In the Media
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Julie Libby on GMTV
Julie Wins "She" Magazine Award
A Cornish woman has just been named ‘Juggler of the Year’ in the SHE magazine Inspiring Women awards, for meeting the challenges involved in caring for her seriously ill daughter, raising money to build a holiday haven and running a business.
Julie Libby is a florist, who lives in Cornwall with her husband, Nigel, and daughters, Ellie and Sophie. Ellie was born with a rare genetic condition and was not expected to live beyond her first birthday; she is now four but needs around-the-clock care. Nigel and Julie launched the Ellie’s Haven charity in November 2007 in a huge undertaking to build and run a holiday haven on the outskirts of Looe in Cornwall, for children and young people with life-threatening and long-term illnesses. The charity has received overwhelming support and more than £120,000 has been raised to date.
Julie was nominated for the award following an article in SHE magazine in May 2008, in which she explained what the family had experienced and how they had decided to make the most of each day with Ellie and build the haven so that her life would count for something special. Julie was presented with the award for ‘Juggler of the Year’ by Denise Van Outen at a celebratory lunch at Claridge’s in London. The event was hosted by SHE's editor Sian Rees and attended by special guests and celebrities, including Dame Kelly Holmes and Harriet Harman.
Julie says she is delighted to receive the award: “I couldn’t believe it when I was told I had won, but I was absolutely thrilled. It was a great experience and it provided a wonderful opportunity for people to hear about Ellie’s Haven and understand what we are trying to achieve.”
Julie with Dame Kelly Holmes at the awards ceremony
Woman's Own Cover Story, December 2009
2009 Rainbow Mufti Day Press Release
As a school or business you can have fun and raise money for Ellie’s Haven, a Cornish charity, aiming to build the South West’s first holiday haven for families with children with life limiting illnesses.
Ellie has a terminal illness and despite doctors saying she wouldn’t live beyond her first birthday she will be celebrating her fourth birthday in January.
Schools and businesses are being invited to join in the fun and celebrate Ellie’s birthday by holding a rainbow mufti day on January 23rd2009.
Ellie’s Haven will be ‘a special place for special children’ and the rainbow mufti day will help raise money so families can enjoy time together away from home.
The event has been a great success in the past and it is hoped more people will get involved to help build a holiday haven where families can enjoy time together, away from home, with the facilities to cater for their needs.
Families from the South West, and beyond, will be able to stay at the haven, creating happy memories for hundreds of people in a similar situation to the Libby family.
The Looe charity was set up just over a year ago by Ellie’s parents, Nigel and Julie Libby who want to build the haven in memory of Ellie and her older brother, Thomas, who died of a similar terminal illness, aged 14 months.
Land, on the outskirts of Looe, has already been donated to Ellie’s Haven and more than £120,000 has already been raised.
Gigantic Atlantic Challenge Press Release
This week sees the official launch of ‘The Gigantic Atlantic Challenge’ – a fundraising initiative in which 12 schools from Devon and Cornwall are spending a year raising money for Looe-based charity Ellie’s Haven.
Jo Christensen, a former teacher from Looe Community School has organised the project as part of the fund-raising efforts of Torpoint based Atlantic rowers Mark Story and Steve McCann (The Atlantic Freedom Team), who have committed to raising £100,000 for the charity as part of their bid to row the Atlantic in December.
The 12 school’s are each being given a grant of £250 which a committee of pupils have to use to kickstart fundraising activities over t he year until July 2010.
The Atlantic Freedom rowers will be giving assemblies at each of the school’s and challenging the students and staff to support them in raising money.
Mark Story says “The idea is to give the schools something, rather than just ask them to raise money – we hope that the grant will let them be creative and entrepreneurial.”
Jo Christensen says “This project is about enabling children to help other children. The excitement surrounding Mark and Steve’s row has really fired children’s imaginations.”
Mark Story says “One of our objectives for our rowing project was to involve the community and this is an ideal way – there are nearly 7000 students involved in the ‘Gigantic Atlantic Challenge’ and we are asking that they also adopt this principle of involving others where they can.”
Steve McCann says “It makes a big difference to me knowing that we have so much support and interest in out Atlantic row.”
The rowers will be receiving emails from the students and doing live phone link ups from the middle of the Ocean. Some schools will be integrating aspects of the row into their curriculum.
The activities of the schools will be posted onto dedicated pages of the Atlantic Freedom website (www.atlanticfreedom.com) and a big celebration is planned when the fundraising challenge finishes in July.
Mark Story says “When we come back, we’ll re-visit each school and let the students know what it was like and make sure that we organise a big celebration to thank them for their efforts.”
Jo Christensen says “The enthusiasm from the schools involved has been brilliant already. We’re already planning to run another challenge next year and hopefully we can involve even more schools.”
Schools involved:
Lipson Vale Primary School
Saltash.net Community School
Looe Primary School
Callington Community College
St. Cleer Primary School
Pelynt Primary School
Liskeard Community College
Fowey Primary School
Looe Community School
Duloe Primary School
Trenode CofE Primary School
Torpoint Community College
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