciated.

Volunteer day will start at 12pm and finish at 4pm, and take place at Asthma UK's Head Office, Summit House, 70 Wilson Street, London EC2A 2DB. An interactive map (which also shows Tube stations) can be found here; the red flag represents Asthma UK - zoom out or scroll around as required!

Refreshments and lunch will be provided and your travel expenses will be reimbursed - please help us by keeping them to a minimum.

As well as discussing the holidays, it will be a great chance to catch up with your colleagues from the 2008 Kick Asthma Holiday season!

If you would like to attend, then either leave a message on the message board thread; or e-mail Jean or Jenny; or call Jean on 020 7786 4925 or Jenny on 020 7786 4924.

If there are any topics you'd like to discuss, please notify us in advance and we will be happy to include them on the agenda.

Kick Asthma Assistant Managers
Asthma UK are now recruiting for the position of Assistant Manager for the 2008 Kick Asthma holidays. The position involves managing one or two of the holidays during the summer with support from Jenny Parry, Children and Young People's Development Manager. If you would like further details and an application form for the position or would like to know more then please contact me on 020 7786 4924. The closing date for applications is Tuesday 15 April at 5pm.

They ran, and they ran...
...and they got very, very wet and very, very cold!

A huge "well done" to all of the Kick-A Team who ran at the Asthma UK 10k on Saturday. The race started out dry but very cold and windy - and then got worse. Rain, hail, sleet and snow all fell in a one-hour period to make the run a horrible experience for all concerned, and so the fantastic times posted by Kev, Nic and Helen (who all finished in under an hour) were fantastic. Cathy ran the circuit only 1½ minutes slower than last year, so without the weather she too would have been well on-course for a sub-1 hour time.

All our runners finished, so a big round of applause for the others: Dave, Abi & Ross, Di, Alan, Niknik, Lou and Sarah. Have a heart; if you also appreciate what our intrepid team went through, dig deep and sponsor them via the widget below the previous news item. They're currently on target to beat last year's £2,500!

Kick Asthma volunteers are running again!
Last year the Kick Asthma Team ran (or thereabouts!) the Asthma UK 10k at Dorney Lake, Windsor, and raised an amazing £2,500 for Asthma UK.

This year, they're at it again! Returning from last year are Cathy Field, Sarah Isted, Nicky Reynolds, Louise Darby and Ross Weake, and joining them are Abi Weake, Helen Owen, Alan Darby, Kevin Pearce, Dave Hayward, Di Godin and Nicola Brown!

Message board now has added "swank"!
If you have a message board account, you may have noticed that your holiday status has been removed, ready to be updated to whichever holiday(s) you're doing this year. Also, I've added the crest or emblem of each venue to the holiday-specific message boards - swanky!

As soon as volunteer details are finalised, I'll update your accounts accordingly, including adding/removing leader, health pro and assistant manager statuses as required.

November 2007 Newsletter is now online!
You should have received a copy of the latest Kick Asthma volunteer newsletter with your information pack for the 2008 holidays. If you don't have one, or want to show prospective volunteers something to whet their appetite for volunteering, it is also available online by clicking here.

2008 Dates for holidays and training weekends
The dates and venues for the 2008 holidays and training weekends have been announced. Click here for more details of the holiday dates, and here for the training weekend dates.

Volunteers' Day, October 13th 2007
As in previous years, Asthma UK are holding a feedback day for all KAH volunteers to discuss the 2007 holidays. This is your chance to help improve the holidays; sharing ideas and discussing what worked and what didn't!

Volunteer day will start at 11am and finish at 4pm, and take place at Asthma UK's Head Office, Summit House, 70 Wilson Street, London EC2A 2DB. An interactive map (which also shows Tube stations) can be found here; the red flag represents Asthma UK - zoom out or scroll around as required!

Refreshments and lunch will be provided and your travel expenses will be reimbursed - please help us by keeping them to a minimum and using public transport.

As well as discussing the holidays, it will be a great chance to catch up with your colleagues from the 2007 Kick Asthma Holiday season!

If you would like to attend, then either leave a message on the message board thread; or e-mail Jean or Jenny; or call Jean on 020 7786 4925 or Jenny on 020 7786 4924.

If there are any topics you'd like to discuss, please notify us in advance and we will be happy to include them on the agenda.

Patrick's off!
The training weekend was Patrick's last official duty as Children and Young Persons Development Manager at Asthma UK, and Friday the 15th is his last day at AUK.

Therefore now seems an appropriate time to post the PDF copies of the farewell card that we created for him - see here!

Patrick's successor, Jenny, starts at AUK on the 2nd July. Hopefully I'll be able to persuade her to write a little something about herself for you all then!

KAH Education Pack
New volunteers received a shiny education pack at the health session at the training weekend. I've now posted a copy of this online for anyone who'd like it - it's a PDF file so it will work on any computer. Click here for more details.

Training weekend 2007
Details of the training weekend will be winging their way to you all next week, but if you'd like to see the training weekend timetable now, click here.

To help you plan your holiday, I've archived all of the timetables Patrick received for the 2006 holidays. Click here to see them, and you are of course welcome to print off any that may be of use to you.

As mentioned on the message boards there are some places available at Manchester YHA on Friday evening for those who want to travel up on the Friday. Contact Patrick if you're interested.

In the news
Sorry that this particular news item is a little late; ideally I should have posted it before the last one!

