Charity News

With the World Para Athletics Championships well underway in London, it seems a good time to share my own story of disabled challenges…

by KFA Test Analyst, Dan Hammond

The KFA Test Team are currently in training for a 17-mile sponsored ‘Walk for Wheels’ along Bournemouth seafront to help raise money to purchase a new powered wheelchair.

My wife Anna is a wheelchair user and an adventurous wheelchair user at that. One of the main things that enables her to continue being adventurous and active while her condition worsens over time… is a powered wheelchair.

Her current powered chair is over 10 years old and is becoming unreliable and harder to maintain. To the extent that it can break down and leave her stranded – which is a bit of a worry, especially if she is out on her own.

So Anna and I will be completing a number of sponsored challenges this year!

Not only to raise the money so desperately needed to buy her a new chair; but in the hope that we may also inspire other disabled people to get out there, be adventurous and push the boundaries of their physical capabilities, as well as people’s preconceptions of what is achievable.

Test Driving a potential new chair

The challenges will test us both and will also probably be a test for Anna’s ageing power wheelchair.  In fact, some of the sponsor money may have to be spent on several rolls of gaffer tape to hold the old wheelchair (and possibly me as well) together!

Fundraising is the only way we can get her a new powered wheelchair, which is vital in enabling her to continue enjoying her passions of the great outdoors, dog walking and continuing her voluntary work with the Girl Guides.  It will go a long way in allowing her to live a normal life for as long as she can.

In addition to our own personal challenges, my fellow KFA Test Team members have also nobly stepped up to the plate and showed great support by setting up their own 17-mile sponsored ‘Walk for Wheels’ along Bournemouth seafront.  Their intrepid effort is very much appreciated and typical of the personal support always offered by everyone at KFA.

Thanks, guys & gals!

Dan Hammond, Test Analyst

KFA Sponsor Ringwood Carnival

We are thrilled to be Bronze Sponsors of Ringwood Carnival again this year, for the second year running!

Following our office relocation from Wimborne St Giles to Ringwood back in May 2016, we really wanted to get involved in Ringwood life and this seemed a really great way to do that!

The Carnival is on Saturday the, 16th September 2017 – a fun day of events including an afternoon procession at 2:00 pm and evening procession at 7:15 pm

Ringwood Carnival is a charity and the event helps support the local community.

There will be Community Floats, Marching Bands, Steam Engine & Feature Cars, Kids Entertainers,  Charity Stalls, Face Painting, Food Stalls, Adlam’s Funfair and Fireworks at 9:30 pm.

See you there!

Sixteen enthusiastic members of the KFA Connect team help out at Naomi House & Jacksplace.

We took on a number of jobs in the gardens and grounds of Naomi House & Jacksplace hospice with the usual KFA attitude – to get the job done and do it to the best of our ability.

We were ready for action! Some of us were a bit worried that our skill set didn’t lend itself very well to a day of gardening – but we didn’t need to worry as we were not allowed anywhere near any flowers (very wise).

Half the team got to work rubbing down the amazing ‘pirate ship’ area in the main garden and gave it a coat of stain to protect it from the weather and rain. We also had the opportunity to see some children using the play equipment in the garden, which is a really well-equipped fun and safe area for them.

The other half of the team (who possibly drew the short straw) were shifting wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of breeze blocks, bricks, tiles and other building materials. They needed to be moved from a storage area into a skip, to make space for a new storage shed. My hat goes off to this team as they had been given the dirtiest and heaviest task – but frankly, didn’t seem to care and when offered the chance to swap roles at lunchtime, were horrified at the thought of not being able to finish what they had started….

We also stained the shed where they store the outdoor play equipment like the helmets, bikes, scooters and trikes for the children to use in the garden.

In the morning we were very happy that the weather was so amazing and we all had the chance to spend the day outside, then halfway through the day we were wishing is wasn’t quite so hot. An ice-cream (thanks to Joe’s wife, Laura) came at just the right time in the day to keep us all going!

We managed to finish everything – just in time for some amazing homemade cake provided by Naomi House, which was very much appreciated! We also got the chance to meet an amazing young girl who benefits from being able to use this facility – she was interested in what the noisy lot in the garden were up to and it was lovely to meet her!

We left with a great sense of pride in what we had achieved and how well we had worked as a team. We had great fun, but it also really brought it home to all of us how fortunate we are and how helping the children, young adults and families in the way Naomi House & Jacksplace do, is crucial for these families who so need their help.

