Things are about to change...

Today RoseBuddies (that's us!) made a very important step. We are to become an Umbrella Group with the Samantha Dickson Brain Tumour Trust, the UK's largest brain tumour research charity.

What is an SDBTT umbrella group?

Regular fundraisers who are either raising money in memory of a loved one, or who are doing so for someone living with a brain tumour, can decide to become an SDBTT umbrella group. This allows the group to raise funds using the name of their loved one but under the 'umbrella' of the Charity. Once a significant sum has been raised we offer each group the opportunity to say how they would like this money spent, whether this be on a research project or in the area of patient support. Umbrella Groups can also use the Trust's registered Charity Number for fundraising purposes.

What does this mean for RoseBuddies?

The first thing it will mean is that we will be known as 'SDBTT RoseBuddies'. And the next big thing that will happen is our website will have a complete overhaul and our new logo will be unveiled!

In terms of fundraising, becoming an umbrella group will allow us the opportunity to decide exactly where the money we and our supporters raise will be spent. For example, we can decide whether we would like our funds to go towards research projects or patient support. As we are just in the process of changing to an umbrella group we are still discussing what we feel is most important to us but whatever we decide we will keep you all informed every step of the way!

RoseBuddies will also be able to use the SDBTT Registered Charity Number and we will be able to actively encourage people to fundraise on our behalf.

Another part of the change will be the launch of our information website, Brain Tumour (BT) Buddies, for high grade brain tumour patients, families and caregivers. This is something I have been working on for a few months now and we have high hopes that it will become an important resource for those dealing with this terrible disease.

I am sure there will be many other changes over the coming weeks and months which we will do our best to keep you up to date with.

It seems only right on such a big day for us that we remember the reason we began fundraising in the first place. Rose is never far from my thoughts and is a constant source of inspiration in all the work I do for both RoseBuddies and the information website.

Whilst I wish that circumstances were different and that we had never had a reason to start RoseBuddies, I am glad we did and very proud of all we have acheived in Rose's memory.

As many of you are aware I have not been in the best of health for sometime now and after leaving hospital in December 2006 I felt there was very little for me to keep fighting for. When Andrew suggested we take part in the BritBallRun in Rose's memory an important chapter in my life began.

Knowing that we could help to maybe make a difference to those travelling the brain tumour road is very important to me and I hope that we are able to keep RoseBuddies and Brain Tumour Buddies going for many years to come.

For Rose XxX

All the best,

Natalya
RoseBuddies
Email: fundraising@rosemcgill.co.uk
Website: www.rosemcgill.co.uk

The eve of the eve!

Just 48 hours to the start of our second BritBallRun!

It's all go in the Team Smarties 'camp'. We have all our costume items, the car is looking great and we are looking forward to getting to our B&B tomorrow and chilling out with the Killerviral boys!

This year we are hoping to be able to use the laptop in the car which would allow us to update you all with our progress throughout each day (when I'm not map reading!).

Just a quick 'plug', we are only £351.92 away from this years £10,000 and it would be really fantastic if we could reach our target over the next few days. So, if you get chance to pass a link to Rose's Tribute Fund around to your family and friends or if you have an idea for a fundraising event of your own with your help maybe we'll smash through the £10,000 this weekend!



For now it's back to packing, we'll wrote this years first diary entries tomorrow whilst chilling out and enjoying a pint!

All the best,

Natalya and Andrew
Team SMARTies
Email: fundraising@rosemcgill.co.uk
Website: www.rosemcgill.co.uk
Donate at www.justgiving.com/rosemcgill

5 Days to go!

Our auctions finally ended last night and we now know we have raised a FANTASTIC £1,338!!

We'd like to say a BIG thank you to all those who bought items from us this year and to all those who continue to support us.

A special thank you also goes to all those who joined in the Smartie fun at the TRn camping meet earlier this year and to all in the NU Common Stack for filling those Smartie tubes!

Rose's Tribute Fund now stands at £9648.08 or 97% of this years £10,000 target!

When we return from the BritBallRun we will be putting our first batch of RoseBuddies T-Shirts up for sale. The t-shirts will have our new logo on the front and our name and website address on the back. For those of you that haven't seen the new logo here it is...

