All systems go!

The long awaited email finally arrived! All paperwork is now approved, which means this project is finally real. It's happening. It's time to book flights.

I am currently on a train heading to London for the Student Nursing Times Awards ceremony, so I will write a more complete post later. But we wanted to share the good news. We are so excited. It's all coming together!

Countdown: 20 days.

3 weeks to go!

Exams are over. We've had our vaccinations. I've started packing up everything I own so it can go into storage, as I can't afford to keep my flat while I'm away. We are continuing to prepare for our placement, even if things have been quiet on the blog for a while.

Basically, due to a couple of things out of our control, we are still waiting for the last official bit of paperwork. This is the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between our university and the college of nursing in Malawi, and without it nothing can move forward.

We have been assured that this delay doesn't mean the project is doomed. But being in limbo like this, so close to when we're due to leave, is frustrating. Especially since we completed our part of the official paperwork in November. And until we have the MOU, which is the last piece of a seemingly complex jigsaw, we aren't allowed to book our flights, or arrange accommodation. This does not match up with the timeline I had planned, or the Gantt chart I drew up way back last September. But I am trying to be optimistic, and flexible. The planning process so far has been a lesson in patience and perseverance.

Every time I get an email, I hope it will be the news we're waiting for. Fingers crossed we'll have more of an update in the next few days.

Highland Fling today!

Hello folks, sorry it's been a while but the team have been busy organising pub quizzes and baking cakes, and studying for exams and getting ill (me, mostly.  Must be a proper blog, we're beginning posts with apologies and excuses)

So, today is the day of the Highland Fling and I'll be running it along with four of my fellow Harriers in the picture above (taken at the summit of the West Highland Way route on Conic Hill).

No full fling for me this year sadly, the niggling in my leg (posterior tibialis inflamed through over use) wasn't clearing up after about 6 weeks of rest and it was too much time off to get fit for the full thing. 

So instead I'm part of the relay team, and because only running 13 miles along the West Highland Way isn't much of a challenge when you were planning on another 40, I decided it'd be more fun if I readjusted my fitness levels so it's still a challenge. (Ie too much time sitting in the library eating chocolate).

Before I go- a Big Happy Birthday to my old band mate and generous supporter Rob McCabe- sorry I had my head in books all week- Happy Birthday and all the best form Team Caley To Malawi!

Let's Get Quizzical: Pub Quiz 18th March

It always feels daunting when you've planned an event, and you're waiting for people to arrive. What if nobody shows up? What if everything goes wrong? What if... well, you get the idea. I'm a joy to plan things with.

Before people arrived, we got an email alert from Hubbub about a new pledge. Our classmate Kallen donated £150 to show his support for our project! It's not easy to express how touched we were by this, without seeming insincere. I'm not exaggerating when I say that we were speechless, and had to blink back tears to continue with quiz prep. This vote of confidence was exactly what we needed. Thank you Kallen.

Tables starting to fill up

We were utterly overwhelmed when the tables started to fill up around 8pm, and we even had to do some furniture moving to make sure we could fit everyone in! Our amazing friends and family meant we easily filled the whole top floor of Walkabout. You are all amazing.

Eve (left) and Corrinne (right) the giants, with Rachael (centre)

Walkabout provided free food, while we ran about collecting entry money and selling raffle tickets. It was exciting getting to see so many people who want to help us get to Malawi.

Our quiz masters for the evening

Corrinne and Jen, ready to mark answer sheets

Michael at the ready with the mic, ever zen Jen, and a very excited Eve

A big shout out goes to Eve, who originally pitched the idea of a pub quiz; And Michael, who liaised with Walkabout and helped Eve to put together the questions. Rachael inspired us all to ask around for raffle prizes, after she approached various Glasgow based companies and successfully secured donations.

Raffle donations came from Tunnocks, Sophie Daw of LyonDaw Jewellery, Jackie from Inner Peace Beauty, and generous friends and family.