KAH volunteer Cathy Field was featured in the Dudley News as part of the build-up for last Saturday's AUK 10k at Windsor. As part of her fundraising drive, Cathy contacted the editor of the newspaper to see if they would run a story that might help raise the profile of the Kick Asthma holidays and raise some extra sponsorship. The newspaper's chief reporter contacted Cathy via e-mail and then telephone to sort out the story, and I took a couple of photos and e-mailed them in for the editor to choose from.

Local newspapers seem to be very accommodating to this kind of thing, so bear that it mind if you do any fundraising for charity.

AUK 10K, Dorney Lake
A huge "well done" to the 11-strong team of KAH volunteers (and coerced friends!) who ran/ambled their way twice round Dorney lake on Saturday 7th April. The total amount raised so far continues to rise (see the totaliser a little lower down the page for details), so if you feel like chipping in and haven't already you can follow the link from there.

Big thanks to Sarah for both participating in the run and for allowing 10 of us to sleep over in her flat on Friday and Saturday evening. Also, special thanks to Cathy's brother Richard (who finished first out of all the KAH team members) and his partner Emily who took part and helped raise money depite having no real links to AUK - other than us constantly pestering them, of course! And, as ever, a big round of applause to the other 8 team members - Daz, the two Cathys, Lyndsay, Kate, Lou, Niknik and Ross. Who in turn, I'm sure, would like to thank Abi and myself for looking after them on the day!

"Extreme" Asthma UK fundraising!
I have a brother, Dominic, who lives in Australia. He has decided to run the Marathon des Sables. It is a gruelling 5½ marathons in 6 days, based around the edge of the Western Sahara in Morocco near the town of Quazazate. And if that's not enough to make you think that he has finally lost his marbles, let me tell you that he has to carry your own supplies, food, sleeping bag, etc for the week, and water is rationed and given out at different check points thought the multi-stage event.

He has set up a Just Giving page if anyone is interested: www.JustGiving.com/dombarfield (Do Ignore his very stern photo!)

Assistant Manager Position
Kick Asthma holidays are now recruiting for the position of Assistant Manager for the holidays. The position involves managing one or two of the holidays during the summer with support from the children and young people's services manager. If you would like further details and an application form for the position or would like to know more then please contact Patrick on 0207 786 4924.

Raising money for Kick Asthma
A number of Kick Asthma volunteers currently have JustGiving websites set up in order to raise funds for Kick Asthma holidays.

Hannah Dearden and co are looking for sponsorship as they complete their lifeguarding course. You can sponsor them at www.justgiving.com/becomingbaywatch

Meanwhile, Cathy Field and chums (including KAH volunteers Daz Reeves, Sarah Isted, Nicky Reynolds, Louise Darby, Ross Weake, Kate Williams and Lyndsay Cuming - and Cathy's brother Richard and his girlfriend Emily!) are running in the Asthma UK 10k this April and have a fundraising target of £1,000. You can sponsor them at www.justgiving.com/kickasthma

- Steve, 12/2/07

Lifeguarding course available
Tired of having to wait for the lifeguard to arrive on a Kick Asthma holiday? Fed up that you can't use the school's swimming pool whenever you want during the holiday? Well, now there's an asnwer to those worries; train to be a lifeguard!

During the week commencing 21st May, Kick Asthma (well, actually Hannah Dearden) has arranged places on a lifeguarding course near Hitchin. The course runs for one week and costs £150 (although Kick Asthma is looking at paying these costs for volunteers).

If you are interested then e-mail Patrick.

- Patrick, 9/2/07

An artist in our ranks!
KAH volunteer (and former participant!) Kimi Tayler was one of the featured artists in Asthma UK's first art exhibition. Entitled Deep Inspiration, the exhibition ran from the 31st January to the 6th February at Jerwood Space in London. Other featured artists included Damien Hirst, Hannah Starkey and Tracy Emin.

(click for larger version)

Kimi's piece, which she kindly showed to us via the message board here some time ago, was one of just 37 chosen by the exhibition curators to feature on display. Cathy and I were only too happy to use this as an excuse for a trip to London, and were there on Saturday 3rd February - along with, seemingly, most of Kimi's family - to bask in her reflected glory!

If Kimi's piece looks impressive on the boards - and it does - then it looks even more so in real life. Photographs don't really do it justice; fantastic work, Kimi. Remember us when you're famous...!

- Steve, 5/2/07

And it's hello from me...
My sources tell me that volunteer allocations for the 2007 holidays are pretty much finalised, and in due course you'll all be receiving your welcome packs and notification of which holiday(s) you're doing. I'm once again leading the teenagers' holiday at Fareham, so if that's where you are I look forwards to meeting you at the training weekend.

A handy link, if ever I saw one. As soon as full details of the training weekend are published, I'll add them to the volunteers' information section. What I do know is that it takes place at Manchester YHA on the 2nd and 3rd of June.

I remember my first training weekend as if it were yesterday. It's very daunting walking in to find lots of returning volunteers all chatting away whilst you don't know them from Adam... a bit like your first day at school, really. That's where the message board comes in! For the first time, volunteers new and old can chat and get to know one another before the training weekend begins. So when you turn up in Manchester on June 2nd, you'll already have gotten to know some of the folks there and it won't feel anywhere near as scary!

- Steve, 1/2/07

Do you have any KAH volunteer news that you think should be on this page? Send it to news@kah.org.uk