And here's a photo of Andrew wearing the first RoseBuddies t-shirt, this should give you an idea of how the back will look...

As well as the t-shirts we will have a few items from our sponsors up for auction and the Christmas Cards will go on sale at the start of October! Busy, busy, busy!

BritBallRun news - We will be writing a diary again this year and hope to post a little update each day from the car...if we can get the laptop to work! We will also, hopefully, be able to post a few photos of the car and us in our outfits.

For now it's time for us to rest before the chaos begins!

All the best,

Natalya and Andrew
Team SMARTies / RoseBuddies
Email: fundraising@rosemcgill.co.uk
Website: www.rosemcgill.co.uk

Ending Soon!

Time seems to be just whizzing by at the moment. Our auctions are almost at an end and we can't wait to add the total to Rose's Tribute Fund! If you fancy a last minute bid you can visit OUR EBAY STORE where you'll find all of the items we have up for grabs! All auctions, except the Everton FC Pennant, will end tomorrow Sunday 17th August 2008 at 7pm! Happy bidding!

Now on to the really serious stuff...7 days from today we will set off for the start of our second BritBallRun. This year we are hoping to use what we learnt from last years event and we're looking forward to meeting up with a few 'old friends'! We had a last minute costume change last week so you'll all have to wait for the photos from our first day to find out just what we'll be dressed in!

We hope to be able to post updates throughout the weekend if we can work out how to keep the laptop powered up in the car but we'll definitely post something from our hotel each night so you know how we are getting on! There will be no facility to send us messages this year but anyone wishing to leave us a message of support can post a comment on the latest post in this section. They will be authorised as soon as we get internet access throughout the weekend!

We'd like to take this opportunity to thank Steve at RS Graphics for coming to our rescue and providing all the decals we need for the car this year, YOU'RE A STAR!

Thanks to Steve we know the car is going to look great again this year and that is, of course, also thanks to all those who donated items for our auctions! On our homepage is a list of logos and links of all our sponsors, if you get a spare moment our two please take a look around their websites!

The start of the BritBallRun will also see the unveiling of our new logo which was designed by our friend, Luana! Thanks 'Booboo', we know it's going to look fantastic!

Finally, all that's left for us to do is wish everyone taking part in this years BritBallRun the best of luck...now we're off to continue packing and ticking off items on our 'To Do' lists!

All the best,

Natalya and Andrew
Team SMARTies
Email: fundraising@rosemcgill.co.uk
Website: www.rosemcgill.co.uk

It's Auction Time!!

I can't believe it's that time of year again already! Tonight has seen the start of some of this years RoseBuddies Auctions!

As always 100% of all our charity auctions will go to Rose's Tribute Fund which is part of the Clatterbridge Cancer Research Trust. And, it gets better, Missionfish (the Ebay Charity arm) will match the donation AND until further notice a power company will also match the auction total.

That means (for example) if you win an auction with a bid of £34 a massive £102 will be given to Charity!

Most of this years items are related to the North West of England but there are also items that will appeal to people from all over including an official autographed Liverpool FC football!

CLICK HERE TO VIEW ALL OF OUR AUCTIONS

HAPPY BIDDING!!

All the best,

Natalya and Andrew
Team SMARTies
Email: fundraising@rosemcgill.co.uk
Website: www.rosemcgill.co.uk
Donate at www.justgiving.com/rosemcgill

May 2008 Update!

With the 'ticker' above showing exactly 3 months to the start of this years BritBallRun we thought it was about time we gave you all a bit of an update.

Firstly here are a few ways you can help us reach our £10,000 target...

• The Smarties fundraiser is currently in progress and we hope to have a few tubes of change to count very soon! For more details of how you can take part CLICK HERE
• If you, your company or organisation would like to sponsor a part of our car for the duration of this years BritBallRun all you need to do is visit our eBay Store and take a look at the various options :o)
• We are also still looking for items for this years auctions. The auctions will be held through July and early August via our eBay Store, if you are interested in donating an item please send us an email at fundraising@rosemcgill.co.uk detailing the item/items you would like to donate and we'll get back to you as soon as we can :o)

Other Team SMARTies news...

