Steve Howe once again ran a 2nd charity hair cutting day raising £202 for the charity.
Some customers even went to the trouble of having PICU cut onto the back of their heads.
Immortalized for a short time anyway !!!
Steve was joined by local counciller Don Thomas and Heart FM's Jules to help with the fundrasing day, who he wishes to send special thanks to.
Steve would like to thank all the people who supported him this year and is in the process of planning next years event which he hopes will be bigger and better.

To find out about Steves next event and to show your support to him visit his website
www.stevesbarbers.co.uk

On Monday 22nd June 2009, Luke Parry and Paul Rockett of Milestone and Graham Russell and Steve Saunders of Alno, will attempt to play 18 holes of golf in one day stretching from Kent to the most western tip of Cornwall, in aid of two charities close to their hearts – Friends of PICU and CHASE Hospice Care for Children.

Their route will take them through 8 counties, travelling in excess of 400 miles and will last over 17 hours!

They will attempt to play two holes at each of the following venues who have generously agreed to help them in their challenge:

• The London Club, Kent
• RAC Woodcote Park, Surrey
• Mannings Heath, Sussex
• Cams Hall, Hampshire
• Ferndown, Dorset
• Taunton & Pickeridge, Somerset
• Woodbury Park, Devon
• Trevose, Cornwall
• Cape Cornwall, Cornwall

The Longest 18 holers are aiming to raise £5,000 for each of the two charities, and therefore your help and support would be greatly appreciated.

If you would like to sponsor them, please visit their website (http://www.milestone-event.com/longest_18_holes.asp) for details.

In addition to the challenge, they are also holding a Prize Draw with numerous fantastic raffle prizes up for grabs. These include:

• One pair of return economy flight tickets to JFK, New York - donated by Virgin Atlantic
• Custom fit driver fitted at the Callaway Golf Performance Centre in Chessington – dontated by Callaway Golf
• Half a day RIB charter on the Solent (for 7 people) – donated by JM Yachting
• And many, many more!

Raffle tickets cost £2.00 each and details on how to obtain them can be found on their website above. The prize draw will be made on Monday 29th June 2009 and winners will be notified by email.

Skydiving has long been accepted as a popular and effective method of raising funds for charity, but our charity have never had anyone to make that leap of faith... until now!

Friends of PICU are proud to announce that Charlie and Pete Staples have decided to become our first charity skydivers by performing a sponsored 14,000 feet tandem freefall parachute jump on Friday 7th August, at Netheravon, Salisbury.

Unfortunately, the couple's reason for jumping is a sad one as they lost their precious three-week old son, Seth, last December whilst in the care of the PICU.
Charlie explains: "Seth was only with us for 24 days and that is a journey of which we will never forget. We both want to give something back to the department that did so much to try and save Seths life. They are a dedicated team of Surgeons, Consultants and nurses and their devotion and kindness helped us through what was a truly traumatic time."

If you would like to support our inaugural skydivers, then please visit their JustGiving webpage:

http://www.justgiving.com/charlieandpetestaples

Friends of PICU are now looking for other daredevils like the Staples' to step forward and perform parachute jumps on its behalf, and in return we are willing to pay for the priviledge!

Willing skydivers will need to raise a minimum of £445 in sponsorship money in order to jump for free (you will need to pay a £45 deposit), and in return Friends of PICU will receive an average donation of £156. In addition to this, every extra pound that you raise over and above the minimum sponsorship comes straight to the charity.

For more information on performing a charity skydive, please call Eddie Manchip on 023 9237 9044 or send an e-mail to secretary@friendsofpicu.org.uk.

Well done to Madeleine and Richard Stamvik, who completed the Reading Half Marathon in 2 hours 23 minutes, despite it being Madeleine's first attempt at a half marathon and Richard suffering from a bad back!

The couple ran the marathon on Sunday 29th March to raise funds for Southampton General's PICU who helped saved the life of their friends son, Ollie, during his struggle with meningitis and septicaemia.

Madeleine was pleased to be able to visit Ollie in hospital recently, and reported that, "Ollie is doing very well and I got loads of smiles, waves and clapping hands. He is still on dialysis and won't eat a lot, but as soon as he decides to do this he'll be heading home."

Madeleine and Richard have (so far) managed to raise over £1400, but they are still looking for more sponsorship.

If you would like to help them, then please visit:
http://www.justgiving.com/picu_stamvik

Following the Friends of PICU AGM this week, we have a new treasurer, Rebecca Manchip.

Our thanks go to Rosie who has done a sterling job over the last three years and is now Community Fundraising Officer/School Liason Officer.

Any donations or correspondence should now be forwarded to:

Friends of PICU
16 Blake Road
Farlington
Portsmouth
PO6 1ET

Grateful parents Paul Casey and Rachel Slade along with their son Rory, from Southampton, presented the Southampton General Hospital’s P.I.C.U unit with a life-saving piece of equipment on Thursday 4th December.

The Apnoea Alarm which is used to assess the breathing patterns of small babies on the unit once they have been taken off a ventilator machine, is being presented by the couple to say thank-you to the staff who cared for their son Rory.

Dad, Paul, has described the care his son received as being, “Exemplary and everything we could have hoped for.” He describes the gift as, “A way of saying thank-you to the excellent staff who did everything they could to care for Rory.”

The alarm, which cost £650, will enable the staff in the special unit, to continue caring for hundreds of the south’s children. Critical care nurse, Jo Palmer says, “A baby often forgets how to breath once they have been put on ventilator and so the Apnoea Alarm is a key piece of equipment. Our sincere thanks go to Paul and Rachel for making this very kind donation.”

FRIENDS OF PICU CHARITY DINNER
The Friends of PICU held their inaugural charity ball at the Botliegh Grange Hotel on the 19th of July. The evening was a great success the diners were treated to a classical harpist whilst they dined and then sang and danced the night away with Andy McKellar’s rock and roll performance. A raffle and an auction were also held including items such as signed football and cricket shirt and TV memorabilia donated by our patrons Sarah Parrish and James Murray. Everyone had a great time and over £1100 was raised. This money will be used to help buy a Sonisite machine which detects blood vessels for cannula insertion for the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit at Southampton General Hospital.
Next year’s ball will be on 1st August 2009 at the Botliegh Grange Hotel so put it in your diary for another great night out helping raise more funds to help seriously ill children in the south.

Thank you to everyone who came to visit our stall and, take a tour of the retrieval ambulance. Despite the wet day a large crowd visited this family open day at the Hampshire Fire & Rescue Headquaters in Eastleigh. Amongst the attractions were a selection of vintage fire engines on display and demonstrations of fire fighters in action extinguishing fires and performing mock rescues from old cars.
Back at the Friends Of P.I.C.U stall the doughnuts proved a big hit with young and old visitors. The sale of which amongst other items helped us to raise £180.00.

The New P.I.C.U retrieval Ambulance. It replaces the existing six year old ambulance and begun operations retrieving critically ill children from referring hospitals in the south east region last Wednesday (14th May). Its crew complement on a typical retrieval is a Doctor, Nurse, Technician and Driver. It can carry one stretcher/pod/incubator and the monitoring required for the ongoing care of a child while in transit. Rosie can be seen pointing to some of this equipment stored beneath the retrieval trolley.
For anyone who likes to know the mechanical side of the vehicle. We are told that beneath the hood is a 4.0Lt V6 Mercedes diesel engine. The Mercedes chassis is slightly (30cm) longer than the standard NHS frontline ambulance