Jill Strachan and members of staff from Marlow Marks & Spencers successfully finished their walk to Henley from Marlow on 3rd July collecting en route nearly £300 for Harry's Fund at the Meningitis Research Foundation. Additional sponsorship has also been raised.
Fund raising started on 1st June 2010 and will continue to run for the next 100 days. M&S expect to raise £1 million for local charities across all stores, during this period.
The intrepid ramblers are pictured from left to right Cameron, Jill, Wanda, Doug, Clowie and Yvonne.
The total funds raised in memory of Harry are as follows (all on-line and off-line donations) : Meningitis Trust £2871.50 Meningitis Research Foundation £91,419.06 Youth Sports Trust £6748.67 Total £101,039.23
Many thanks from the Mills family for all your efforts. This is a fantastic sum of money that is still growing. A wonderful tribute to Harry's memory.
MENINIGITIS VACCINES
Harry died of infection from a strain of the Meningitis B virus and septicaemia. The difficulty with finding a vaccine for MenB is that many strains exist and the immune system does not recognise it as a threat.
We have attempted to provide an update on vaccines and further information and guidance on progress. Should you have any questions or need further information please email to richardm@flexit-resources.co.uk.
Linda Glennie, Head of Research and Medical Information, Meningitis Research Foundation, has provided the following update for Harry's Fund Raisers.. "Menveo (licensed by Novartis) has just received its European Licence today, so suddenly it’s news again.
Menveo could be quite significant, but unfortunately it doesn’t cover meningococcal B. It does cover meningococcal A, C, W135 and Y. It’s the same technology as the MenC vaccine so we all expect it to work very well. For now it will probably be used in the UK for travellers to places with high incidence of MenA or MenW135 like Africa and Saudi Arabia, for people with particular immunodeficiencies that make infection with MenY or MenW135 more likely, or people who are household contacts of someone who is ill with one of these strains.
However, a bigger question is whether the UK should use Menveo routinely. Many people think that in order to maintain immunity to MenC, we will need a teenage booster introduced in the near future. Instead of using MenC for that, we could use Menveo. The number of cases of Men A,Y and W135 in the UK is quite low—just over 70 cases in 2008, more in 2009 but the figures aren’t published yet. Some people think these numbers are too low to warrant using Menveo. However, if you can save 70 people from potential death or disability just by switching one vaccine for another, we think there’s a pretty strong case actually. Also, a teenage booster would catch people at the age when they are most likely to go off travelling to places that may well have higher risk of these strains even if they aren’t on an official list of high risk destinations. The US for example has quite high numbers of MenY cases.
Also, it looks like cases of MenY are starting to go up—still very low, but the rate of increase is starting to make people take notice. In the US, they went from having almost no MenY cases to MenY accounting for around a third of all meningo cases within a very few years.
At the moment Menveo is licensed for ages 11 to 55. However, there is very good evidence that it protects in younger children, so a licence for babies and children may not be too far away. Once that happens, the vaccine could be used more widely."
See the following for further information (click on each):-
We're delighted to be running Harry's lunch for the third year on Wednesday 22nd September 2010. It will be held once again at St Katherines in Parmoor and the chosen charity this year is the Child Bereavement Trust.
The menu will be a choice of Salmon with Pesto Crust, Chicken Provencale or the vegetarian option of Aubergine and Mozzarella Bake/ Towers. This will be served with seasonal vegetables and minted potatoes. This will be followed by a dessert of Chocolate Brownie with Cream or Meringue Hedgehogs with Fruit Couli. Tea and Coffee will then be served.
Please could you advise us of your choice when booking your ticket.
We do hope you can come along and bring your friends. It would be lovely to see you all again this year for this fun and sociable occasion and also to raise valuable funds for charity. As you know we do like a theme and this year is no different. It is to be Harvest time with the addition of hedgehogs!
An annual event, the Merlins Awards Evening is an opportunity for the parents & boys to get together over a curry and celebrate achievements both on and off the pitch.
The Harry Mills award was presented by Ali Buckle, Head Coach & Judi Mills and recognised ‘enthusiasm, passion and commitment’ to rugby and Marlow RFC in particular.This year’s winner was Leighton Jones who despite not having anyone playing for the Merlins, faithfully coaches every week, a smile on his face, through wind, rain and snow, thereby demonstrating Harry’s values.
