Simon Jukes is fundraising for SOS Children's Villages UK

Fund raising in memory of Debbie Jukes

Athens Marathon

on 08/11/2009

Photos (9)

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Team members:

Simon Jukes

Raising money for

SOS Children's Villages UK

Charity Registration No. 1069204

For nearly 60 years, SOS Children has built communities around the world for children who have no one to turn to. By providing a home and a new mother in a purpose-built local Village, thousands of orphaned and abandoned children have been given a loving and secure family for life.

SOS Children also plays an important role in supporting the development of local communities by building and running nursery, primary and secondary schools; vocational training centres and medical centres, all of which are open to the children in our care and to those from the wider community. Where possible, we want to prevent child abandonment, so we offer skills, training, education, counselling and micro-loans to vulnerable families so can they can provide for their children in the long-term. SOS Children also provides emergency relief in situations of crisis and disaster.

Today, we care for more than 78,000 children in 490 unique SOS Children's Villages in 124 countries worldwide, and also support a further one million children and families in local communities.

Charity Registration No 1069204

Page owner

Simon Jukes

RSS

Raised so far: £42,493.00

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My story

Many thanks for taking the time to visit this JustGiving page.

Many of you already know the story of the tragic death of my wife Debbie earlier this year, at 37 years old. For those who don't she was taken by a pneumonia infection that caused a heart attack. At the time the doctor said 'no one dies of pneumonia these days' not a helpful comment but one that lead me to a little research.

I soon discovered it is a major cause of death in children (approx 2 million a year). It is the largest killer of children under 5 years old. This is mainly in the poorer nations of Africa and Asia. Further work showed that this is quite a straight forward thing to prevent. So with the help of some great friends I am setting about doing something.

We plan to raise £100,000 for SOS Childrens Villages who are looking for those funds to run a mobile medical effort in Zambia. I have chosen this effort as HSBC already has strong involvement with the organisation and having met their team it is clear that this is an opportunity to achieve a very tangible and highly deliverable memorial to Debbie. We would plan on dedicating the unit to Debbie in Zambia in July of next year.

To get the project going I have signed up for the Athens Marathon (my first and where the whole marathon "thing" started!); I ask you all to be as generous as you can and support me in this endeavour and to inform as many others as possible. [UPDATE: I completed in a time of 4h06m15s - not too shabby - now onto the next fund raiser, though finishing this first shouldn't stop you from donating]

I have pasted some further details below should you like to know a little more about the whole effort and will provide project updates in future.

Details of Chipata Project.

The construction of a fourth SOS Children's Village will begin in January 2010. The site is in Chipata, the Eastern Province of Zambia (near the Malawian and Mozambican borders) where 3 in 4 people live on less than a dollar a day, life expectancy is 38, HIV prevalence rate is 16% and 1 in 10 all children have lost both parents. The new children's village will have 12 family houses - each providing a mother and home for 10 orphaned children, ensuring a family for life for generations of children.

The new village will also have a nursery school (plus access to a local primary school, part-funded by SOS) and coordinate an outreach programme to support vulnerable families (mainly child-headed households) in the wider community of Chipata. The outreach programme will work in conjunction with a new medical centre which will also be built on the site of the village. This will provide a comprehensive programme to meet the needs of the most deprived families in Chipata, through educational, income generating, nutritional and medical support to enable family members to improve their health and in time, become self-sufficient.

For those vulnerable families in rural areas who cannot access the medical centre, a mobile unit is urgently needed for home visits. It is hoped that this unit will be able to help over 8,000 people a year. The unit will be staffed with a clinical officer, nurse and driver and provide:

anti-malarial treatments

painkillers

antibiotics, cough medicines and other treatments to mitigate and prevent opportunistic diseases

antiretrovirol drugs (ARVs) and counselling

basic nutritional packs: multivitamins etc

transport for patients who require hospital care

health & hygiene education - prevention better than treatment

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity. (For Greek taxpayers, please contact me as we have an account that can be used to get the local tax benefit).

