Charity Partner news – The Cystic Fibrosis Trust and The CHO

The CHO’s 2020 charity partner, The Cystic Fibrosis Trust (CFT), has an even more important role to play in these challenging times. Covid-19 can severely affect people with underlying respiratory problems, so the charity is especially busy, offering support to over 10,500 individuals and families who are being forced to isolate and shield themselves from the Coronavirus pandemic.

Since the Government measures were put in place in March, CFT has worked hard with national supermarket chains to ensure affected families can access specified delivery windows to safeguard their health. Also, CFT is operating their helpline and offering support on an individual basis.

CFT has been seriously affected by the cancellation or postponement of fundraising events in the coming weeks and months. One of these, The London Marathon, was due to take place this weekend and, as well as CFT, has impacted many other charities who were also relying heavily on sponsored runners.

In light of this, The London Marathon, Just Giving and other donation platforms have launched the ‘2.6 Challenge to Save UK Charities’. The challenge, which starts this Sunday (26 April), will see people around the country taking part in a variety of activities to create their own marathon – whether that is running 2.6 miles a day for ten days, having a team of ten all run 2.6 miles on Sunday or even doing 26 press ups a day…whatever you would like to do to raise awareness and raise much-needed funds for a good cause of your choice. For more information, please click here.

This is just one among a number of initiatives that CFT is organising or participating in during the coming weeks, including the National Cystic Fibrosis Week between 15-21 June. The programme is detailed below and we will do everything we can to keep members updated.

To stay up to date with The Trust’s activities and fundraising effort, please click here.

• Emergency Appeal – if you were able to, it would be great if you could spread the word about our Appeal, which launched just before the Easter Weekend. The details can be found here.
• Dance4CF – this is something our social media community have really enjoyed doing. You may have seen it around, but if not, you should be able to find it around using #Dance4CF. The idea is to simply film yourself doing a dance – it can be as creative as you like – and putting it on social media whilst donating £5 or £10 to the Trust, nominating others to do the same. The text that is being used is:

Film a 10-15 second video doing a simple, silly, dance routine. It can be anything from a basic macarena to a fully choreographed routine. Do it on your own, in pairs or a group.
Nominate 3 people to do the same, and post it to your Facebook and/or Instagram, using the following text:
…………………………………………………………………………………….

“People with cystic fibrosis are especially vulnerable during the COVID-19 pandemic. Support the @cftrust to keep them safe and healthy by following these 3 steps:

1. Record a 15 second #Dance4CF video

2. Text DANCE4CF5: 70500 – £5 Donation
DANCE4CF10: 70500 – £10 Donation

3. Nominate 3 people to #Dance4CF within 24 hours
I nominate @name, @name & @name.”