Let's Talk About Brain Tumours
Join us as we talk to about all things brain tumours with those who have been diagnosed, their friends, parents, partners and children as well as with researchers, fundraisers and advocates. Find out how The Brain Tumour Charity is working to improve outcomes for those who are diagnosed with this unforgiving disease.
Please Note: We recognise that everyone's experience's are unique. Our guests are sharing their own personal experiences of diagnosis, treatment and care. These may differ from yours or those of your loved one.
Let's Talk About Brain Tumours
Episode 31 - Spotlight on Community Fundraising - How our community helps fund research
In this episode, Chandos talks to Community Fundraiser Firzana Khan about how our community works with the charity to raise money for vital research into better treatments and cures for brain tumours. They talk about the different ways people can raise money from cycle rides and runs to charity balls. Firzana explains the vital role our community fundraisers play in beating brain tumours.
If you would like to find out more about raising money for the charity you can find out more here
You can also contact our Community Fundraising team by emailing fundraising@thebraintumourcharity.org
If you would like to speak to a member of our support team you can call 0808 800 0004 or email support@thebraintumourcharity.org
Welcome to Let's Talk about brain tumours. The podcast where we'll be talking to people who have been affected by brain tumour diagnosis, either their own diagnosis or the diagnosis of love will also be sharing news and updates in the brain tumour charity about what we're doing to have the harm and double survival.
Chandos:Hi, everyone, and welcome back to Brain Tumour charity Podcast. I'm Chandy. And today we're going to be talking about community fundraising with fizz. We'll be speaking about the highs of fundraising, and how you can get involved and support the brain tumour charity as vital research to help find a cure for brain tumours and half the harm.
Fiz:So my name is Fiz, I'm the Community fundraiser. And I cover London, Oxford, she that she Bournemouth, all the way down to the central in your home. So I'm Hampshire flee. So as a community fundraiser, my role is to look after fundraising events that take place in my region. So anyone that wants to talk through fundraising ideas, or hold a fundraiser, we can talk it through, we can send them out some materials to help them with the fundraising. If people have had similar events, we can give them advice based on that. But it's just helping them to make the event real. And sometimes we go out and speaking about the charity when we're invited if we're able to or we connect volunteers within because we kind of such a large region. We connect people that are happy or charity ambassadors that are happy to about the events, and speak about the charity and the work, that we do see that we can mobilise communities locally,
Chandos:why is it so important to have community fundraising as a part of the charity, kind of ethos and
Fiz:movement? Yeah, so we didn't get any government funding. So community fundraising is a massive part of what funds our and without it, we wouldn't be able to find cures for research, we wouldn't be able to support people that have been diagnosed with brain tumours, we wouldn't be able to campaign to keep the topic, you know, with MPs. And it's just so vital to help spread the awareness about when humours everywhere. And a lot of the people that are fundraising for us have been personally affected. So they've lost somebody to a brain tumour, or they or it's somebody living with a brain tumour that wants to do something, to make a difference. So in my role, I look up to support groups. And support groups are people that have decided I want to raise 10,000 pounds or more, so that I can have the money that they raise, go towards a specific piece of research, it may be a specific type of brain tumour. So all of the stories, that kind of, you know, they're so inspired, they're so dedicated, they just have their own energy. And it's just amazing to be a part of that and be able to support them with their fundraising efforts and just talk through how it's going. And any support we can offer. So
Chandos:you've kind of spoken a bit there about the impact it's had on you and what it's like to go meet these people, what has been some of the standout and highlight moments for you.