So please dig deep and donate now, so we can help ensure that many less "die from pneumonia these days", or from other opportunistic ailments, and especially children.

	Donation by Rasih Ozturkmen 24/11/09	£50.00
	Simon, I hope you will reach your goal soon. Keep us updated if you can. Adrienne Donation by Adrienne Brennan 24/11/09	£75.00
	Well done on the marathon. Joining you on a very worthy cause, also in memory of my son Shanat. Donation by Sarajit Mitra 24/11/09	£150.00 + £42.31 Gift Aid
	Congrats on the run and this great effort to support SOS Children's Villages. Donation by Scott & Lucy 24/11/09
	Hope the run went well. It is a lovely way to honour Debbie's memory. Donation by Lucy Havard-Williams 24/11/09	£100.00 + £28.21 Gift Aid
	I wish you best of luck Simon. I am at your disposal if I may be of any fuirther assistance. Donation by Polychronis Griveas 23/11/09	£50.00
	Simon, well done on the marathon - a very impressive result! Donation by DP 23/11/09	£300.00 + £84.62 Gift Aid
	From the Risk Management Team. Very moving. Very special. Donation by Greece 23/11/09	£400.00
	With our best wishes Donation by Staff at the Kellogg-HKUST EMBA office 23/11/09	£100.00
	Donation by Charlotte Stone 22/11/09	£100.00 + £28.21 Gift Aid
	Simon, bravo for finishing the marathon! Want to try another one in a historical setting - the Great Wall Marathon? Donation by Thomas Liu 22/11/09	£200.00
	All the best Simon. Rob and Eliz Donation by Rob Ito 20/11/09	£50.00
	Sorry for the delay in making the donation - a very worthy cause and great tribute to Debbie Donation by David Stephens 20/11/09	£100.00 + £28.21 Gift Aid
	Sorry not to have done this earlier....hope the run went well! Donation by Andrew Bell 20/11/09	£300.00 + £84.62 Gift Aid
	What a very special thing you are doing. Well done and good luck. Donation by Jonathan and Clare Speight 19/11/09	£100.00
	Donation by SABRI CHALLAH 18/11/09	£50.00 + £14.10 Gift Aid
	Very sorry for your loss, and wish you the very best for this initiative Donation by Misha Gupta 17/11/09	£100.00
	Donation by Tim Flear 16/11/09
	All the best simon, hopefully see you soon. Donation by Rachael Bickerstaffe 16/11/09	£10.00 + £2.82 Gift Aid
	Your initiative in the wake of such sadness is inspirational. We wish you all the best! Donation by Martin and Barb Spurling 16/11/09	£100.00
	This is a fabulous way to achieve something great from something so very sad. Best of luck. Donation by Amanda Murphy 16/11/09	£200.00 + £56.41 Gift Aid
	Hope to see you in March Simon and reconnect. Donation by Edward Wootten 13/11/09	£25.00
	Terrible news and a great way to honour her memory. Good luck in reaching your funding target. Donation by Steven Eggelhoefer 12/11/09	£100.00
	Donation by Rob Drewienkiewicz 12/11/09	£50.00 + £14.10 Gift Aid
	Donation by Andrew Pearce 12/11/09	£50.00
	Well done Simon Donation by Sheila Chesters 10/11/09	£25.00
	Hope all went well on the day! A very worthy cause. Donation by Alison Conroy 10/11/09	£10.00 + £2.82 Gift Aid
	Fantastic idea Simon, all the very best in reaching your target. Donation by John and Sue Medhurst 10/11/09	£100.00 + £28.21 Gift Aid
	Simon, all the best for the run! Donation by Gul Khan 10/11/09	£50.00 + £14.10 Gift Aid
	Simon - hopefully you've completed the marathon by now. All the best with the project in Debbie's memory. Donation by Derek Lunt 10/11/09	£100.00 + £28.21 Gift Aid

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* Total raised online:	£33,403.00
Offline donations:	£9,090.00
Gift Aid plus supplement:	£4,687.97

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