Jamies-Journie-Million-Dollar-Fitness

Hey everybody, just an update on our October fundraising efforts.

We are teamed up with Jamie’s Journie after we realised that every one of the children that had been nominated by you guys would ALL benefit instead of just one child.

Here’s an outline of our events.

I knew I could count on you all … together we are AWESOME and a force to be reckoned with ‪#‎teammilliondollar‬

Find out more about Jamie’s Journie >>here<<

Jamies Journie MDF Cheque Presentation

Photo: GC Photography

P.S. fundraising update on 2nd November… Total Raised so far by #TeamMillionDollar is £3860!!

P.P.S. fundraising update on 22nd November… Grand Total Raised by #TeamMillionDollar is £5620!!

Dee McCahill

Million Dollar Fitness

Pledge My Pounds

5th – 31st October

For every lb you lost, I donated £1 and you amazing people pledged forfeits too.

Open to members only.

UPDATE!!

Total raised : £690

Errigal Climb

Sunday 25th October 

A family day out including Top Of Errigal ‪#‎RandomBurpee‬s

UPDATE!! 

Over 40 of us climbed Errigal and raised £1290

Fancy Dress Coffee Morning

Saturday 31st October

FANCY DRESS PLEASE!!
  • Face Painting 11am – 12 noon.
  • Cakes, piggery and LOTS of non-healthy treats. All organised, baked and donated by the wonderful girls at Million Dollar.
  • Burpee Challenge at 1pm to work off the piggery. Prize for highest male score and highest female score (1 minute).
  • AWESOME RAFFLE tickets on sale now, ask a member. See below for prizes.

UPDATE!! 

We received £425 in donations

raffle-ticket
Awesome Raffle Prizes included:

12 Week Gold Membership for Million Dollar Fitness

1 x Free Carwash EVERY WEEK for 1 Year from The Carwash Hatmore

Vouchers for Fitzroys and Quaywest

Gel Nails

Photoshoot

Afternoon Tea at The Beech Hill Country House Hotel

Afternoon Tea at The Everglades Hotel

Hampers

Cut & Blow Dries, Blow Dries

Reflexology

and lots more!!!

UPDATE!!
Over 20 prizes were donated by local businesses.
Total raised £1455

Jamie has sent me an email authorising #teammilliondollar to fundraise on his behalf.

Dee,

Can I firstly thank you for deciding to support Jamie’s Journie in the month of October.

I am Jamie and I am 16 years old. I have beaten cancer twice and survived many complications and as a result have been left with life long complications and health problems. I can understand this but I could never come to grips with the isolation that families felt when given the diagnoses of Cancer. Families in The North West are travelling up to 200 miles round trip up to 7 days a week and to do this whilst on chemo or radio is hard enough.

My idea was always simple as only families with a child or young person affected by Cancer can understand what effect this has on a family so bring them together to break the isolation and we have an already made support group.

I launched Jamie’s Journie on FB with the intention of building a website where people in similar situations can chat in seperate rooms. This is still a goal of ours but we have found the families need support and after 5 short months we have done some amazing things and have also decided to help local children and young people affected by Cancer in any way so this can be a sibling or child of a person battling cancer.

We also found that when a child passes away from Cancer they are left isolated so I had the absolute pleasure of recently including a little boy, who gained his Angel Wings in April 2014, in his parents wedding by decorating the reception with Niall’s name and pictures and sending batman to the reception in his memory.

We also take families out to the cinema, airsoft, Jungle King, shows in The Forum etc etc and have a VIP experience once a month. We recently had 27 children walk in a catwalk show to Highlight Cancer awareness month and it was a massive success, we also have the pleasure of sending our families for photoshoots.

Recently 1 of our little kids was rushed to The Royal due to Shingles and we decided to make emergency Hampers, including essentials for both the parents and child and have named them Rory’s Rescue Packs and overnight we delivered it up to him. We are currently planning Mrs Claus visits to all the houses and a big Christmas Party so as you can imagine its quite busy buy thankfully my mum and dad take on most of the leg work as I don’t keep very well and I can do my part mostly from my bed.

None of the above would be remotely possible without people’s generosity and we have quite simply been overwhelmed by the people in The North West.

100% of donations to Jamies Journie goes back to the families and this is very important to us as we are simply a family who understand the cancer Journie.

I am flying to Lourdes as we speak and I authorise you’s to collect money on behalf of my community and my liase with my mum in regards pr and I look forward to meeting you next week.

Many Thanks,

 

Jamie

Jamie's Journie

Jamie’s Story

At 10 years old my main worry was doing the entrance exam and getting into a good secondary school! My name is Jamie and I was an only child and me and my mum and dad did everything together!

They worked hard and we played hard! We loved our family holidays as my parents worked 6 day weeks! My mum got pregnant with our much longed-for little sister in June 2010, as we were heading on our last family holiday to Greece as just 3 of us!

This is when we can take my symptoms back to (hindsight’s a great thing!) Usually on hols I never leave the pool or sea! I was always a water baby as mum and dad called me! But in Greece I just couldn’t get up! I lay on a lounger as I was so tired!

In September 2010 I started Lumen Christi as a wee first year, having got in the top 1% in the entrance exam! Life was good! As first year started I took a sore throat and a chest infection, I was tired and had developed a cough! After a visit to the doc and an antibiotic, things calmed down although the tiredness and cough continued!

I was a purple belt in Ju Jitsu, a swimmer, in the Derry Orchestra and in Lumen’s orchestra, so we put the tiredness down to the hectic schedule of secondary school!

My Mum started her maternity leave on the 10th of December 2010 and we couldn’t wait for our 1st Christmas when we were all off together as my mum was a retail manager and her Christmas hours were nuts!

