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Ambassador – Rebecca Adlington

Double Olympic gold-medal winning swimmer Rebecca Adlington, has accepted an invitation to become the latest Ambassador of the Encephalitis Society, a national charity and the only resource of its kind in the world supporting people affected by the illness.

Rebecca’s sister Laura was seriously ill in 2005 with Encephalitis, a life threatening illness which leaves many of those who survive with injury to the brain. Laura made a good recovery, however the experience and its effect upon the family has stayed with Rebecca. Following Rebecca’s success at the Beijing Olympics and her subsequent rise in popularity, Rebecca was determined to make charitable work part of her agenda – an obvious choice was of course a cause close to her heart.

Rebecca says: “Having seen at first hand how the illness affected my sister Laura and how little we knew about it at the time, my hope is to work with the team in order to raise awareness of the illness to help sufferers and their families. I’m pleased that my success in the swimming pool will enable me to increase the understanding of the disease and make sure that other families don’t have to go through the experience we had.”

Ava Easton, Development Manager, said: “We are absolutely thrilled to have Rebecca join our team of VIP supporters. We can’t wait to tell the members of the Society, especially since Rebecca has made it clear she wants to be really hands-on, meeting as many of them as she can. It is a timely year for Rebecca to come on board, 2009 is our 15th birthday and so this makes the year even more special for us all”.

Rebecca Adlington

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Ambassador – Mathew Bose

Mathew got in touch with the Society in 2006 following a close friend being affected by Herpes Simplex Encephalitis and he formally became our Ambassador in 2007 following the subsequent support he had received during the illness and recovery of his friend.

Mathew is an English actor, most currently known for his role as Paul Lambert in the television series Emmerdale.

Mathew Bose was born in London and has lived in India, Milan, Paris, New York, and Los Angeles.

Mathew now lives near Leeds with his partner James, a television director, and he also has a home in Islington,

In the early days of his career, Mathew was a model.

Mathew has appeared in the TV sitcom, My Family and starred in the shows such as Doc Martin, Cutting It, Silent Witness, D-Day and Coupling. Mathew has also produced and narrated the 2001 spoof documentary, American Mullet. He won the role of Paul Lambert in early 2004 and his first Emmerdale debut was in September 2004. In mid 2007, Mathew and former cast mate, Hayley Tamaddon aka Del Dingle were crowned winners of ITV show, Soapstar Superchef.

www.mathewbose.com

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Ambassador – Lee Crowley

We are delighted to introduce Lee Crowley, our new ambassador who joins Rebecca Adlington and Mathew Bose.

Ava was watching Saturday Night telly (So You Think You Can Dance) when a young male B-Boy/Hip Hop dancer popped up and screen and she heard him say ‘When I was seven I had Encephalitis, an infection of the brain....’. Ava thought a dancer (especially one who understood what it was like to survive Encephalitis as a child) would make a great addition to our Ambassadorial team, already containing an actor and an Olympian. We contacted Lee and he was delighted to come on board. Lee says: “I was 7 at the time and I had chicken pox. The next day I went out to play football and I kept missing the football. Everyone just thought I was tired. The following day when my mum gave me my dinner I could not co-ordinate my hand to reach my mouth. At this point my mum was very concerned and took me to hospital where I spent the next 3 days unconscious. My sister was a nurse, so she understood how serious it was and explained some things to my parents but neither of them had been aware of it previously. The main problem I had was with coordination and balance and I had to learn to walk again, especially in a straight line!! The doctors at the hospital were very helpful and advised me to take up trampolining to help with my balance. They also told me that my handwriting would be the last thing to return and suggested I start piano lessons to help with this. It all started with the trampolining really. After the Dr suggested it, I went to classes and picked it up quite quickly. My balance and coordination improved almost immediately. Then through my childhood I began to enter competitions and I reached the British Squad. When I was 13 I started becoming interested in dancing for fun but one day I saw a poster for a hip hop/break dance classes and told my mum I wanted to try it. After a couple of lessons I realised that I absolutely loved it and gave up trampoling to focus on dance. I then went on to study A level dance and I began a dance related degree.

I am very happy to have been asked to be the Society’s Ambassador and would love to help in any way I can to be part of the society. I am happy to share my experience to help others and I hope to be a positive role model. If it wasn’t for Encephalitis I don’t believe I would be where I am today. The advice I received about trying trampolining set me on the path I am on today. It has resulted in a positive outcome for me. I understand 1st hand how difficult it can be to be affected by Encephalitis, but if you are determined you can still achieve amazing things.”

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Celebrity and Corporate Supporters

As the years have gone on and In particular more recently we have been very lucky to secure the support of some key celebrities and corporate supporters. These may change over time and we hope to keep this section up to date with those important people who are giving their time and money to keep us going. We also want to say a big THANK YOU!

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Martin Kemp supports the Society

Martin Kemp was the Society’s Patron from 2006 to 2009.

Martin stood down as patron in 2009 as a result of work and family pressures. Those of you who have an eye on the media will know that the return of Spandau Ballet has resulted in unprecedented attention and extraordinary interest from old and new fans alike. As a result Martin had to bid a fond farewell to some of his other interests.

Martin writes: “…..I have gained a lot from my involvement and our friendship. I can only wish you, Barbara, Mathew and everyone involved all my love and the best of the luck in carrying on the fantastic job you do for thousands of people around the world. I hope the charity has benefited from my involvement…and I will continue to support you in whatever way I can”

As you can see Martin has requested to stay on as friend and supporter of the society and we hope we will see him again in the future when his world is a little quieter.

