Car boot crisis and radio success

Tomorrow we are back to car boot sales. With all my talk of radio shows this week we must not forget our boot sales.

THIS WEEK-END THE TWO SALES ARE PARTICULARLY IMPORTANT.

Saturday at Bletchley Irish Centre and Sunday at MK Bowl we support The Food Bank, here are Josh and Jelena last week delivering tins and packets we collected. We support THREE childrens hospitals: Birmingham, Sheffield and Ward Five in Milton Keynes. We also support the Blood and Transplant Service.

The boot sales are hard work but a lot of fun !

Here's a song for the lovely people at Bletchley Irish Centre.

That was lovely, let's make all of today's music for these wonderful people.

This week-end's sales are more important than any we have so far run.  Each sale a small sum of money goes into the

pockets of Josh and Jelena to help them with food.

Unable to work due to medical reasons Josh has been signed off from working for two years, Believe me he would love to work. He was receiving PIP benefits. Jelena went to the job centre and filed a claim as part of looking to find a job. Immediately the sad pen-pushers stopped Josh's benefits while matters were processed. They then said Jelena was not entitled to

make a claim. They DID NOT restore Josh's PIP benefits. He has to start all over again, making a claim on-line. Ooooopppsss he does not have access to the Internet in his home.

Did the job centre sort Jelena out with a job ?  Did it heck !  She left the centre and using her own initiative sorted herself a job interview for this morning !

Right now they have NO MONEY to buy any food. Their gas

and electricity are pay-as-you-go, the most expensive tariff, the electricity will run out within the next 24 hours.

It is important we do well this week-end.

Over the past year I have tried to run a lot of events to support good causes in memory of my daughter Rebekah. Some never happened as I could not inspire the help I needed to make them turn from an idea to reality. People have come and gone as helpers, some promised the earth and gave a small bag of potting compost. Josh and Jelena have supported me so much, so very much.More than all the others put together !

I rejoice in the day I found a homeless man begging outside Morrissons Supermarket. When I found he was married, there were two rough sleepers not just one I determined to change things.

Through the love and support of friends reading this blog page within two weeks we had them off the streets and in temporary accommodation. They now have a lovely home of their own. When I asked for help with furnishing SEVENTY-FOUR people made offers of help.

I had to fight Milton Keynes Council every single inch of the way. Multi-agency working is something the council just does not understand while incompetence is top of its agenda. Nobody understands that there is more to rescuing a homeless person from rough sleeping than putting a roof over their heads. Time after time after time I asked for help processing benefits. Every time the request fell on deaf ears.

POLITICIANS ?  With one exception, former Mayor David Hopkins, they are a TOTAL WASTE OF SPACE !

Josh had a major role at Sunshine Smile Day with the new Mayor of Milton Keynes.  He had chosen a homeless project as his civic charity for the year. Josh and I helped promote that charity.

We gave the mayor a courtesy gift and thank you card as he left the event. We thanked him for choosing The Bus Shelter MK as his civic charity and asked if we could sit down to talk with him about our city's homeless crisis. He did not answer the letter. We wrote again. He FAILED to answer for a SECOND TIME.  Is he really interested in the situation of the homeless or is it just a political move ?  Has to be the latter doesn't it ?

So many wonderful people have supported our car boot sale programme. We have never taken a fortune at any event but we have steadily been able to support The Food Bank, Blood

and Transplant Services, Milton Keynes Hospital Ward 5, Sheffield Childrens Hospital and Ronald McDonald House Birmingham.

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH.

I am busy rewriting our website to include the radio broadcasting, should have it on-line by the end of next week. Within the website there will be an area dedicated to the boot sales with an update on the money we have made and where

it has been spent.

This week-end's sale need to be a great success so we can support the causes orbiting our tables but also to help Josh and Jelena keep their electricity running and put some food into their kitchen. If you are not doing anything Saturday or Sunday morning do drop by, say HI and buy something from our stall.

OK - a bit of radio.

We are planning a series of RADIO LOVE events. Three rock and roll parties to support the Food Bank and some special events for Christmas.

But right now let me THANK YOU all for the support you gave to my show last Wednesday. When the programme controller at CRMK took the audience figures out from the computer I could not believe just how many people actually tuned in.

My next show will hit the air at 6am on Wednesday 5th September.  I have some special music and dedications to play.

Wednesday 12th September I will have a guest in the studio, my next door neighbour who runs retro disco days in care homes.

Wednesday 19th September I will have a special show. It is my parent's 70th wedding anniversary.

I want to play some music for them BUT I also want to play music for YOU.  I will be asking you to share your wedding songs with me so I can play them on this special show.

In October I will be celebrating Maureen's and my 40th anniversary. Two weeks later it will be my 68th birthday - NOTE I am not using the word celebrate for that ! The day after my birthday Josh and Jelena celebrate their 7th anniversary.

Have a GREAT Friday. Hope to see friends at the boot sales this week-end. Tank you for your support. help for our dear friends Josh and Jelena would be received with much gratitude.