Tickets for the lottery cost £1 per week and 50% of the funds come to Cerebral Palsy Scotland with the remainder going into the prize pot and supporting other great charities in Glasgow.
To take part click on the link below to take you straight to the sign-up page.
Take part in Glasgow Community Lottery
Click on the link below to read CP Chat – it’s a new newsletter that helps us to say “thank you” to all the people who go out of their way to support the charity.
In this edition, we say thanks to Ann and John Sproul, who have been supporting us for over 20 years and have donated a total of £56,000 to the charity, along with their family and friends.
We also thank Marco Orr, who fundraised by holding a 10 hour live DJ set, and to nine year old Jack Ovenden, who completed a 26 mile sponsored cycle with his friends to thank Cerebral Palsy Scotland for helping his younger brother Matthew who has come for therapy sessions here over the years.
There are so many great fundraising stories in this edition of CP Chat, so please have a read!
We hope you enjoy the newsletter and if you need any help with your fundraising or have a story you want to share then please get in touch with Kelly McLaughlin, our Supporter Relationships Manager, who will be happy to help you. You can email Kelly at Kelly.McLaughlin@cpscot.org.uk.
We hope to publish CP Chat every few months to keep you updated on all the latest news from our community of supporters.
We know that the physical and mental health of people with CP has been disproportionately negatively impacted by the coronavirus outbreak and restrictions.
To be honest, I dread to think what would have happened to us if we hadn’t found Cerebral Palsy Scotland. They have helped us to understand Lola’s disability fully and to interact with her in a way that gives her choices. They have given her a voice.”
Lauren and her daughter Lola have shared their story to support our Spring appeal and show how we work to support people with cerebral palsy and their families at Cerebral Palsy Scotland: by working in practical, direct ways, by seeing the whole person, by being ambitious for each individual we support, and by putting kindness at the centre of everything we do.
Cerebral Palsy Scotland is always totally committed to providing first-class specialist therapy and other services to support people with CP and their families to live and achieve to the very best of their ability.
We are asking if you will please donate today to Cerebral Palsy Scotland, so we can continue to do even more to serve and support people living with cerebral palsy and their families.
Dance was a big part of my teenage years – not many people know this so let me take you into my dance world. In this blog, I will give you an insight into my performance days including sharing my experiences of rehearsals and shows.
In 2009, I came across a music and dance workshop that was taking place at a local theatre. It was during the summer holidays so I was up for trying something new even although I hadn’t danced before. The group was called ‘Make Music Move’ (now M3) involving professional dancers and musicians from the organisation Paragon Music. Paragon, is a music charity that helps people with additional support needs to create music and dance. They teamed up with a wonderful choreographer, Caroline Bowditch as well as another dance company to create M3.
Everyone was welcomed into the workshop, it was very inclusive- the group didn’t see disability and as a teenager, that really helped me.
I watched how the dancers worked with the participants and that was when I realised that this was something special. After a couple of sessions, I started to take a real interest in dance. I attended M3 as a participant dancer for 5 years- I had many opportunities handed to me on a plate that I will always be thankful for.
M3 ran regularly with rehearsals happening throughout the year plus intensive weeks every so often, this was when we were creating a piece. We had a number of performances to do as part of dance shows in theatres. This is where the opportunities came in – I got to perform in the Theatre Royal, Glasgow…what a feeling and I also travelled to Dundee Rep Theatre annually too. That doesn’t happen to people like me and I don’t mean because of my disability, just in general.
My theatre memories will always be a big part of my dance days, the experience is just phenomenal. A real mix of feelings when you are out on that stage of excitement but lots of nerves too. One memory that comes to mind is when I was doing a solo dance and an hour before the show in Dundee, I found out that not only that I was the first member of M3 on stage but I was opening the WHOLE dance show…total fear waiting side of stage but such a joy to do.
Talking of my solo dance piece, I actually created it myself in my living room. I went into rehearsals the next day and told my dancers that I made a dance…they couldn’t believe it and I was so thankful that it made the stage. I was told by Caroline that I could go down the dance route as a future and that meant so much to me.
I never thought that I would be a dancer due to having Cerebral Palsy with my movements and being in a wheelchair but anything is possible.
The professional dancers were very good with me, we worked together and came up with moves that I could do in my chair. A couple of years into my dance journey, I decided that I wanted to come out of my wheelchair to dance duets…it was the best decision ever. I could do so much more…it was freedom. My fellow M3 participants followed me and at one point, everyone was dancing out of their chairs!
As I got older and life got busier, I had to leave M3. Unfortunately, I couldn’t attend all the rehearsals. Although that this was the case, I helped Paragon Music run M3’s social media accounts which then leaded to me being a volunteer with Paragon- I am the charity’s Digital Development Assistant now.
I would like to give a big shout-out and thanks to Paragon’s creative director, Ninian Perry and former dance artist in Association with Paragon, Caroline Bowditch for supporting me through my dance journey- I really learnt a lot from two of the nicest people ever. All of the dancers and musicians were like a big family and I am so lucky that I still keep in touch with friends from M3- I will always be grateful for my dance days.
