Gem's Little Gems Aspergillosis Appeal

Its A Knockout Appeal 2011

2011-06-09T08:07:00.000-07:00

2011-02-24T12:58:00.000-08:00

Hi followers,
Sorry i've not posted for a while but i have been in and out of hospital for a while and it's hard to find the time when it feels like i'm constantly at the hospital. I just want to let you know that whilst i've been under the weather the fundraising has been continuing with a ladies night last october and a valentines event in february. Many thanks to the gems team who helped with all this both rasing nearly 1000 pounds.

On saturday 26th feb we are having an irish night including a ceili with the Leeds Comhaltas Irish dancers, raffle, auction and disco for £5 a ticket at The Leeds Irish Centre. Tickets are still available, it is set to be a fantastic night with lot's of prople confirmed to attend our first event in Leeds and not organised by the initial Gem's team. Many thanks have to be made to Caroline Caulfield for her tremendous effort in organising the event and to The Moane Brothers for their donation of brilliant auction prizes.

In total so far we have given over £7000 to the fungal research trust with hopefully alot more to come. In recognition of my breast cancer diagnosis we wanted to give to a cancer charity. We decided to give £1000 in Jan 2011 to the Candlelighters Childrens Cancer Charity in Leeds for the Leeds brain tumour lab researching childrens brain tumours because this research we felt like aspergillus is under funded from charitable donations.

Many thanks to you all that support gem's little gems
Gemma

Gem's Little Gems Teddy Bear's Picnic in Aid of Fungal Research Trust

2010-08-23T01:10:00.001-07:00

Gem's Little Gems Charity Dinner in Aid of Fungal Research Trust

2010-08-23T01:09:00.000-07:00

Teddy Bear Garden Party

2010-08-16T15:03:00.000-07:00

Another £700 yesterday!!! Well done everyone. Kids had a lovely time......and so did the adults. Thanks to everyone for their support and kindness especially Lindsay and Paul for the use of their beautiful garden. Gems little Gems did it again!

If anyone would like tickets for our Gala Dinner on the 11th Sep at Leigh Sports Village just let us know by the end of the week.

Love to you all, Lynne x

2010-08-09T05:44:00.000-07:00

The fun day was a huge success. Everybody had a great time and so far we have raised nearly 5000 pounds for the fungal research trust which is truly amazing and so important in helping support the work they do. We are hoping to present the cheque to a member of the trust at the first Gem's Little Gems charity dinner on September 11th.
I would like to thank personally and on behalf of the Gem's Litttle Gems committe members all those who helped, donated, attended, had their head shaved and got battered, bruised and very wet in the "It's a knock out" tournament. We could not have been so successful without you.
Congratulations also to the winning team for 2010. Gem's Little Sis's team (my sister; of whom I am very proud of) won the tournment and had a victorious celebration when they received their trophy and champagne (well sparkling wine actually). They celebrated in a style similar to that of winning the FA cup.
The ethos of Gem's Little Gems from the beginning has been to have a good time (as that is what the committe members are best at) and raise money along the way. We were very successful on both counts.
Thank you,
Gem

Gemma’s story

2010-07-26T07:58:00.000-07:00

Gem's little Gems is a newly formed small charity. The charity was developed by a group of Gemma Mullowney's friends who wanted to share her story and help others who may be in similar circumstances.

Gemma is a 31 year old children's nurse. Gemma's nursing career has been dedicated to her working with children and teenagers with cancer and she is currently a research nurse in this area particuarly involved in brain tumour and leukaemia research.

In 2006 Gemma became unwell with a swollen eye, severe headache and neck pain and then critically ill with meningitis. Following a full day in surgery, Gemma needed to have part of her forehead and eyesocket removed due to the infection. The results came back unexpectedly to show the infection was aspergillus. Initially Gemma was treated with anti-fungals and was well enough to have reconstructive surgery a year later prior to her wedding in August 2008. reconstruction was particularly important for Gemma as like any other young bride, she wanted to look her best for her wedding day.

Unfortunately the aspergillus returned at the end of 2009 in a different part of her skull requiring further surgery during which the reconstruction work was removed along with more infected bone. Gemma was then started on different anti-fungal drugs to treat the aspergillus but with this came side effects that meant, very importantly for Gemma she wasn't allowed to try for the baby she had always wanted.

In February 2010 just as Gemma was about to return to work she was told the devastating news she had breast cancer. Since then she has had surgery and is currently undergoing chemotherapy making the anti-fungal treatment more complicated.

Gem's Little Gems would really like to support Gemma in raising money for research into aspergillus, helping to save lives and improve treatments in the future.

'It's a Knockout' Fundraising Event for the Fungal Research Trust

2010-07-26T07:56:00.000-07:00