• We have begun to put together our costumes for this years event. We finally settled on SMART but slightly mad Scientists as our theme this year...which will be more comfortable for Natalya than last years ballgown!
• Although Christmas is over 6 months away we hope to order our Christmas cards in the next couple of months. Thanks to donations from members over at DPChallenge we'll have more unique designs available in our eBay store at the start of September.
• Thanks to a friend we are working on our own fundraising event with a Smart twist! Plans are only in the very early stages so we won't announce anything yet, but, once we confirm the details we'll be sure to let you all know more!

To all those who have followed our progress since the start of our fundraising you are probably aware that Natalya isn't in the best of health. Thoughts and prayers around the 12th June would be greatly appreciated as she returns to the hospital for results of some tests which will hopefully allow the Doctors to finally confirm a diagnosis.

That's all from us for now but we'll be sure to keep you all posted on developments in the Team SMARTies 'camp' in the run up to the BritBallRun 2008...

All the best,

Natalya and Andrew
Team SMARTies
Email: fundraising@rosemcgill.co.uk
Website: www.rosemcgill.co.uk
Donate at www.justgiving.com/rosemcgill

Smarties Anyone?

Thanks to a very kind donation from Makro's in Liverpool we'd like to announce a slightly different way that you, your family, friends and colleagues could help us reach our £10,000 target!

Here's how it works...

You email us and ask for one (or more) tubes of Smarties. They will arrive sealed and ready to be eaten! ;) Once you've emptied the tube (or tubes) then your task begins! Between now and 1st July 2008 each tube that you request needs to be filled with as much spare change as you can fit in! Once the tube (or tubes) have been filled there are a few ways you can get the amount you raise to us:

• Place all the full tubes in a padded envelope and then post them back to us, however, the postage could prove quite expensive so there are a couple of other ways you could make your donation.

• Count all the change and then donate that amount to Rose's Tribute Fund via our Justgiving fundraising page (minimum donation £2)

• Again this involves you doing the counting! Then you can send a cheque or postal order to us for the amount you have collected.
  

Full details of who to make cheques/postal orders payable to and the address for you to return your tubes/donations to will be enclosed with your Smarties :o)
This is a great way for you to spread the word about our fundraising and to get all the people you know involved :o)

So, if anyone is interested in filling a tube or two all you have to do is send an email to fundraising@rosemcgill.co.uk stating your name, the amount of tubes you require and the address you would like them sending too. All tubes will be sent second class post and should be with you 3-5 days after you have requested them :o)

Any questions just drop us an email and we'll get back to you as soon as possible :o)

All the best,

Natalya and Andrew
Team SMARTies
Email: fundraising@rosemcgill.co.uk
Website: www.rosemcgill.co.uk

SOLD!

As many of you are aware Chris from Killerviral (aka z3r0kuwl) was the BBR2007 winner. The prize was a stonking big trophy and free entry into BBR08. In a massive gesture Chris donated the ticket to Team SMARTies.

The Ebay auction ended last night and made its £500 face value! So, £500 from the auction winner, £500 from Missionfish (Ebays charity arm) and £500 from a company that (currently) would like to remain nameless means (calculator out) £1,500 is added to our fund total (now at £7,731.86).

We can't thank Chris enough for his very generous donation (and of course his co driver Paul) and would also like to say a big thank you to all the websites who posted about the auction in their forums, we couldn't have done it without you all!

All the best,

Natalya and Andrew
Team SMARTies
Email: fundraising@rosemcgill.co.uk
Website: www.rosemcgill.co.uk
Donate at www.justgiving.com/rosemcgill

February 2008 Update

I can't believe we are already into February! Time seems to really fly by these days.

I read an appalling statistic today. Tragically, more children and people under 40 lose their lives to a brain tumour than ANY other cancer. What's more appalling is that brain tumours aren't nearly as well publicised as other cancers such as leukemia. It is also very sad that treatments, funding for research and the standard of care received by brain tumour patients here in the UK is far lower than that experienced in other countries.

We are glad that Rose's Tribute Fund supports the work of the J K Douglas Laboratories which specialises in research into brain tumours and breast cancer and we hope that our fundraising will continue to provide much needed funds for the Laboratory to continue its vital research into treatments for brain tumours.

Now, it's about time I gave a little update on all that's been happening in the RoseBuddies / Team SMARTies corner of the world!