It wasn’t to be…..my maternal nanny was rushed into hospital that very morning and was in congestive heart failure! For 3 days she was critical but my nanny fought back! Eventually on Christnas Eve my nanny was brought home as she was terminally ill and didn’t want to die in hospital! We all stayed up in my nanny’s over Christmas as she wasn’t expected to live for more than a few days!

I was so worried about my mammy – she was heavily pregnant with my little sister who we had named Faith – as were the doctors, so my mammy was to have her on her due date which was the 14th Feb just 2 days before I turned 12!

My nanny still held on and actually improved and her cardiologist was amazed although she required 24 hour care! I also continued having chest infections and coughing and my mum and dad were constantly taking me to the docs where eventually they diagnosed asthma! We had to attend the asthma clinic weekly!

My poor mum was taken into hospital in the 13th Feb to be induced and had my little sister on the 14th Feb 2011 but there was huge complications! Although this was hidden from me at the time and my nanny, as she wasn’t allowed to be stressed and my mum almost died!

I sat on the Wed, my birthday, holding my baby sister and my mum finally began to improve although she had along way to go. I remember her crying that she was so sorry that she had ruined my birthday and we would celebrate soon! I knew she was really ill, as it was constant blood transfusions for 3 days although my parents were trying to protect me! I didn’t want to be anywhere else but in that room with my mum, dad and new little sister who was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen and the smallest!

Mum finally got home and dad eventually had to return to work and I loved helping mum with Faith! She was the cutest! Meanwhile my cough persisted and I began to lose a lot of weight, Mum and dad were cracking up with the amount of infections I was having and I was just so tired but Faith kept me going! I never missed a day at school and ran home each day to give her her 4 o’clock feed!

Then my little sister took really unwell and was rushed into hospital with late onset Group B strep! Thankfully this was caught early and she was home again! By this stage my parents were demanding tests on me as I was definitely ill and it was serious and in June 2011 I was diagnosed with stage 4b Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and was immediately taken to the Royal Children’s Cancer unit where I had lots of tests and operations and started immediately on aggressive chemo for 6 months!

It wasn’t too bad but the steroids were awful! They blew me up to twice my weight and were the worst part of the chemo! My mum and dad both had to stop work as travelling to Belfast 7 days a week or 1 parent with me and 1 with the baby was impossible! ( My mum always says she just feels so sorry for single parents on this Journie!)

Overnight we were in the cancer bubble and the Journie began! I don’t refer to it as a fight because every child or teen fights, it’s just the lucky ones who don’t die! There is no reasoning behind who lives and dies it’s just luck honestly! I finished my chemo at Christmas and then my body went into shock and I couldn’t get out of bed for months! I completed my radio and was finally in remission in Aug 2012!

I got back to school and collapsed and my mum and dad knew it was back and I took every complication imaginable including renal failure and ended up in intensive care and finally started treatment again in February 2013 getting prepared for a stem cell transplant! This was a Million times harder both physically and mentally and I spent most of 2013 in hospital critically ill and this accumulated in 2 brain hemorrhages in Sept 2013, the same month I finished my transplant!

I finally came home Oct 2013 and started to try and build myself up! I couldn’t eat and I was so tired! It was an awful few months! They thought the cancer was back! Throughout it all I found the isolation the worst! They don’t like families becoming friends in case the child dies but it’s impossible! The only people that know what this Journie is like is someone in a similar situation!

I have had a horrendous 2 years post transplant and finally last Monday was told that I have a thing called ANS which is total central nervous system failure caused by the chemo and radio and will be battling this for the rest of my life! It’s a chronic acute illness but we will just have to learn how to control it and push on!

Jamie‘s Journie was my idea from 2 years ago! I wanted something in the North West where we could support other families! I wanted an online family that understood and where you could chat to someone when you needed to! We launched at the end of May this year! We have days out and VIP experiences for children or teens affected by cancer! We close down the cinema and Jungle King and let children with no immune system get out and have a bit of fun!

We send gifts to hospital for those that are stuck in! We are building the website at the minute! This last 2 months have been crazy! We held a fashion show on 27th sept where we let the kids and teens feel like supermodels and get their confidence back!

I counsel teens on my FB page and they help me heal mentally too!

I started Rory’s Rescue Packs which are baskets of essentials when you are 80 miles from home and have to stay in isolation in an emergency! There is no day to day support for families affected by cancer and I don’t believe that’s fair!

A wee boy called Rory was rushed up in September with shingles and they didn’t even have time to pack, so we took these 2 baskets with an envelope of money for diesel up to Belfast, as we knew exactly what they needed from a child’s point of view – and a parent’s – when you’re in isolation in the Royal. The packs are named after Rory.

I hope I help one person on their Journie and we do it all by 100 % donations! 100 % goes back to the families as cancer is a Journie for everyone! I also support families that have lost their children! In Sept I incorporated Niall into his parents wedding in every way possible! From getting his mum blue-encrusted shoes with Niall’s name on them to sending Batman who was his favourite superhero!

I blog everyday and I fight sickness everyday! I am not a registered charity, I am part of a family and my mum and dad do as much as me if not more! They take all the flack off me as I tire easily! We are sending Mrs Claus to all the children and are doing Christmas Eve boxes at the minute for her to give the kids!

When Jamie‘s Journie website is up and running I will have lots of chat rooms for mums, dads, teens, boys, girls, or one on one chats! The only person that can understand childhood cancer is those that have suffered it so let’s turn our most negative experience into helping others! I also help children who have a parent with cancer now as I met a little girl who had been her mums cater for year and had no support!

They are 2 baskets one which contains a small kettle, DVDs, coffee, tea, cup-a-soups and things for the parent including toiletries. And then a basket for the child containing pjs, underwear, toiletries, games for hospitals and toys!

Jamie! X