An Award Winning Blog?

Another quick blog post!

I have just been told that this blog of mine has been nominated for a WEGO Best in Show Blog Award 2012!!!!

Thank you to whoever it was that nominated the blog for this, I really do appreciate it! I'm very proud of this blog and, whilst I don't do it for the recognition, I am happy to know that people do read it and like what I do.

Thank you :)

xxx

Award Nominee :)

Thank you to the people that have nominated myself and this blog for the 2012 WEGO Health Activist Awards. I really do appreciate the lovely lovely support shown to me by so many of you! I'll let you know if we win!!!

http://links.mkt3867.com/ctt?kn=4&ms=NTA5NTI4NgS2&r=MjcyMjY5MTgwNzES1&b=0&j=NTgyMTM3ODkS1&mt=1&rt=0

:) xxx

Campaign Award Winners!

Hi all!

I have just heard some hugely exciting news that I wanted to share with you all!

Cancer Research UK have won a prestigious Public Affairs News award for 'Innovative Campaign of the Year'. The award is for the Answer Is Plain, the campaign asking the government to introduce plain packaging for cigarettes.


To quote Lizzy Allen: " It recognises the innovative routes we've taken to raise awareness of plain packaging and gain support amongst politicians, the public and other stakeholders. The works includes our big 'action day' in Parliament this year, developing and using local tobacco statistics for politicians, commissioning and using high quality policy research, and of course our hard-hitting campaign video that has now received more than 260,000 views worldwide.

This award is fantastic recognition by our peers in the sector for all the hard work over the past year and a half – both public-facing (you guys and our online campaign action) and behind the scenes. 

It's a fantastic boost, and as you know we still have a lot more work to do and campaigns take a while to work through in stages. Thank you for all your hard work that’s been recognised so far, and for your future efforts as we gear up to continue our push for a government commitment and legislation to introduce plain packaging."

Myself and my fellow ambassadors have been working incredibly hard on this campaign all year and I'm so pleased and excited to see it is receiving recognition. Thank you so much to everyone that has supported our campaign so far, I really really hope it all pays off and we get the answer we want from the government!!!

Well done to everyone involved with the campaign, I'm hugely proud to be part of it :)

all the 2012 winners can be found here: http://www.publicaffairsnews.com/panawards/2012-winners

The Answer Is Plain.

xxx

Dawn, David and Neil - Award Winners

By now you all will know how much I love being part of the Cancer Research UK Ambassadors team. My fellow ambassadors are a fabulous group of people (I may have mentioned that once or twice!!) and I really enjoy getting to know them all slowly.

CRUK have a special awards ceremony every year to celebrate their amazing volunteers. The “Flame of Hope” Awards are voted for by CRUK staff members and recognise the hard work volunteers put in.

I’m really proud and excited to let you all know that some of my fellow ambassadors have won awards or been given special mentions! I’m especially excited because they are ambassadors that I have got to know and now consider to be good friends.

David Collins was given a special mention for his tireless and passionate work for CRUK. As I’ve mentioned previously, I see David as the unofficial group leader. He is organised, kind and incredibly intelligent. He supports and inspires me hugely and I’m so happy to see others notice how hard he works for our group. He is a social media wiz and he is working hard to get our tobacco control campaigns out there for people to hear about and support. David, like me, sees cancer as a political issue and works tirelessly to drive it up the political agenda. He is a fantastic ambassador and an incredible person; I’m absolutely thrilled to hear about him being commended for his work.

Dawn Green is a miracle. She was diagnosed with a very rare cancer and given just months to live well over 5 years ago. Instead of letting the disease beat her, Dawn has fought it with every ounce of her being. Not only has she fought her own cancer battles, she has also set her up own charity to help other people diagnosed with PMP. She also campaigns with us and shares her story at various events such as Race for Life. She has also been given a special mention by CRUK and she could not be more deserving. I am in awe of Dawn and I love her feisty, fun personality. She is a wonderful friend and an amazing woman.

Our Ambassador of the Year winner is the lovely Neil Ranasinghe and his stunning young daughter Anne. Anne was diagnosed with Leukaemia and thankfully survived. This amazing father and daughter duo work really hard to help others suffering from then disease by fundraising, media work and doing various presentations. They also work really hard on the “Little Stars” Awards to recognise children bravely battling cancer. Neil is a fantastic dad and a very funny, friendly man. Anne is an absolutely beautiful young girl and obviously very compassionate too. I’m so so glad they’ve won the award because I know how hard it is to watch a child suffer from cancer and I commend anyone who can get through that horrific experience and still have energy to want to help others. Congratulations Neil and Anne!!!