• Having asked for ideas on what we should wear for this years BritBallRun it's now been narrowed down to the following three...

1. Mad scientists, white lab coats and truly messed up hair.

2. Smart wear from yesteryear as in the tweed and goggles for the guy and big flowing dresses and bonnet for the lady (think chitty Chitty Bang Bang)

3. Thelma and Louise (Andi in drag?!)

We haven't had a chance to discuss the pro's and con's of each option but once we have we'll let you all know which we decide to go for!

• Work has started on sponsors for this years BritBallRun. We are hoping to get many more items for our auctions between now and the August Bank Holiday weekend. Thanks to all those who have already donated items, we are extremely grateful for all your help.
  

• Through 2008 we are hoping to use various photography projects to help raise funds for the Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology.

• This year we will be returning to Scotland to watch and photograph the Tunnocks Tour of Mull. We had a great time in 2007 and we were really pleased that our photography of the event enabaled us to help Rose's Tribute Fund. Hopefully we'll be able to have the same, if not better, success in 2008.
  

• We are working on a number of projects which, at the moment, we are keping underwraps but as soon as we have some definite news I will be sure to post it here!

• Over the next month or so there will be a few changes with our website. The main one will be the layout and content of the homepage. We have been really pleased with how our fundraising has been going and as we take on more projects we want to be able to incorporate those into our website. So, watch out for the new look!

That's about all from us for now. Once again thanks to all of you for your continued support, it's greatly appreciated.

All the best,

Natalya and Andrew
Team SMARTies
Email: fundraising@rosemcgill.co.uk
Website: www.rosemcgill.co.uk
Donate at www.justgiving.com/rosemcgill

November 2007 Update

Time seems to be passing so quickly. The ticker tells us it's 9 months 1 week and 5 days till the next BritBallRun, before we know it we'll be off cruising the country, wearing silly costumes and collecting very odd items from more baffled shops and passersby again!

We thought it was about time we gave an update on whats been happening in the Team SMARTies/RoseBuddies Auctions 'camp' but before we do I'd just like you all to take a moment to look at this beautiful girl...

It has been 12 months of lows and highs for all involved in the fundraising for Rose's Tribute Fund but throughout we have had the biggest smile to keep us going. As those who knew and loved Rose hold thoughts of her close right now I'd like to take a moment to say thank you to her for giving me a reason to go on.

I have faced many challenges this year, the hardest of which have been this last month or so. Each time something has happened and I've found myself thinking 'why me?' I've been able to pull myself together and plough all the energy I have left into fundraising for Rose's Tribute Fund. The smiling face above really is an amazing motivator!

Team SMARTies / RoseBuddies Auctions News:

• On Friday 9th November 2007 I headed over to the Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology for a tour of the facilities and to see where the money raised through Rose's Tribute Fund is being used. Firstly I'd like to thank 'The Susan's' and all those who took time out of their busy days to show me around, answer my questions and share a little of what makes Clatterbridge the way it is. It is comforting to know that through Rose's Tribute Fund we might be able to make a difference to someone receiving treatment at Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology and that the research done at the J K Douglas Laboratories, which is all funded by donations, may one day help in finding a cure for Brain Tumours and other cancers. I learnt so much from my visit to the centre and we are looking forward to working with both charities in the future.

• Our Christmas Cards have been flying out of our eBay shop for just over 3 weeks now and we have raised a fantastic £358 for Rose's Tribute Fund! There are just 5 packs left so if you haven't grabbed yourself one yet then head over to our eBay Shop before they're all gone!

• Thanks to the generosity of this years BritBallRun winners, Team Killerviral, and with the co-operation of the event organisers the new year will see RoseBuddies holding a unique eBay auction! We will be auctioning entry to the 2008 BritBallRun for 1 car and 2 passengers and we can't wait to see who the highest bidders will be!ALL of the winning bid will be donated to Rose's Tribute Fund and thanks to eBay the donation will be matched 100%!
  

• New Year will also see the start of the sponsorship 'work'. With lots of ideas already being thrown about, 2008 looks set to be just as exciting as the 2007 event! We're keeping quiet for now but watch this space to find out what we'll be getting upto in the run up to the big event in August!
  

