The Lord Mayor’s Appeal 2007-2008
A message from the Lord Mayor
The Lady Mayoress and I see the Lord Mayoralty as very much a joint effort and have, not surprisingly, chosen two charities to support this year: The Bradford Cancer Support Daisy Appeal and The Ear Trust Listening for Life Appeal. Both are Bradford based, both are involved in building new centres for their service users and deserve significant support from us. We are also supporting them because our own life experiences have shown a real need for these charities as, without them, there is a serious gap in our support services.
Bradford Cancer Support supports people living with Cancer from the moment they are first diagnosed. Equally importantly the charity supports the family and carers of the person with cancer. To this day The Lady Mayoress regrets that when her mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer there was no-one on hand to advise her about support which would have allowed The Lady Mayoress to spend more time with her mother in those final weeks.
The Daisy Appeal was set up to raise the £1.1 million needed to provide a new centre to meet the needs of local cancer patients and their families. The centre will replace the existing building at Daisy Bank which is now very overcrowded due to expansion of services over the past 16 years.
Another deserving Bradford based charity is the Ear Trust, which was established in 1990 and primarily supports the work carried out by the Yorkshire Cochlear Implant Service (YCIS). This service has developed nationally over the years and is now widely acclaimed as being a high quality, caring and innovative branch of audiological science, improving the quality of life for profoundly deaf children and adults. This facility is the brainchild of Mr Chris Raine, a Consultant ENT Surgeon of international repute. Chris and his team are currently based at Bradford Royal Infirmary. The success and growth of this leading edge work has led to the need for a new facility to maintain and develop the service. The appeal “Listening for Life” will build a centre catering for patients, families and professionals throughout Yorkshire and beyond. It will integrate clinical, educational and community needs, offer a friendly environment (including a children’s play area), assessment rooms and sophisticated sound proofed testing rooms for both children and adults. The centre will also offer teaching and workshop areas for educational purposes, where patients and their families can meet.
Sadly, although deafness is an unseen disease, it may affect us all at some stage. In order to nurture the success already achieved and to build the “Listening for Life” centre which will afford so many adults and children the opportunity of a much brighter future, your support is vital. Without it, this most worthy cause will not receive the boost it so richly deserves.
One of the interesting features of these two charities is the interconnections we have discovered. Mr Raine’s wife, Dr Anne Raine is a cancer specialist and well acquainted with the Daisy appeal. Many of the people we approached to help with the Lord Mayor’s appeal have connections with both charities and have raised money for both. This reinforces our belief that we have chosen two much needed charities and we would urge everyone to please support them in whatever way they feel able.
Councillor Robin Owens,
Lord Mayor
