Category Archives: Charities

Charities, Gateshead, Health and Fitness, Newcastle upon Tyne, South Tyneside, Sport

From local fun run to the world’s best half marathon

August 24, 2017 Helen Gildersleeve Leave a comment

This year’s Great North Run is fast approaching. HELEN GILDERSLEEVE finds out some interesting facts and regales her own experiences of the iconic North East event.

It isn’t called the world’s most famous half marathon for no reason.

The run was originally devised by Tynesider and former Olympic 10,000 metre bronze medallist and BBC Sport commentator Brendan Foster. The first Great North Run which was advertised as a ‘local fun run’ began on 28 June 1981, when 12,000 runners participated.

Fast forward three decades and the number of participants had risen to 47,000 with this year’s event boasting a record 57,000 runners who will pound across the iconic Tyne Bridge to South Shields sea front.

Nothing quite prepares you for this event and it’s so much more than just ‘going for a run’. I’m about to (hopefully) complete my fifth this year and I can’t wait.

Standing at the start line and looking ahead at the sea of coloured tops and eccentric fancy dress is nothing short of amazing. How they get 57,000 people on the central motorway each year in an orderly fashion always astounds me.

Every single person has their own story for competing, and most are extremely touching. It’s hard not to get emotional seeing the huge variety of charity runners and signs on people’s vests emblazoning messages like ‘for you mum’ and ‘in memory of ….’. Each year sees millions of pounds being raised for hundreds of different charities. It’s a moment where people come as one and the atmosphere is simply magical.

Once the start gun goes off at 10.40am and the sea of runners ascend across the town flyover amidst chanting and the echoes of pounding feet, there’s no greater sight than the masses of people and shouts of support greeting you as you run across the Tyne Bridge with the Red Arrows flying overhead.

Great North Run and Tyne Bridge — Crossing the Tyne Bridge at the Great North Run. Photo © Chris Booth www.chrisbooth.photos/

Throughout the 13.1 mile course the support from local people is astonishing; they come out in their thousands to give support and many give runners home baked goodies, biscuits and fruit to boost energy. One particularly warm year I got blasted by a child with a Super Soaker and I’ve never been more grateful.

Nothing is more welcome than the sight of the sea when you head into the last mile at South Shields, I’ve witnessed people limping, crawling, carrying one another and crying at this point.

As you bear left and run the final mile with the North Sea on your right, the finish line is in sight and all you want to do is stop/cry/collapse as you can’t feel your legs anymore, but the masses of people cheer you on and push you to the end. These people will never understand how much the runners appreciate them.

You FINALLY get to the end and as you sprint through that famous finish arch, the feeling cannot be explained. Nor can the taste of that first sip of a beer.

And it’s over for another year!

Five things you probably didn’t know about the Great North Run:

Previous runners include: former England and Newcastle United manager Sir Bobby Robson, former Prime Minister Tony Blair, Sting and Newcastle’s own TV presenters Ant & Dec.
In 2014 the 34th Great North Run had 57,000 participants and celebrated the 1 millionth runner to cross the finish line, and was the first to have a British man win in 29 years.
If all the Great North Runners stood head to toe, their combined height would be ten times the height of Mount Everest.
About 18 miles of cloth is used to make Great North Run souvenir T-shirts.
Paul Gascoigne once pushed a wheelchair athlete all the way round the Great North Run circuit.

The Great North Run 2017 Newcastle upon Tyne to South Shields, takes place on Sunday 10 September. Live coverage on BBC 1 from 9.30-13.30

Thanks to Chris Booth of www.chrisbooth.photos/ for the images of the Great North Run.

Charities, Newcastle upon Tyne

Snowdog success across the North East

December 12, 2016 Helen Gildersleeve Leave a comment

HELEN GILDERSLEEVE hails the success of the Great North Snowdogs campaign that has charmed the region and raised more than a quarter of a million pounds for charity

You’d have to be a hermit not to have noticed at least one Snowdog sculpture across the region recently. A total of 61 Snowdogs, each with a unique design, were displayed on a public art trail for ten weeks across Tyne and Wear’s streets, parks and open spaces. Standing at 1.5m tall (4ft 9ins), the eye-catching sculptures included several local designs, including two in the colours of Newcastle United and Sunderland football teams.

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Other designs ranged from a Captain Spock design and dogs displaying local landmarks and maps through to a pirate Snowdog at the coast and one with glass accessories incorporating Sunderland’s National Glass Centre.

The individually designed Snowdog sculptures, painted by both well-known and undiscovered artists were presented by creative producers Wild in Art, working in partnership with St Oswald’s Children’s Hospice in Gosforth. Their aim was to bring together businesses, artists, schools and community groups to create a public art trail based on the popular The Snowman and The Snowdog by Raymond Briggs.

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The sculptures have created much joy across the region as children and adults alike have tracked the full map trail which led them from the coast to the city and right up to Northumberland.

Last week I attended the final farewell auction of the Snowdogs at Sage Gateshead where all the loveable creatures were auctioned off to raise vital funds for St Oswald’s Hospice. A whopping £252,200 was made by the end of the night and all Snowdogs were escorted off to their new fur-ever homes.