Fiz:If the role is so varied, from from going out to kind of gala dinners, where you can do a speech about, you know, what the charity does, how it supports people, the difference they're gonna make tonight from people donating like 10,000 pounds on the night, people raising 20,000 pounds in auction on that same night to you know, smaller community events where you're there, and you've got representatives from people all over the country, and you're happy you have the opportunity to speak about what we do, why we do it, and the difference it makes and every single event I've been to, somebody has come and said, You know, I know, you know, somebody that passed away from brain tumour, but they've never had the opportunity to talk about it really, it really isn't spoken about. So for me, it's going out and meeting the community is the best part of the job because they're so inspiring. A lot of them are dealing with such great loss and they're so positive and so inspired by their loved ones that it's just infectious because it's really it gets really tough to to kind of listen to the to the heartbreak that some of the families have been through. But when you meet them and they are doing amazing We'd fundraise for us, it's just inspiring and amazing. So, I mean, we have amazing events that people have put on from, you know, one person decided that he wanted to cycle from, than then follow quotes. And he did that by himself over 10 days, and he raised him 1000 pounds. And then we had another group of people, six people that did the same journey. But they set up a Facebook group, and they were really, they had other sub events, and they were posting their training. And they fantastically, I mean, it's not even about the amount they raise, but their journey was so epic. They did epically raise 33,000 happens. But it was just so amazing to follow. And really, just, you know, all in terms of we were checking into how they're doing, but they had charity T shirts, but they were, they were going for it themselves. And it was just amazing. Recently, I've had two brothers that have cycled in memory, or their dad from London to Latvia, that, you know, and they manage to into with ITV. And it was just amazing. You know, every opportunity. They were always like, yes, yes. And reply to everything. And it was just, you know, it's such a great memory. You know, he wore his dad's shoes during the cycle. It was just phenomenal. I mean, yeah, from people that are doing their own walks, walking from London, London Zoo to have us just over 10k. And there were so many people, best 40 people, at least during that whole walk, including a lovely six year old who use seven he did the whole book. Anomaly phenomenal. So yeah, the community really, you know, my, my colleague, has had somebody swim to Lynx and Loch Lomond. And nobody's ever done both humans and the one, but he did both. And that was just incredible. So we have, it really varies.
Chandos:I'm just getting the impression that so much, and you could like, I can feel the passion and stuff just from hearing their stories and the way it comes across, is there any activities or events that are happening at the moment, you can talk about, like any fundraising challenges
Fiz:we have, there's another group of friends that are gonna do the Lego dog cycle as well. We have a in March, we have a ball that one of the support groups is organising. We have cute orchestra, it's performing live, talking in football bound. In the live room, there's so many events that take place, and sometimes when they open to the public, we try and pop it on as an event onto our website so that people can, sometimes people are really kind and get in touch and say, Oh, we can't go to this event. But it's actually a prize. You know, it's just amazing.
Chandos:And if anyone wanted to fundraise themselves, or had an idea for a challenge that they wanted to take on, what's the first step? How do they get involved?
Fiz:And other people set up fundraisers set up a JustGiving page, set a target on there? And we get in touch to say, thank you for setting up a page. And would you like any support, or some people, anyone can email community fundraising, at the brain tumour charity.org. And say they'd like to, they'd like to talk through their plans, then their local CFO will get in touch and talk through the fundraising, they can set up a JustGiving page and put what they would like to do on there. And they can let us know or we can reach out to them
Sarah:and support them.
Chandos:Well, thank you for chatting to me today. It's been really interesting and insightful and very powerful to hear the stories of those who are fundraising. So thank you, oh,
Fiz:no problem. We have regional Facebook groups as well. So if people were thinking, I'm not sure I'm ready, they could follow one of their regional Facebook page is and see what people are doing or just support an event locally and kind of take it from there as well.
Chandos:Whether you've been affected by a brain tumour diagnosis, or a family member or friend has the brain tumour charity has held their phone number is, oh 808 800 triples every four. That's Oh 808 800, triples, or four. Thanks again to my guests fears for talking about community fundraising. I hope you found it helpful. Don't forget to go and check out some of the other episodes that are already up online. And for more information and support, visit the brain tumour charity.org Thanks again. Bye.
Sarah:We hope you enjoyed today's episode. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode. If you'd like more information You can visit our website at brain tumour charity.org or email our support team at support at the brain tumour. charity.org. And finally, before you go, if you enjoyed this podcast, please can you leave us a review on iTunes wherever you get your podcasts so we can reach more people and raise more awareness