We learned a lot from the night, and have plenty of ideas to make an event like this run a bit more smoothly. But overall, we're so happy with how it went and we hope everyone had as much fun as we did.

We raised a grand total of... drumroll... £400.55! 

That nudges us a bit closer to our fundraising goal, but we still have a long way to go. If you want to support our project, but are unable to come along to one of our events, don't forget that you can donate via PayPal or Swipe on our Hubbub page.

Hubbub fundraising milestone: £100!

We've passed the £100 mark on our online fundraising Hubbub page. Still a long long way to go, but it makes us so happy to see your support.

Thank you so much Russell Gibb, Robert McCabe, Euan Anderson and sullymanjero!


Only 7 hours to go until our Pub Quiz Fundraiser at Walkabout. Hopefully more good news to add tomorrow!

See you at 8pm, Walkabout, Glasgow.

The Bake Sale – 16th March 2015

So last Thursday (12^th March) the group got the devastating news that we would not be shortlisted for our application for the Magnusson award. The award would not have alleviated all of our money struggles with the project but would have helped a great deal. It was especially hard news for Corrinne as she had spent the most time and effort on the application (and for that we thank her for her efforts). 

After finding out this news there were a few ‘freak outs’, mostly from me (Rachael). Would I be able to afford this? Could I juggle working a lot in order to save, on top of my uni work? But with support from friends, family and each other we have all decided to carry on with the project. We aim to fund raise as much as possible and then pay for the rest ourselves.

 Our first big fundraiser was a Bake Sale on Monday 16^th March in the Students Association at GCU.

 Eve and I headed this fundraiser, spending all of our weekend either working or icing cakes!

I have to give a huge thank you to my mum, wee Kay, as without her there is no way I could have contributed to the Bake Sale! She spent all of her Mother's Day in an apron stirring, measuring and decorating the cakes, cookies and tablet she made! Another thank you has to go out to Eve's auntie Claire who worked in a team with Eve to make some of the best chocolate muffins, crispy cakes and malteser cake I’ve ever seen.

We sold every cake made and managed to raise an amazing £240.94. 

We would like to thank all of the students and staff who bought our cakes and helped make the Bake Sale a success. It was a boost in morale for all of us and we are now looking forward to our Pub Quiz on Wednesday 18^th March in Walkabout at 8pm!

    

Minor Setback

The university motto is "for the common good". That's what we are working towards with this project. Unfortunately, yesterday we received some disappointing news. Our application for support from the university Magnus Magnusson Fund was unsuccessful.

I'm trying to stay positive as I write this, but honestly I'm feeling pretty gutted. This news is disappointing for a couple of reasons. Obviously, securing that funding would have been immensely helpful for all of us. As I've said before, costs add up and it's a lot for a student to cover. However, we're all confident that the value of this project far outweighs the cost, so we're determined to do everything we can to make sure it can go ahead. We're working extra shifts, saving as much as we can, organising fundraising events, and relying on friends and family to invest in us. This funding would have got us considerably closer to our overall funding goal. But not getting it doesn't automatically prevent things from going ahead. We might just have to reconcile ourselves to sinking a bit further in to debt in the process...

I think what's bothering me more, is that we didn't manage to convince the judges with our application. It's the first application of this kind that any of us has put together, and we worked hard to convey what we want to achieve. But it wasn't enough. That's hard to accept, when we feel so committed to making sure that this whole endeavour is a success, both for ourselves and for the people we meet along the way.

By going to Malawi and working alongside nurses we hope to raise awareness of learning disabilities. By offering accessible information and training about HIV for people with disabilities, we hope to have a positive and long term impact on health and wellbeing. We recognise that our training as Learning Disability Nurses gives us a unique skill set. We want to use this, to support those who could benefit the most. To give something back. For the common good.

We're just going to have to work harder to make it happen.


For ways that you can help us, go to our Hubbub page.