I am constantly humbled and inspired by my fellow ambassadors. They are incredible people and I have so much respect for them all. They push me to work hard every single day and I am often left gobsmacked by the incredible work they do and the amazing results they achieve. Congratulations to my three lovely friends on their fantastic recognition, they really do deserve it!

Lots of love

Pen xx

Penny Christofi - Young Citizen Award Winner

Hi all,

Here is a photo of me collecting my Young Citizen award from the Mayor of Redbridge. Very exciting for me and humbling too. I don't do my work to win awards of recognition, I do it as a tribute to the six relatives I have lost. I really do want to prevent others suffering in the ways they had to.


I'm off to another awards thing on March 24th so I'll post some more photos then!


Many thanks to the Ilford Recorder, Ilford Exchange and the Redbridge Rotary Club for giving me the award.

Award Winner and Other News

Happy Wednesday Everyone!


Back in December I mentioned that someone had nominated me for a Young Citizen's Award in my local area. Well yesterday I was told that I have in fact won the award! Thank you to the person that nominated me and thank you to everyone who has sent me such lovely messages of congratulations.


I feel a little guilty though, I never intended for my work to receive awards or anything like that. I think it's Georgie and people like him who deserve the awards not me. I hope wherever Georgie is, he knows that the award is for him and not me because it is him that is my inspiration and the force behind the work that I do. I do it all for him and to feel close to him.


Anyway hopefully the award will mean extra publicity for my campaigns and fundraising so I am keeping my fingers crossed!!!


In other news, I am meeting with my MP on Friday to introduce myself and my work. I'm hoping to get him to back out latest CRUK campaign and form a bond with him so I can meet with him in the future....here's hoping it goes well!

Thank you for your continued support of this site and my work, I shall be unveiling details of some exciting projects in the next week or two so watch this space!!!


Pen xxx

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Cancer Research UK and TX Maxx have launched their 2011-12 Little Star Awards to celebrate children across the UK who have been diagnosed with cancer and are battling it with true bravery and courage. As I’m sure you can guess, this is something very close to my heart and I’m really glad CRUK are recognising how brave and amazing these children are.

My vote would go to Georgie but I know for a fact that there are some fantastic children in the UK, fighting hard to beat cancer and my heart goes out to them all.

If you know of a child battling cancer, living in the UK and under the age of 18, and you would like to nominate them then please click on the link below and fill in the online form.

https://survey.cancerresearchuk.org/Survey.aspx?s=dce8825112d042a4ba393d3e0fdd0684

All the children nominated will get a Little Star trophy, a t-shirt, a bear and a certificate. The first 300 nominees will also receive a £50 TK Maxx voucher.

Everyday around four children are diagnosed with cancer. From personal experience I can tell you that it is a heartbreaking and gruelling experience for all involved. We lost our Georgie but lots of children manage to beat cancer, more then ever before. CRUK is a major funder of research into childhood cancers; in 2010 they spent almost £9 million pounds on research. That money was used to support doctors and scientists who are trying to find out what causes cancer in children and trying to find ways to ensure faster diagnosis and better treatments.

CRUK’s research has played a part in transforming survival rates for children suffering from cancer. In the 1960’s only about a quarter of children diagnosed with cancer would survive. Today, the figures have reversed and around three quarters of children survive cancer.

Professor Nazeen Rahman is leading a team at the Institute of Cancer Research and trying to find out genes make children more likely to develop cancer. This is a huge thing for me and my family as it turned out Georgie had a gene that meant he was more susceptible to cancer. For years we were told it was an unfortunate coincidence that he developed cancer after losing his mum to the disease but we found out too late that it was in fact caused by a gene he has most likely inherited from her. Being tested as a two year old may have saved Georgie but we will never know. I’m very relieved to know that Professor Rahman and his team are working hard to use genetic information to help other children. To read more about Professor Rahman’s amazing work, please follow the link to my Uncle’s site and read about it. It’s really interesting, and important, information. http://www.anticancer.org.uk/2011/06/tp53-and-li-fraumeni-syndrome.html#more

CRUK have also funded plenty of successful clinic trials into treating childhood cancer. They have a special Children’s Cancer Trials Team situated in Birmingham which is the only one in the UK. IT works hard to coordinate groundbreaking trials across the UK and Ireland. These trials allow innovative and amazing new treatments available giving children with cancer the change to benefit from the latest discoveries and treatments that the medical world has to offer.

Children with cancer are incredibly brave warriors and if you do know a child with cancer, please nominate them for a Little Stars award, they deserve to be recognised for fighting against the disease and they deserve to know that so many of us are rooting for them to survive. I think every person battling the disease is a Little Star and I look forward to hearing the stories of all the worthy winners. x