We - Gerry Tucker and Svetlana Komissarova - are celebrating our wedding by inviting you to donate money to:

Women’s Aid, a UK charity working nationwide to prevent and mitigate domestic violence against women and children - see www.womensaid.org.uk, or

“Grant Life” Foundation, a Russian charity providing extensive support to children with leukemia and their families - see www.podari-zhizn.ru   

We’ll match your donation 100% - to a total of GB£ 10,000 - shared equally between the charities (*):

*   in thanks for our daughters Melanie and Katya respectively, of whom we are proud beyond measure

*   in thanks to Bishop Peter Price and Rev Peter Kerton-Johnson for consenting to our wedding in St Mary’s Church, Somerset, England

*   in support of any reader who wishes to help - particularly Engineers and allied professionals:  we have been reminded that domestic violence is no respecter of demographics or profession

*   UK taxpayers may leverage up their donation 28% by filling out the GiftAid declaration

Women’s Aid helps some 250,000 at-risk UK women and children nationwide with a 24-hour Helpline, webpage, referral and education programmes, etc:

*   in the UK, 1 in 4 women will experience domestic violence during her lifetime, such an incident is reported to the Police every minute, and 2 women a week die as a result of domestic violence

*   Women’s Aid’s entire budget comes to GB£ 4,110 / day (ie GB£ 172 / hour), and you may donate directly to them here  

Grant Life is one of Russia’s more transparent and accountable charities, has been commended in the Daily Telegraph, and provides extensive help to children with leukemia and their families:

*   5,000 Russian children a year are diagnosed with leukemia; less than 60% survive versus over 80% in say the UK; treatment costs US$ 11,000 - 100,000 per child versus US$ 3,000 provided by the State;  Russia has no bone marrow donor register, and such transplants are not available

*   Grant Life’s blood donor recruitment and patient / family counselling programmes, and the microbiology lab, combined cost US$ 2,303 or GB£ 1,514 / week (ie US$ 329 or GB£ 216 / day)

*   you may donate here and state in the Comment box that you wish your money to go to Grant Life by (*) adjustment of our matching donation, OR, donate directly via its (Russian language) website or by US$ telegraphic transfer to:

Bank:  Sberbank (Operations Department) Moscow                                SWIFT Code: SABRRUMM 011                                                            Account No: 40703840300020105994                                               Beneficiary:  “Grant Life” Foundation                                                      Notation / Comment:  “Charitable Foundation for Children with Blood Cancers and Other Diseases (For Matching by Gerry and Svetlana)”

However big or small your donation - and you can be recorded as "Anonymous" if you wish - together we have just made our World a little bit better.

Thank You - Gerry Tucker                         Spasibo - Svetlana Komissarova