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Felicity Kendal supports the Encephalitis Society!

Felicity says

“I have seen for myself the devastating effects of Encephalitis and ADEM, how difficult it is to diagnose early, and how bewildering this illness can be to patients and families.

I do so want to support the awareness and research in the knowledge that if diagnosed and treated early the outcome can be very positive and full recovery is possible.”

Recently Felicity provided the narration forthe DVD version of our children’s storybook, ‘Gilley The Giraffe’.

(Photograph: from left to right
Ava Easton, Kath Lewis (Moving Media), Huxley Lewis, Felicity Kendal, Nimmi Channa (author of Gilley)).

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Collate Business Systems Ltd

Colin Merecki, Managing Director of Collate Business Systems said “I became aware that of one of our long standing customers Andrew Read from Three Legged Cross, had a daughter who fell ill with a rare condition called Encephalitis (inflammation of the brain). It’s not known what the cause was, but the most common cause is from the cold sore virus. It can affect anyone, any age at anytime and has many possible outcomes. I have children myself and I became interested in finding out more information on the condition. This is when I came into contact with the Encephalitis Society. They are a small charity which provide support, help, awareness and information to anyone affected by the illness.

After attending one of their fundraising balls, something just clicked inside me and I knew Collate could help in someway. ”

Ava Easton said “I met Colin at a fundraising ball our Society was hosting. During one of the less busy points in the evening Colin approached me, clearly moved by the evening’s focus, and pressed into my hand, a bit of paper with his phone number on. He explained briefly about his business and what they might do for us if we needed office copying equipment. I hastily scribbled ‘copier-man’ on it and the paper remained pinned to my office noticeboard in Yorkshire until a year later when staff informed me our colour printer had imploded. I contacted Colin and explained, asking if he could help. He didn’t supply us with a colour printer but he did supply us with the most awesome Konica Minolta Bizhub laser colour copier/printer/scanner, capable of the most incredible things. When he learnt it was to cost us £300 to courier it to Yorkshire, our Head Office, he even drove the machine all the way from Bournemouth! It always amazes me that genuine people like Colin still exist and we are extremely grateful to him, since there is no way our Society could have afforded to purchase such a state-of-the-art piece of equipment. As they say....words are simply not enough......”

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The Aztec Hotel and Spa

The Aztec Hotel and Spa chose the Encephalitis Society as their Charity of Year for 2008/2009 and have continued to lend their support to the Society since then. Chris Hill, their General Manager says:

“The Encephalitis Society is a little known national charity, dedicated to supporting people who are affected by encephalitis and the professionals who support them. This year the Encephalitis Society very much came to our attention when we became aware of the illness through one of our Spa members, whose husband is a sufferer. ”

www.aztechotelbristol.com

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Abigail Hercules

Abigail is another keen supporter. Mathew Bose, our Society Ambassador introduced Abigail to the Society when she attended (and provided a live musical session!) at our Presidential Inauguration and Book Launch Cruise in London during October 2007. After the gig Abi posted this on her website:

“I recently did a lovely gig, cruising down the Thames, in aid of The Encephalitis Society. This small charity for a lesser-known but none the less tragic and widespread condition is run by a wonderful 'family' of enthusiasts-sufferers, their families and supporters, headed by the tour de force that is Ava Easton. Dzal and I were made to feel very welcome. It was a heart-warming and inspirational evening and for that reason, I urge you to support them.”

We were so amazed by Abi and her talent we used one of her songs (Quito Moon) for the soundtrack to the DVD we produced of the Society’s evening’s cruise.

Abi is a singer/songwriter and actress whose TV appearances include Spooks and The Bill, and whose musical talents include work with her band the Easy Tigers and 4 poofs and a piano along with gigs at Glastonbury.

Abi’s music is great so check it and her website out by visiting:www.abigailhercules.com/downloads.html

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The Encephalitis Society is Upfront & Personnel’s
Charity for 2009/2012

No-one in my organisation had ever heard of Encephalitis until it visited us in the most personal of ways. In September 2007, at 39 years old, a regular gym-goer, feeling ‘at my prime’ and with my company Upfront & Personnel booming and at its most successful I became ill and over the course of a 2 to 3 week period my condition deteriorated and no-one seemed able to diagnose the problem. Eventually following a seizure I was rushed to hospital and over the forthcoming weeks it was revealed that I had a condition called Meningo-encephalitis. So this was how my family, friends, staff and I discovered the impact that encephalitis has, not only on the afflicted person, but on all those around him or her.

After being discharged from the hospital I still had little to no understanding of encephalitis but after a search on the internet (and a few false starts with misspelling) I came across the Encephalitis Society, the only resource and charity of its type in the world. After devouring as much information as I could in my fragile state I realised I needed more personal information, relevant to me, so I picked up the phone and called the charity...

It transformed my life at that time, I was able to talk to someone who understood how I felt and what I was experiencing and could talk me through it and give me tips and advice on how to manage after-effects of Encephalitis and where to go for continued support from the NHS and professional medical staff.

I’m not fully recovered but I’m a heck of a lot better than I was and I know I’m much luckier than a lot of people who are hit by this potentially deadly illness. And now I’m in a position to help the charity that helped me and extended the hand of friendship when I so desperately needed comfort and support. My team at Upfront & Personnel are all happy to support and help me as we nominate The Encephalitis Society our Charity for 2009/2010.

Tim Bond
www.uandp.co.uk