Ali went on to say "Leighton Jones is Fixtures Secretary and a senior player at the club and asked the Merlins whether we needed any coaching help at the start of last season. He has two girls and a very young son, none of whom play rugby, so he comes down to help out purely because he loves the club, the game and the age group. He makes training fun, and the boys have really benefitted from his unique coaching style this season. A worthy winner of our most special award, which this year took the form of a nice "Harry" engraved tankard."
Over Easter, Marlow Merlins toured in France, playing Montigny-le-Bretonneux u15s. Hard fought, the boys played well but eventually lost to the stronger French side.
John Watson (Marlow Merlins) presented the winners with a pair of ‘Harry’s socks’ and said that the team would be remembering Harry with a minute’s silence during their game on 25th April.The French players were touched by Harry’s story and wanted to wear the socks at their next match, Thierry Lucidarme (Montigny-le-Brettoneux) sent the attached photos of his team wearing ‘Harry’s socks’ during a match the following weekend.
Harry’s socks were also presented to Dorset (see email below)..
“Just to let you know that that the Merlin's remembered Harry today. We travelled to North Dorset, we told them of Harry and what he meant to us and gave their captain a pair of "HM" socks. We then had 30 seconds of clapping and a noisy 3 cheers for Harry. We came second in the rugby but made some great friends and hopefully they will visit us next season.” The teams are pictured observing a minutes silence for Harry.
The Marlow Mini Rugby Tournament played host to over 2000 young rugby players and supporters. Since Harry died, a special trophy has been awarded in his memory to the winning u12s side. London Irish were the victors. A strong team, this is the second time an U12 side from their club has won the Harry Mills Memorial Cup. England & Wasps player joined us for the presentation along with Rhys Durkin from London Irish who himself had meningitis as a baby and has come along to the presentation of Harry’s Cup every March since 2008.
Steve King joined 54,000 runners for September 2009’s Great North Run in Newcastle and 2,000 entrants for the Marlow 5, running for the Meningitis Research Foundation. He completed the both races in excellent times and raised a total of £1650.
15 year old Guy Lambert ran the Marlow 5, a 5mile road race around Marlow.He achieved an impressive time of 40mins 33secs and raised £50 for the Meningitis Trust. He intends to run it again next year when his mother Jane runs for the first time – is he worried?Nah!
John Hampden established a permanent memorial to Harry and Year 8 pupil, Benny May (who died in an accident May 10th2007) in the form of a rose garden.Located in the main quad with a simple stone plaque, the garden is an oasis of tranquillity amongst the hustle and bustle of everyday school life.
Vicky Tippell (on the right with Jenny - Harry's sister) and friend Michael 'Spiderman' Greene have hit their £500 target running the Bath Half Marathon. To date £680 have been raised for the Meningitis Research Foundation. You can still donate at their Justgiving site.
They can be seen on the attached photo looking remarkably cool and relaxed after all the exertion.
Under clear blue skies and a warm autumnal sun, Jessica Denton and her uncle James Hughes took on the challenge of the Great North Run raising £1350 for the Youth Sport Trust & Meningitis Research Foundation. Having trained for several months, they were delighted with their finishing times of 2 hours 25 minutes coming 28958th out of a total 54,000 runners. As they went over the finishing line, the Red Arrows began their breathtaking aerial display – an apt salute to a fantastic effort!
Jessica has been so bitten by the running bug that she is now considering attempting the London Marathon….watch this space!
The theme of this year’s Harry’s Lunch was ‘butterflies’ to tie in with the Harry’s Garden event at Butterfly World. Around 100 people attended the lunch, held at St. Katharine’s, Parmoor, and helped raise just under £2500 for the Meningitis Research Foundation which this year celebrates its 20th anniversary. The event was organised by Wendi Parcell, Florence MacGregor, Sue Robertson & Judi.
In addition to a fantastic array of butterfly themed raffle prizes donated by local businesses, individuals and internet companies there was also a silent auction featuring a number of unique items such as original artwork, a bespoke butterfly cushion and a signed copy of Heston Blumenthal’s The Big Fat Duck Cookbook.
