Page 39 - link magazine

Beneficiaries needed for charity ball Intrepid threesome to climb Kilimanjaro
The annual Swindon Charity Ball is one of the key charitable events in for genetic eye disease
the local calendar and organisers are now calling for applications for
beneficiaries for 2016’s event.
For the 2016 event, the Charity Ball is delighted to welcome Imagine
Cruising as the match funding partner. The Rotary Club are now taking
applications to become a beneficiary for the 2016 event and the closing
date is November 15. Email Sue Harding at [email protected]
for a form. The Swindon Charity Ball will be held on 7 May 2016.
Call for caring Christmas volunteers

Swindon Christmas Care will again provide temporary shelter for homeless Mountain trekkers Ian Lawrence, Dan Hopkins and Becky Prince
and lonely people and those in need from 11am on Thursday 24 December
to 11am on Monday 28 December at Queen’s Drive Methodist Church Hall, Three friends from Wanborough vision. You need 80 per cent so
Park South. have set themselves the challenge immediately he said I couldn’t drive
Volunteers and shift leaders are needed to help. Preparation meetings of climbing Africa’s highest any longer which meant I lost my
take place at the church at 7.30pm on Wednesday 18 November and mountain in August 2016 to raise job at a company in Bicester.”
Thursday 26 November. Food, bedding, clothing, toiletries and cash are also money and awareness of Retinitis Although he now runs two
needed. Dates for donations will be listed in December’s Link. Pigmentosa, a genetically inherited successful construction supply
For more information contact Patsy Moloney on 01793 642368 or see disease - which currently has no companies, Dan struggles in
www.christmascare.co.uk known cure or treatment. crowded environments and is
RP destroys the parts of the
Looking out for hippos in Zimbabwe eye which gives peripheral virtually blind in the dark and has
recently been re-registered as SSI
vision leaving the sufferer with (severely sight impaired).
deteriorating tunnel eyesight. It’s Ian said: “We’ve already received
the most common form of inherited massive support for our trek next
blindness in the world and next year; so many people realise
year will be the fortieth anniversary that sight is such a fundamental
since the charity RP Fighting requirement. This challenge will
Blindness was founded. help RP Fighting Blindness continue
The Kilimanjaro climb is being its work to find a cure for both Dan
organised by Ian Lawrence whose and all those suffering from this
good friend Daniel Hopkins has cruel disease.
had RP since 1996. He explained: Help the team at:
“I was referred to a consultant who www.justgiving.com/IRLawrence
said I had 15 per cent peripheral www.rpfightingblindness.org.uk
Light reading for Sarah and Dave Chilvers in darkest Africa
Sarah and David Chilvers from but Karen has had to deal with
Peatmoor, well known in Swindon huge challenges, not least the
for their efforts to help rescued ever present threat of violence
Asiatic moonbears in China and from poachers who set horrendous
Vietnam, spent two weeks in snares on the land around the
September visiting the Turgwe hippo reserve, as well as the impact UNITS 19-20 KENDRICK INDUSTRIAL ESTATE
Hippo Trust in Zimbabwe. of human habitation on the river SWINDON WILTS SN2 2DU
British citizen Karen Paolillo has environment which supports a wide
dedicated the last 20 years to range of wildlife such as elephants,
protecting and improving the lives antelope, baboons and vervet TEL: 01793 536784
of hippos living in the Turqwe River monkeys.
in the south east of the country, “Thousands of visitors have SANSUM SAND & GRAVEL SUPPLY TO THE
close to the borders with South experienced the unique bond that GENERAL PUBLIC AND TRADE CUSTOMERS
Africa and Mozambique. Karen has formed with ‘her’ hippos,
Sarah first made contact with each with its own name. She is
Karen in 2010 and has become a now assisted by game scouts who BRICKS,
keen supporter, helping to print remove hundreds of snares each CONCRETE BLOCKS,
and mail an annual calendar to year. To date not one hippo has
supporters around the world. been poached. CELCON BLOCKS,
She said: “Karen’s story is quite Karen welcomes paying visitors BLOCK PAVING,
amazing. She was a trained safari and hands-on volunteers. See
guide and in 1992 was building a www.savethehippos.com for more PATIO SLABS, SAND,
home above the river which was information. GRAVEL, TOP SOIL, BARK,
drying up from the worst drought Karen has written a fascinating
in living memory. She decided to and moving autobiography ‘A CANTABURY SPAR,
rescue the last 13 surviving hippos Hippo Love Story’. It’s published LANDSCAPE FABRIC,
and had to provide over a ton by Penguin South Africa and is
of food a night, and lay a water not available in the UK. However DRAINAGE CHANNELS,
pipeline to a newly constructed Sarah Chilvers has copies signed by
cement pan from the nearest water Karen at £16 including p&p. It’s also BUILDING CHEMICALS,
source over 18 kilometres away. available on Kindle. ROCK SALT AND CEMENT
“Since then 47 calves have been Contact Sarah for the book or
born and there are several family a Turge Hippo Trust calendar at: www.sansums.co.uk
groups along her part of the river, [email protected]
swindonlink.com n November 2015 39