Welcome

Welcome to the very first edition of the Leuchie Outlook – keeping you up to date with everything that's happening at Leuchie House Short Break Care.

First we'd like you to join us by celebrating the official registration of Leuchie House (Scottish Registration No. SC042249). The transfer of Leuchie House from the MS Society to the Board of Trustees and Management of the new charity took place on 4 July 2011 at Leuchie. The sun was shining as we were joined by friends old and new. Sir Garth Morrison, Lord Leuitenant of East Lothian welcomed everyone while Iain Gray MSP and Mairi O'Keefe, Chief Executive of Leuchie House, thanked Simon Gillespie of the MS Society for attending to formally shake hands on the transfer.

This momentous occasion was only made possible by the huge efforts of so many of our supporters, including the 'Save Leuchie' campaigners, all 12,000 people who signed our petition, our guests and carers, politicians and local councillors from all parties, generous donors of funds, East Lothian Council for providing a working capital loan, the Hamilton-Dalrymple family and the local community. You are ALL part of Leuchie's future.

Policy and Practice

We are delighted to be able to announce Sir David Tweedie as the Chairman of our Board of Trustees. A world-renowned accountant, Sir David lives in East Lothian and has only very recently retired as the Chair of the International Accounting Standards Board.

Sir David is joined by Rhona Brankin, Ann Butterworth, Paul Du Vivier, John McCluskie, Keith Murdoch, David Ogilvie, Mark Reid, Letitia Smith and Sophie Tulloch as fellow Trustees. The first meeting of the Leuchie House Advisory Group took place in June 2011. The Group will provide expert professional advice to guide our services, and membership includes Marie McGill from the Single Gene Complex Need Project (SGCN), Mark Hazelwood from the Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care, Craig Stockton of MND Scotland, John Eden from Huntington's Scotland, Lyle Crawford from Lyle Crawford & Co CA, Alan Ross – an experience senior social care professional - and Martin Irons from the hospitality industry. We have established positive partnerships with the bodies represented in our Advisory Group, and have an ongoing programme of engagement and training to best inform the development of our services for the other conditions we will be working with. Leuchie has welcomed almost 100 guests since July, and welcomes guests with a range of complex conditions, including Parkinson's, Motor Neurone Disease, Huntington's, Multiple Sclerosis, spinal injuries and stroke. We will consider any condition, so please contact us at enquiries@leuchiehouse.org.uk if you would like to discuss a short break with us. We are also very happy to come to you, or any local support group, to talk about Leuchie and answer any questions you might have.

Partnerships

Leuchie is attending the Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care Annual Conference 2011 - Thinking Ahead in Palliative Care at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh on Thursday 6 October 2011.  Amongst many highlights this year’s event offers: expert input on challenging issues in clinical practice in non-malignant disease, a film premiere, delegate participation via instant interactive polling and an exploration of hope during palliative care.  Built around a core of high quality speakers, the programme will also provide opportunity for discussion and debate.  Full details are available at www.palliativecarescotland.org

We are looking forward to furthering links with Shared Care Scotland later this month, when they visit Leuchie to see our services firsthand.  Shared Care Scotland promotes and supports the development of short break services for the benefit of carers and the people they care for, and is an essential source of information for carers, individuals being cared for, and service providers.  Further details are available at http://www.sharedcarescotland.org.uk/.
 
The MS Society is taking applications for its Short Breaks and Activities Fund and will consider grants to help with the costs of respite care, short breaks and other activities for a person with MS or their carer.  Further information and an application form can be obtained from the Grants Coordinator at MS Society 0131 335 4050.

Bookings

We have limited availability until the end of October, but please contact if you would like to discuss a short break at Leuchie in the coming months.  We also have some special offers throughout December and January, with a Christmas Shopping Break from 5th December 2011 to 16th December 2011 and a special 15% discount on a Ladies Pampering Break from 16th January to 27th January

Careers and Volunteering

We've had fantastic support from many volunteers over the last few weeks. We have two volunteer physios supporting all of our guests, and many others are helping us by greeting and reading to our guests, supporting our administration, and driving our activities bus.

A crew from Scottish Gas spent the day tidying up the grounds and woodland walkway for our guests, and some great folks from RBS came on a painting spree! We have many volunteering opportunities available – and we can offer on the job training and good experience. Please get in touch if you can help out in anyway, as we'd love to hear from you.

Fundraising News

We have passed the halfway point in our Appeal to raise £700,000 by the end of the year, thanks to the generosity of so many individuals, companies and charitable trusts. The final phase of the Appeal will be to raise £135,000 to refurbish the main guest reception areas, and further improve the accessibility of our entrance.

Any support we receive makes a positive impact on the Leuchie experience – with every penny raised directly invested in direct service delivery.

We were thrilled to learn this week that a recent fundraising event raised £18,000 for Leuchie. Tommy Dale of Forth Resource Management came up with the unique idea of raising money for Leuchie through an auction of Farming Equipment, encouraging sellers to donate 10%-100% of their profit to Leuchie. Tommy and his colleagues Douglas, Ian and John, organised the auction in June 2011, along with a country fayre – and items for sale ranged from a JCB to local lobster. Tommy & Co are definitely local heroes, along with John Swan auctioneers, Phantassie Steadings and everyone who attended. Local ladies Meg Maitland and Margo Appleby are making a bit of a splash on 3 September – they're braving the elements to swim from Bass Rock to North Berwick! You can read more about their remarkable expedition at www.justgiving.com/margoandmeg.

Events

Hot on Tommys heels are Drew and Trish Fiddes, who are organising a fundraising dinner dance at the Macdonald Marine Hotel on 29 October 2011. This is no ordinary dinner dance through – Trish has also donated her 1967 MG Midget as a raffle prize!

Second prize is a limited edition David Cohen ceramic, and third prize is a weekend at the Macdonald Marine Hotel. Raffle tickets are just £25 and available from www.justgiving/LeuchieHouse. Tables for the dinner dance are priced at £650 for 10 (including drinks reception, 3 course meal with wine and entertainment or £65pp.

We'd love to hear from you if you have any fundraising or event ideas for us – you can also raise funds for Leuchie through JustGiving at www.JustGiving.com/leuchie. Only with your help can we continue to support our guests, their families and their carers in the best possible way.

Other News

Other surprise visitors in August were ex-footballers Charlie Miller and Andy McLaren, and just as they were leaving, Iain Gray MSP and Fiona O'Donnell MP were arriving to have lunch with our guests.