• Struggling to find the perfect Christmas gift or maybe you're exhausted from all that shopping!? Thanks to www.ineedpampering.com we have another fantastic Makeover Day for 2 to auction to help us raise money for Rose's Tribute Fund. We will be holding the auction at the start of December and we'll make sure we let you all know once it's in our eBay shop.
  

That's about all the news from us for now!

Before we go we'd like to say a BIG THANK YOU to all of you that have supported us this past 12 months and to Dave, our Web Guru, for all his hardwork! We couldn't have fixed our eyes on the new £10,000 target if it wasn't for the encouragement and help you have all shown us along the way.

All the best,

Natalya and Andrew
Team SMARTies
Email: fundraising@rosemcgill.co.uk
Website: www.rosemcgill.co.uk

WOOHOO!!

After the sale of some of our remaining auction items and just over one month after we completed the BritBallRun we are extremely excited to announce that Rose's Tribute Fund has just sailed past the £5,000 target that we set for ourselves...



We are both grinning from ear to ear right now and wanted to share our excitement with all of you who have supported us along the way!

Is this the end? OH NO! We intend to continue fundraising in Rose's Memory starting with our own collection of unique christmas cards. As soon as they are available in our eBay shop we'll let you all know!

All the best,

Natalya and Andrew
Team SMARTies
Email: fundraising@rosemcgill.co.uk
Website: www.rosemcgill.co.uk
Donate at www.justgiving.com/rosemcgill

Ch ch chchanges!

As many of you will have noticed by now, there have been a few changes around here! Please take a look through the menu on the left and explore some of the new sections including BritBallRun, Sponsors and Our Auctions.

Seamless link here...

The new look to the website also coincides with the opening of our eBay Shop. Following on from the auctions we held via the website earlier this year we have decided to open an eBay shop to give us a wider audience for any future auction items. You can navigate to the auction page by clicking on 'Our Auctions' in the menu on the left.

At the moment we are still putting the finishing touches to the RoseBuddies Auctions shop front and trying out the auction template that our web guru, Dave, put together for us. We currently have 1 item listed which you can find via the shop front or by clicking HERE.

As we put together more of our auction pages we will let you all know here in the latest news section.

For now it's back to work!

All the best,

Natalya and Andrew
Team SMARTies
Email: fundraising@rosemcgill.co.uk
Website: www.rosemcgill.co.uk
Donate at www.justgiving.com/rosemcgill

We're Still Here!

We thought it was about time we popped in and let you all know that we are still around!

After catching up on some well needed sleep we have spent a lot of time discussing where we go now with our fundraising! Over the coming weeks, with the help of our web guru, Dave, we will be setting up the next step in our fundraising. There is a lot of excitement here in the Team SMARTies camp, but, for now we'll have to keep you all in suspense! Keep checking in here and as soon as we have everything ready we'll make a post to fill you all in on the details!

In the meantime if you have any fundraising ideas of your own that you think we might be able to use please get in touch with us either via the Contact Us section on the website or by sending us an Email!

More from us soon!

All the best,

Natalya and Andrew
Team SMARTies
Email: fundraising@rosemcgill.co.uk
Website: www.rosemcgill.co.uk
Donate at www.justgiving.com/rosemcgill

What happens now?

A question we have asked ourselves numerous times this past week or so!

Here's a few of our thoughts:

• Rose's Tribute Fund will carry on with all proceeds from our fundraising efforts continuing to be donated to Clatterbridge Cancer Campaign in memory of Rose.

• www.rosemcgill.co.uk will continue to be the base for Team SMARTies and any future RoseBuddies Auctions.

• Over the next few weeks various changes will be made to the website so that everything is up to date and people can find what they are looking for a little easier.

• Plans are currently underway for a BritBallrun get together near Christmas which we hope will allow us to meet up and have a beer, dinner and lots of laughs with the folks who took part this year. More about this as and when we get the details!

• At some point we will also make an annoucement regarding next years Britballrun!
  

For now we are off to send out many thank you notes and to think of ways to fit a wheelchair in the back of the Roadster! Anyone with any ideas on this please drop us a note!

All the best,

Natalya and Andrew
Team SMARTies
Email: fundraising@rosemcgill.co.uk
Website: www.rosemcgill.co.uk
Donate at www.justgiving.com/rosemcgill

SCROLL DOWN TO READ OUR DIARIES FROM THE BRITBALLRUN 2007

Last Day of Auction

Thanks to various companies we have been given items to auction off and help us reach our £5,000 target!

