A group of people from the US and UK are days away from embarking on a 190 mile bike ride through South India to help raise £100,000.

Wakefield, West Yorkshire based Matthew Glover will be taking things a little easier with the festivities this Christmas. For the last thing he wants is to add inches to his waistline as he departs on New Year’s Day for a 190 mile bike ride across India to help raise £100,000 for Heal, a charity that supports the country’s orphaned and underprivileged children. And forty other riders from the UK, USA and India will also be abstinent as they make final preparations for the now annual trek across a region of South India to provide funding to support 1000 local children.

Matthew, the UK organiser of Cycle India is passionate about the event. He explained the purpose of the ride and the goals of Heal: “At present there are 22 people from the UK, and 11 people from the USA taking part. With those joining Heal from India there should be around 40 people cycling for this worthwhile cause,” he explained. “The charity supports orphaned and underprivileged children in the Indian State of Andhra Pradesh, providing education and healthcare for more than 1,000 kids. But our goal is to take care of 10,000 children by 2015. It’s ambitious but we’ll get there!”

Heal was started in 1992 by Dr Koneru Prasad, a doctor from Peterborough, UK who donated his family home in Guntur, India to the fledgling charity. All funds raised will go towards building a new residential school for children from deprived backgrounds in Vijayawada, the birthplace of Dr Prasad. The school will be Heal’s most ambitious project to date, with the intention of creating a happy and safe learning environment for over 1000 children. Heal currently supports projects in Guntur, Vijayawada and Bhadrachalam but is looking to develop many more projects.
Now in its 17th year, HEAL – a UK registered charity – is committed to providing shelter, support, education and healthcare for needy children. As a small charity they are committed to ensuring that donations are not wasted on administrative costs, such as advertising and salaries. They achieve this because they have no administrative office and no paid administrative staff.

“All the cyclists taking part are currently working hard, both training for the event and fundraising for the charity,” added Matthew. “The reward for all this effort is cycling through the beautiful scenery of the Coorg, and afterwards visiting the Heal Children’s Village in Guntur to meet the kids, which is really the highlight of the trip and the thing that makes it all worthwhile.

“We have enjoyed excellent support but there is no limit: the more money that is given means more kids are helped – it all goes to the children because Heal is run by volunteers.”

Matthew is a director of a conservatories manufacturer, Conservatory Outlet, and a volunteer for the charity Heal.

More information, including the opportunity to make donations, is available on the Heal website at www.heal.co.uk.

The Story
Valerie Lepedat, 66 was diagnosed with breast cancer ten years ago and she has been courageously fighting the disease ever since. After Val’s first cancer surgery at Doncaster Royal infirmary she joined the Patient Focus Group. Val thought her medical and nursing treatment was excellent but the compassion and added support that she felt she needed at such a time was missing. This inspired Val and a fellow member of the Patient Focus Group, Lynne Rothwell to do something to help all cancer patients. Val and Lynne came up with the concept of The Aurora Center a dedicated unit offering free treatments to improve the quality of life for cancer patients.

The Aurora Centre’s aim is to boost the self esteem and self confidence of patients whilst undergoing and recovering from related treatments of cancer. The Centre offers a wide range of professional beauty therapy treatments to improve body image for female and male patients suffering from the effects of cancer and the side effects of its treatment. Patents can book pamper days, therapeutic massage, skin care and make-up advice, reflexology and advice on hair loss by one full time and two part time therapists that are specially trained to deal with the effects of cancer treatment.

Often a patient will not only lose their hair as a result of radio therapy but also their eyebrows, eyelashes and the skin can often change colour. The Aurora Center offers free therapies that resolve all these side effects. It has been recognised that improving a person’s sense of well-being will dramatically improve their chances of overcoming their illness. The center also offers its services for free to the patient’s family and carers as they also need a little more care during the patient’s treatment. The Centre employs 5 full and part time staff everyone else involved is a volunteer.

Val is a co-founder and the leading volunteer of Aurora and has built the center over the past 7 years to the point where it now gives its services free to over 500 patients a year. The Centre is totally funded by donation but the premises are owned by the NHS and are on hospital sites as the NHS fully endorse what Aurora is doing. Val is involved not only in the day to day running of the Centre but also with its three major fundraising events each year, a large fashion show (all the models are Aurora patents often wearing clothes that don’t hide the physical damage of cancer and its treatment) a golf tournament and a fun run along with a constant itinerary of small fund raising tasks.

The Aurora Centre at the Doncaster Infirmary has been so successful that Val and the Aurora team have opened a second Centre at the Mexborough Montague Hospital about 10 miles from Doncaster. The team also has plans to open a Centre in Manchester next year.

Jayne, Val’s nominator said “I cannot quantify the number of hours Val puts into the charity each and every week or the many compromises she must have made to her own family life in order to support Aurora, but Val does this very quietly and humbly avoiding recognition and reward when in reality she is to many ‘the face of Aurora’”

Val has had three separate episodes of breast cancer unfortunately her latest prognosis is that the current episode will be terminal.

Aurora Centre in Doncaster, Orangery

West Yorkshire Windows Donation
West Yorkshire Windows in Wakefield & Leeds supplied, built and fitted a new Orangery for the Aurora Centre that was finished at the end of November. The Orangery will be used as a Reception area for the cancer sufferers and an area to relax. On Sunday, Val got to see it for the first time. Through out the entire build, she didn’t know anything about it. The other part of her present was a trip to Tenerife with her family, including her son that flew over from Australia to see her.

As you can imagine, Val and everyone at the Aurora Centre were over the moon with their new Orangery installed by West Yorkshire Windows.

To view the Orangery designed and built by West Yorkshire Windows – you can watch the show on Sky 1 on December the 20th.

About West Yorkshire Windows
West Yorkshire Windows – part of the Conservatory Outlet dealership is the leading home improvement company operating throughout Yorkshire. Installing the latest range of Conservatory & Orangery designs accompanied with a range of energy efficient Double Glazing Windows & UPVC Doors.

To find out more about West Yorkshire Windows you can visit their fabulous showrooms in Wakefield or Leeds or if you prefer, call free on 0800 026 4455.