A very humbling experience…

Thanks for having us Naomi House & Jacksplace!

26/05/2017
Written by: Nicki Smith

Lotus Flower Trust funds the building of schools and homes in remote, rural and often environmentally challenging areas of India.

The Fordingbridge based charity, led by John Hunt concentrate their efforts in the mountainous Himalayan areas of Ladakh, Uttrakhand and support the Salt Workers’ children in Gujarat.

KFA Connect were happy to have been able to help Lotus Flower Trust again this week by making updates to the website we built for them in 2013.

We added a plug-in to allow them to easily upload new photos of their great work and keep followers up to date with the current and completed projects on their website. This will also be a huge help for them to generate help and funding for future projects.

To find out about the unique opportunity to work alongside local communities in India or other ways you could help click here

The KFA Connect team wish Lotus Flower Trust a successful 2017!

We came to this decision very democratically, with the help of votes from the KFA team and also by running a poll on social media to help us decide who we should support this year.

The winner, by a sizeable margin was Naomi House & Jacksplace and we are excited to get started on some fundraising ideas for this great cause!

Naomi House & Jacksplace hospices provide expert hospice care to more than 340 life-limited and life-threatened children, young people and their extended families from Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorset, Berkshire, West Sussex, Surrey and the Isle of Wight.

Their nursing, care, play and family support teams are experts in delivering the crucial emotional, spiritual and developmental aspects of care that families need.

We hope to raise as much money as possible for this great cause this year and have already started getting our thinking caps on…

For more information about the charity click here

Pop 4 Diabetes celebrated their 10th year anniversary in style, holding the event at the Bournemouth Hilton Hotel on Saturday, 15th October 2016 and KFA Connect were proud to be a part of it…quite literally.

The awards took place during an amazing Grease themed evening with our very own Lauren Elphick from the KFA Connect test team performing as ‘Rizzo’.

Eastenders stars Harry Reid and Jamie Borthwick presented the awards and were on hand to give Lauren some well-earned attention following her performance!

Pop 4 Diabetes is fundraising research into a cure for Type 1 Diabetes and this continued research and the support they have received means a cure has now become a real possibility.

It was a great opportunity to officially present the cheque for £3,500 the team raised following our Tough Mudder challenge earlier this year.

A very exciting day!

Every year ‘wear it pink’ raises around £2 million during breast cancer awareness month for the UK’s largest cancer charity.

October is breast cancer awareness month, a worldwide campaign to raise awareness and funds for breast cancer research. The aim, by funding cutting-edge research is to ensure no one dies from breast cancer by 2050.

They have raised £28.9 million to date, so this year KFA will be ‘getting our pink on’! On the day we are planning a fun sweepstake, cake, goodies and there will be balloons, bunting, all things pink.

Anyone can get involved on Friday 21st October 2016 – at home, in school or at work – just grab, bake, eat or buy something pink – and of course wear it pink to help raise vital funds for cancer research.

On the Day…

We had great fun on the day, raising over £60.00 just from holding a sweepstake and cake sale. Check out Charlie the dog’s pink jacket!!

This October KFA were proud to sponsor the Pop 4 Diabetes ‘Child of Courage’ Awards.

Pop 4 Diabetes celebrated their 10th year anniversary in style, holding the event at the Bournemouth Hilton Hotel on Saturday, 15th October 2016 and KFA Connect were proud to be a part of it…quite literally.

The awards took place during an amazing Grease themed evening with our very own Lauren Elphick from the KFA Connect test team performing as ‘Rizzo’.

Eastenders stars Harry Reid and Jamie Borthwick presented the awards and were on hand to give Lauren some well-earned attention following her performance!

Pop 4 Diabetes is fundraising research into a cure for Type 1 Diabetes and this continued research and the support they have received means a cure has now become a real possibility.

We came, we conquered…..and we were utterly ‘Mudnificent’!

The KFA team conquered Tough Mudder Half, London South on Saturday 17th September 2016 and gave it their all!!!

Raising money for Help for Heroes we manage to rope in friends, family (and even our kids to take part in the Mini Mudder), and many of us tackled our worst fears; heights, water, mud…and more mud!

Between us, we have raised over £3,500.00 for this worthy cause and are giving serious consideration to doing it again next year!

Our thanks to the friends and family who joined us on our mission and helped make the day a success and such great fun.