Spreading A Little Joy & Making A Real Difference

Family Business United would not be here if it were not for families in business and family is at the core of each and every family business too. Family is extremely important to us and we are always on hand to help our members wherever we can.

Recently, we were approached by Carey from FBU member Bagnalls who are nationwide painting specialists based in Yorkshire. Carey’s niece, Florence, who is three years old, was born with a number of birth defects, collectively known as VACTERL Association. Seven areas of the body can be affected with mild, moderate or severe afflictions. Flo has 5 of the 7 defects including dysplastic kidneys that have resulted in end stage renal failure.

She currently has life saving Haemodialysis 3 times a week at the Leeds General Infirmary (“LGI”) and Peritoneal Dialysis 3 times a week at home, she is currently the only child in Yorkshire receiving both forms of treatment and Carey wanted to do something to support the hospital, the wonderful carers that help Florence during each and every visit, and her sister-in-law too.

There are 13 specialist centres in the UK treating approximately 800 children with renal replacement therapy or haemodialysis and a further 100 children receiving Peritoneal Dialysis at home. For some children this treatment is given until such time as a transplant can be given, this may be weeks, months or years of travelling to and from hospital for up to 4 hours of therapy. Sadly, for some children a transplant will never be a viable option and renal replacement therapy will be required for the duration of their lives.

We wanted to help and each year in the run up to Christmas we do a number of things for charities, in support of the homeless nationally, and locally want to make a difference too. In the case of Yorkshire this year, we are going to support Carey and her endeavours for the Leeds General Infirmary Renal Unit.

When we spoke to the hospital it is clear that the hospital treatments can last many hours at a time and they are also short of blood pressure machines and resources to help make the time pass during the treatments.

One simple thing that could make a world of a difference is the creation of a DVD / Game library to enable children like Florence to watch movies or play games whilst being treated. DVD’s and games are often stored on bookshelves for years and we all have them and in many cases are unlikely to watch / play them again so we are hoping that the family business community will get behind our campaign and send their unwanted DVD’s / Games to us to collate into a library to donate to the Dialysis unit at Leeds General Infirmary in the run up to Christmas.

As Paul Andrews, Founder of Family Business United adds, “We are looking for child friendly DVD’s / Games from the past four or five years that are in a good condition and that can be supplied in their case. We are really hoping to create a wonderful collection of films / games to make a real difference to the lives of the children having to undergo such difficult periods of treatment and to spread a little love as part of the campaign too.”

If you have any DVD’s / games that you are happy to forward to us, please send them to Family Business United, The Cliftons, 49 Pendenza, Cobham, Surrey KT11 3BY and we will do the rest. Every DVD submitted will make a real difference too.

Furthermore, blood pressure machines are around £300 each so if you would like to make a donation, however small, to our campaign, you can do so here. We are hoping to raise £1,000 to enable us to provide the Renal Unit with three new machines.

As Paul concludes, “We are delighted to be able to promote the campaign and to help Carey in her mission to raise awareness of the disease and to make a difference to the lives of all those affected with the treatments at the Leeds General Infirmary.”

If you want to find out more or to get more involved, then please do not hesitate to get in touch.