Mini Q&A
Favourite Memory – Performing in the Kings Theatre Royal to ‘Let music make you move, set your feelings free’
Most Pressured Show – Leading a dance piece at Macrobert Art Centre, Stirling. 8 beats!! If I counted it wrong then it would have affected our whole piece
Do I miss dancing? – Yeah, I do and I would go back if there was an opportunity
Favourite Venue – Kings Theatre Royal
The first patient I successfully discharged home from my COVID ward was an older lady with Cerebral Palsy, we were all delighted when she got home, as we were for all our patients.
I work as a consultant geriatrician in Glasgow. This means that I look after older adults, particularly those who are frailer. COVID, for the group of patients I care for has been catastrophic. Age is the biggest risk factor for having a poor outcome if you contract COVID. I have spent the past 8 months working in older adult COVID wards. At one point, Older Peoples Services, Glasgow Royal Infirmary, where I work, was looking after 10% of Scotland’s COVID inpatients.
This year has been exhausting and brutal, physically and emotionally, but whatever I have felt has never been as bad as what my patients and their loved ones have gone through. There has been tragic stories like people losing both of their parents within days of each other, that is heart-breaking to witness, and I will never forget those patients and their families. Most of the patients who I look after, would not survive an intensive care admission, however, we still deliver the highest possible care we can give, tailoring it to the needs of that patient. The first patient I successfully discharged home from my COVID ward was an older lady with Cerebral Palsy, we were all delighted when she got home, as we were for all our patients.
However, it is not all doom and gloom in the NHS. While there can always be things you look back on and think you could have done differently, everyone working has pulled together like never before and tried their absolute best. This time last year we had no known treatment for COVID – now we have several. The scientists have worked extraordinarily hard. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to enrol in the Oxford vaccine trial last June (and as I subsequently found out in January – lucky to have been in the COVID vaccine group). Just 6 months on that vaccine was being rolled out to give us a route out of this pandemic, which is amazing. We have tried to continue as much of our other non-COVID work as possible. For example in the work I do with older cancer patients we have been using virtual means. COVID has given us an opportunity to change the way we work and some of that may be for the better.
Sadly COVID has supercharged already pre-existing inequalities. You are more likely to die of COVID if you live in a deprived area. For some there is a view that if you are older, have a disability or a chronic health condition you are somehow less valuable. That is wrong and we must push back against that mind-set. I would fall into the category of having a disability, it seems to surprise some that someone with a disability could work (more than full time) as a consultant, particularly work in COVID wards. But why, disabled people are working in all areas of society, just like everyone else. I can assure you my life is no less valuable than the next persons, nor those of any disabled person. During the pandemic there has been a focus on wellbeing and kindness. Let us come out of this a fairer society and do our upmost to tackle these inequalities. As this pandemic has shown, no one knows what the next day holds or who could acquire a disability or chronic health problem.
When we are out the other side of this we will all need time to recover. For some it will be from the grief of losing loved ones, for others it will from financial hardships, for some it will be from the exhaustion and emotional toll of trying to balance working from home with home schooling and for many it will be the from the emotional strain of the past year! A surprise challenge for me has been the physical impact the pandemic has had on my cerebral palsy.
I normally carefully balance long working hours with a mix of marathon outdoor swimming (I hoped my swimmers lungs would stand me in good stead if I caught COVID on the wards), Pilates and weights. But all that disappeared. I was standing longer at work, sitting longer at home and doing less of the things that keep me on my feet. By last month I was in much more pain than usual and my function had deteriorated to a level I cannot recall as an adult. It is at that point that you realise there is really no services easily available for adults with Cerebral Palsy except if you go to the private sector or the charity sector. I have to admit I was scared, scared that this was my new normal, and that the independence and career I had worked so hard to achieve was changing.
I have privately had to see a musculoskeletal physio, who has been a great help. However, I have had my first session with Cerebral Palsy Scotland. I have had a full top to toe MOT by a Cerebral Palsy Specialist Physio. Everything from the way I sleep to the way I stand has been looked at. I know I will not only come out the other side of this as I was but have the opportunity to come out better. This is why the #StampOutTheGap campaign is so important. People with Cerebral Palsy need and deserve the same access to specialist services as anyone else would who have a health condition or disability.
I realise I am lucky, throughout the pandemic, I have been able to come into work and do a job that I love and no matter how bad things have felt it is always a privilege to do that job and I would never want to do anything else. I have had the support and kindness of the most amazing colleagues and that human contact is something so many people have not had this year.
I work in a Department with some exceptionally inspiring people, the first female president of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, the current President of the British Geriatric Society. Excellence is expected, disability or not, and that is what I want and strive for. But just as important is the ethos of kindness, support and wellbeing. I am being given the time and support to get better and I wish I could bottle the inclusivity that I experience for others. The day I had to take some time off, my COVID ward became a non-COVID ward as cases drop. I am glad I made it through to that point. I look forward to returning in a couple of weeks, I am sure better and hopefully in brighter times.
Kirsty Colquhoun: Consultant Geriatrician in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Subdean Glasgow University Medical School for Glasgow Royal Infirmary, Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons – Physician Representative of the Inclusion Advisory Board, Secretary for the British Geriatric Society Oncogeriatric Specialist Interest Group, Trustee CP Scotland. Has Cerebral Palsy, Diplegia.