The highest price of the night was paid for Disco Dog, designed by mosaic artist Natalie Guy, which sold for a whopping £9,200!

Popular Durham based farm, Mini Moos Fun Park, went home with a grand total of four Snowdogs for families to come and visit at the venue. Other dogs found fur-ever homes at a variety of businesses, charities and causes across the region.

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St Oswald’s Hospice sponsored its very own Snowdog. The aptly named Wild North East dog became particularly precious to the children and young adults cared for at the hospice who watched him being painted and even added some decoration of their own before he was placed at Jesmond Dene.

Renowned wildlife artist, Jina Gelder, based this design on wildlife native to the North East, adding hedgehogs to represent the hedgehog house at the hospice, flowers from its gardens and signposts showing the breadth of the region it covers. After meeting the young people who use the hospice, she was inspired to include butterflies to symbolise their short but beautiful lives.

Wild North Est snowdog — Wild North East snowdog

To bring him home forever the charity launched an appeal in a bid to raise a minimum of £4000 in order to buy Wild North East at the auction. The appeal was a roaring success and the dog was delivered back to its rightful home this week much to the glee of hospice staff and users.

I had a few words at the auction with Jane Hogan, the Great North Snowdogs project lead for St Oswald’s Hospice who was delighted with the success and amount raised. She said:

“The Snowdogs campaign has captured the hearts and minds of the public in a way in which we never anticipated. Tonight’s auction has raised a phenomenal amount of money which will be put to great use within our hospice. The campaign has presented us with opportunities to communicate with a wider audience and to fundraise in a unique and imaginative way. The event has opened up many doors for us and has allowed us to build connections with individuals and organisations from across the region, some of whom hadn’t heard of the hospice before.

“Tonight we’ve been amazed and humbled by the enormous generosity of our bidders who’ve collectively raised a huge sum of money for our Children’s Hospice.

“We’re thrilled to be bringing another mass public art trail back to the region in 2019 which builds upon the success of our first outing.”

Looks like we’ll all have to be armed with our maps and cameras again for 2019….

http://www.stoswaldsuk.org

@stoswaldsuk

Charities, Newcastle upon Tyne

Newcastle vets saving lives of Sri Lankan street dogs

November 29, 2016 Helen Gildersleeve Leave a comment

HELEN GILDERSLEEVE speaks to the founders of Newcastle based charity WECare Worldwide about the fantastic work they do to save the lives, treat and care for Sri Lankan street dogs.

After a recent trip to Sri Lanka, I discovered the heart breaking plight of many stray dogs there. As beautiful a country this is, it is very far removed from the UK when it comes to animal welfare; dogs are often viewed as pests and there’s an unprecedented amount of homeless dogs due to a lack of neutering available.

I remember sitting on the beach one night realising I was surrounded by more stray dogs than people, all desperately seeking food, shelter and basic human affection. I ended up sharing most of my rice with a couple as they looked at me with desperately sad eyes. It led me to want to help and volunteer for the charities that work tirelessly to save these poor creatures. Little did I know that a wonderful group of vets from my home town were doing just this!

WECare Worldwide are a team of veterinary surgeons and nurses from Newcastle’s Westway Veterinary Group whose aim is to provide a high level of veterinary expertise to animals who don’t have access to any other form of healthcare.

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The charity was set up by local veterinary surgeon, Janey Lowes, from the Westway Veterinary Group in October 2014. Janey, who is originally from Barnard Castle has a mission is to provide veterinary care for less fortunate animals around the world, starting in Sri Lanka. A huge amount of work goes into the charity from the UK who often host events, fundraisers and sell Sri Lankan made products in Westway branches across the North East. This year she became the first vet to receive a Points of Light award – an accolade given by the Prime Minister to volunteers who make positive changes in their community.

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Former Prime Minister, David Cameron, said; “She has undoubtedly changed the fate of scores of vulnerable animals by protecting them from disease and providing much needed care. “I am recognising Janey as a Point of Light, not only for the positive impact she’s had through helping animals in need, but also for the countless people that will have been protected from rabies by her work.”

With no healthcare available, many of the street dogs in Sri Lanka live in a considerable degree of pain and discomfort. Some of the injuries that occur there are beyond belief and many have previously died slow and painful deaths. From skin disease, to multiple fractures to inflicted injuries, such as severe burns, bomb injuries and collar wounds- these dogs have been to hell and back and it is time for this to stop.

sri-lanka

Sri Lanka’s roaming dog population is rumoured to be 1 to 3 million in a country the size of Ireland with a human population of 20 million. Unsurprisingly, there are not enough resources to support this number of dogs and as a result many starve to death or succumb to disease, with 60% of puppies dying before they reach their first year.

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Education on animal welfare and responsible pet ownership is non-existent in Sri Lanka, leading to generations of families demonstrating neglect and often cruelty of an extreme kind to dogs, both stray and owned. They often do not know any better and feel as though they are doing a good thing by protecting their families from vermin. To make matters worse, the veterinary profession in Sri Lanka does little to promote compassionate care.

Charities like WECare Worldwide truly are a godsend and without these, many of these beautiful dogs would die.

To date, WECare has carried out the following treatments: