The Primary Care Trust have confirmed that they are now going to contribute a total of £50,000 over the next five years towards Tilly's new hands! Thank you so much - this is going to be an enormous help!!!
DENISE WELCH has agreed to be Patron of the Give Tilly a Hand Appeal. Chris Geere (Waterloo Road) has also shown alot of interest in helping with our campaign and I actually think Tilly fell in love with him on our lapland trip lol!
79 HAND PRINTS AND STILL COUNTING!!!
We've just recieved our 79th celebrity hand print - keep them coming!!! There are some absolutely fantastic prints and we're very excited to see how much they'll go for!
Tilly has recently received her first pair of hands at Dorset Orthopaedic! Tilly says the only difference now is that she has magic hands because she can take them on and off - like her friend Heather Mills took her leg off! :-)
We are purchasing the best hands that money can buy for Tilly at her age. They are Myo-electric hands that run on a rechargable battery built into the false arm. There is also a sensor built into the false arm which picks up the natural muscle movements that Tilly would make to move her fingers (if she still had some). The sensor picks up the movements of the muscles and opens and closes the prosthetic hand. It's all very clever! The electronic hand is then covered in a silicone which is unique to Dorset Orthopaedic and looks so life-like it's hard to believe that they are false. They are practical for Tilly to use, comfortable to wear and look no different to a real 3 year olds hand.
It is vital that we continue to raise funds for Tilly's hands and also for her future - things like adaptation expenses, educational needs, travel and accomodation expenses all need to be funded.
Tilly's prosthetic hands need to be replaced as she grows,consultants have told us that they will need to be changed a minimum of once every year if not twice up until she is 18 years old! We received the invoice for the hands and they are costing £23,464.00 a pair. Therefore if we need to have a target of raising approx £800,000.00 to cover the costs up until Tilly is 18 years old. Hopefully interest on this money will help her out with hands into adulthood!
A huge THANK YOU goes out to everyone who has made a donation to Tilly's appeal - all your efforts will go towards making Tillys life as fantastic as possible! xxx
We’re appealling
to celebrities and sports personalities to donate
a signed hand print. The prints will then be auctioned
off with the proceeds going to help buy Tilly new
prosthetic hands and towards her future. We’ve put together a small printing
kit so it’s easy-peasy to get involved!!!
We've also teamed up with Photography for Little People, who have kindly donated their clay casting services as an alternative method for celebs to produce a
hand print.
We're going to be holding a massive auction on the 5th September 2009 at the Hilton Newcastle Gateshead Hotel, where the prints and casts will go to the highest bidders. The night itself is looking like it's going to be a tremendous night of fun and frolics - a few celebs have already confirmed they'll be attending too! Tickets range from £130 for VIP to £90 - click here to book now before they all get snapped up!!!
We're also wondering if it'd be a good idea to exhibit them in a gallery space a few weeks prior to the auction night too? Any suggestions are welcome!!!