Today is the LAST DAY of the auction. Please, if you get chance pop by and check out what we have to offer. Items include an Autographed copy of a Gordon Ramsay Cook Book, Paintball Experience - 8 passes, Makeover Days and Odys 10.2" flatscreen TV/DVD.

To checkout all the items click on Auction in the menu on the left.

All proceeds from the sale of each item will go to Clatterbridge Cancer Campaign where Rose received here radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

Thanks to you all for reading and for taking a look at the items.

All the best,

Natalya and Andrew
Team SMARTies
Email: fundraising@rosemcgill.co.uk
Website: http://www.rosemcgill.co.uk/
Donate at www.justgiving.com/rosemcgill

Auctions end in 2 days!

There are just 2 days left till the end of our Auctions! Please pop by and check out all the items which include an Odys 10.2" flatscreen TV/DVD player, a B.I.G Perfomance £200 remap voucher, an Autographed Gordon Ramsay cookbook and lots more!

Happy bidding!

All the best,

Natalya and Andrew
Team SMARTies
Email: fundraising@rosemcgill.co.uk
Website: http://www.rosemcgill.co.uk/
Donate at www.justgiving.com/rosemcgill

Weekly Update 8: 6th July 2007

First of all my apologies for missing last weeks update! With Andrew coming to visit and the treasure hunt I lost track of time!

So, 1 month 2 weeks and 5 days till the BritBallRun! Both myself and Andrew are quite excited about it already and the Treasure Hunt helped us to see we can work together and not fall out (too much!).

BIG thanks to Keyline Graphix for donating the sunvisor strip for the car. We are hoping to have it in time for our trip to Germany in a couple of weeks. It will say www.rosemcgill.co.uk and should be interesting to see what sort of interest it generates!

We've got some fantastic items up for auction including Odys 10.2" Multi Flat 51002 LCD-TV/DVD & Radio, Paintball Days, and BIG Performance £200 Remap Voucher. To check out the rest of our items CLICK HERE

Hope you all have a good week, more from Team SMARTies world next week!

All the best,

Natalya
Team SMARTies
Email: fundraising@rosemcgill.co.uk
Website: www.rosemcgill.co.uk
Donate at www.justgiving.com/rosemcgill

Weekly Update 6: 22nd June 2007

It's been another busy week with plenty to keep me out of trouble!

We are in the process of finalizing the GPS tracking which means you will all be able to visit the website anytime during the BritBallRun and check out our exact location! Many thanks to Simon at Vehicle Tracking Ltd for all his help in organising this.

This past week has seen the addition of a few more items for us to Auction...

* Thanks to Tom and Julie at Spotty Badger Productions we have an autographed copy of their book 'The Smart Scene' up for auction. More details on this item can be found HERE

* Thanks to Andy for donating a Odys 10.2" Multi Flat 51002 LCD-TV/DVD & Radio. To find out more and to place a bid CLICK HERE

The auction of the Everton FC Autographed Football is underway and the highest bid is currently £150! CLICK HERE for more details and to place a bid.

Thanks to Ben at www.nurburgring.org.uk for kindly agreeing to display our banner ad from now until the Britballrun. Anybody else interested in placing the banner on their website/blog or other internet based 'thing' just CONTACT US and we'll send you the details!

Once again we would like to thank all of you for your continued help and support, it means a lot to us!

All the best,

Natalya and Andrew
Team SMARTies
Email: fundraising@rosemcgill.co.uk
Website: www.rosemcgill.co.uk
Donate at www.justgiving.com/rosemcgill

Everton FC Autographed Football Auction

Tonight sees the start of the Auction for the Everton FC Autographed Football.

Thanks to Steve and team at www.bluekipper.com for organising the auction for us! It will run for a week finishing 8.00pm Wednesday 27th June 2007.

To find out more about this item or to place a bid CLICK HERE

All the best,

Natalya and Andrew
Team SMARTies
Email: fundraising@rosemcgill.co.uk
Website: www.rosemcgill.co.uk
Donate at www.justgiving.com/rosemcgill