British Summer Time....

Well the clocks have changed to British Summer time, the sun is shining and it is a beautiful day. A beautiful day that makes me feel very sad. Sad because I want to be out enjoying the sunshine with my lovely little girl, but instead I am inside the house working on our fundraising plans. I do get little bits of joy and excitement from the fundraising - when a celebrity says they will donate an item to our auction or a new donation is made on our fundraising page it feels good for a second. But, then I remember why we are doing it and the fact that we are raising this money in memory of little Erin. I so wish we were raising it in celebration of her recovery from her heart operation and in celebration of her life.

Over the last week I have started making plans for our auction which will take place on October 20th. I don't really know what I am doing, having never done anything like this before - but hopefully it will come together okay. Yet again I have been overwhelmed by the support of people on twitter to help me with this. I have had numerous offers of items for the auction, which is wonderful. We are going to set up a website soon for Erin's Gift on which we can list all the items that will be included and the wonderful companies and individuals who donated them. I would also like to see if we can find a band/singer who would be willing to play and an auctioneer. The auction will be raising money for the Alder Hey Imagine Appeal. Alder Hey is the biggest children's hospital in Europe and they treat over 250,000 children a year. It really is a wonderful charity to support. I will keep the blog updated with the items for auction and how to get bid/get tickets for the event.

Meanwhile, my husband is well on the way with his training for the Manchester - Blackpool bike ride on 8th July, raising money for the Turner Syndrome Support Society. You can view the justgiving site for this here http://www.justgiving.com/ErinsGift. Alternatively you can sponsor the cyclists and support women with Turner Syndrome by texting ERIN61 followed by £(amount) to 70070.

Finally, our fundraising for Ronald McDonald House is ongoing and the justgiving page has reached  £6050 http://www.justgiving.com/Erin-Clancy. This is wonderful - it costs them £25 a night to support one family. The money we have raised in memory of Erin so far will pay to support a family for 242 nights, which is really great and will really make a difference. I have tried before, but it is so difficult to express quite how much this support means to a family when their child is seriously ill in hospital - it is invaluable! You can donate to support Ronald McDonald House by texting ERIN60 followed by £(amount) to 70070.

Once again I thank you all very much for your continued support of Erin's Gift - it means a lot to me.

"I'll love you forever,

I'll like you for always.

As long as I'm living,

My baby you'll be"

- Robert Munsch