Fern Alder, the award winning garden designer spoke about how she created Harry’s Garden, and about how the sunflowers and sweetpeas grown by guests at last year’s event were used. Guests were able to see how the garden progressed from little more than a building site to the finished result from a display of photographs, brochures and news articles. Upon leaving, they were presented with Butterfly World discount vouchers and a packet of Mr Fothergill’s Butterfly World seed collection.
Harry's Garden and the Butterfly World site has now become the most amazing display of wild flowers. It is described as another world and a wonderful display of colour with tens of thousands of plants. See attached links for updates....
Congratulations to Rory kempson who was awarded Harry's Cup at the Marlow Rugby Club Marlow Merlins Team. This is the team Harry played for and the award was made at the end of season presentation on Friday 19th June. A great evening for the boys and Mums and Dads as Ali Buckle conducted proceedings (in the way only he can) and reminded us all of a great season. Richard and Judi presented the cup to Rory.
This is a lovely way for Harry to be remembered by his mates from his rugby team.
Harry’s Garden, part of the Future Gardens/Butterfly World Project was officially opened on 4th June by Emilia Fox & David Bellamy – both patrons of Butterfly World.Around 1000 people attended the event, including 300 representatives from the gardening and national press. Clive Farrell, founder of the project, made special reference to Harry’s Garden in his speech to the press and later introduced us to Emilia Fox who has sponsored the garden.
As the press entered through the rugby posts they were greeted by bubbles from a bubble machine and Fern Alder (garden designer) wearing some impressive butterfly wings.Many of the flowers, including the alliums and sweet peas were in full bloom and looking fantastic, others such as the wild flower bank will come into their own as the summer progresses.The sunflowers (grown by Harry’s friends) are getting much taller & sturdier but won’t flower until later on, so children from Jack & Jill Nursery produced some handprint sunflowers for us to place in the border especially for press day. June Kingsbury’s resin football and rugby balls, strategically placed in Fern’s experimental straw bales, were much admired as were Fern’s green hedgehogs. & naturalistic plantings. We were delighted that Iain & Neil from the Meningitis Research Foundation and Sue from the Child Bereavement Charity were able to come along, and hope that Harry’s Garden will help raise awareness of the wonderful work these two charities do.Harry’s Garden is open until October and will then be replaced by a new charity garden each year.
The 12 Future Gardens competition gardens are all strikingly different with themes ranging from ‘Narratives of Nature’ to ‘Urban Greening’ and created by both established international designers and some less well known. They have all been designed to develop over the 4 months that the gardens remain open. The main site is amazing and children in particular will love to explore the Very Hungry Caterpillar’s edible garden, the Theatre of Insects and the ‘Through the Flowerpot’ garden, where like Alice through the looking glass you are shrunk to Lilliputian size.There’s also a giant leafcutter ant sitting atop an anthill on the edge of the site as well as a tropical butterfly house – a temporary structure until the giant dome is completed in 2011.
Although this is just Phase 1 there is lots to see and do and makes a great day out.
It’s located just off junction 21A of the M25 on the outskirts of St Albans – around a 30minutes drive from Marlow.
The following are a number of events and activities that have taken or are taking place in Harry's name. A number of upcoming events are also highlighted on the home page. Click on the pictures to view a full size version.
Events and Photographs Lots of events & activities are being planned in Harry's memory - please do send in any details that you have. If you have photographs of any of the events please send them in as well. Please forward anything for inclusion to Richard, Harry's Dad at: richardm@flexit-resources.co.uk
Newspaper Coverage If you’d like newspaper coverage, contacts are listed below: Bucks Free Press: - Ann Marie Canavan email amcanavan@london.newsquest.co.uk tel: 01494 755084 Maidenhead Advertiser: - Richard Catton email richardc@maidenads.co.uk tel: 01628 678221
Donations and Gift Aid – Ways to Donate Donations or sponsorship for any of these events can be made through Harry’s website. Please indicate in the “comments” column on the donation page the event that you have supported. Any other donations that are made to events direct can be sent with a “Gift Aid” form that enables the tax (if you are a UK taxpayer) to be reclaimed (28 pence in the £). You can download a standard form by clicking here.
