In 2010, whilst holidaying in Borneo, our three year old daughter Iris had her first ever visit to a hospital, followed shortly afterwards by 13 hours of brain surgery. It was after our return to the UK, four weeks later, that we first learned about The Rainbow Trust. They helped us through Iris's second brain surgery, the six weeks of radiotherapy and the year of chemo.
Iris is now 5 years post-treatment but others we know are just starting their journeys with the Rainbow Trust.

A few years ago, with the help of friends and family, we almost reached our target of raising £35,000 for The Rainbow Trust. Almost, but not quite. We're back again in the hope that this time we'll get there.

Text from 2012.

Thanks for taking the time to visit the JustGiving page of the friends and family of Iris Connolly.  A list of all the events can be found by scrolling to the bottom of this page. No future events planned at present. Debra completed the London Marathon in 6 hours 2 minutes.  For all the latest news & photos, have a look at our blog, http://irisconnolly.wordpress.com

You may have heard that our 4 year old daughter, Iris was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumour in Feb 2010. She has had a lot of excellent surgical and medical care, but has obviously been through things that no parent would ever want to imagine for their child. She has had 6 weeks of radiotherapy and 49 weeks of chemotherapy. Her post chemotherapy MRI scan was clear and her prognosis is now fairly good.

Obviously, there have been some huge and sudden changes to our lives. The Rainbow Trust and the Family Support Worker that they are providing are helping us to keep things as 'normal' as possible for Iris and her baby sister Athina. The charity aims simply to support families who have children with life-limiting or terminal conditions, and many of these children are far worse off than Iris.

 We aim to raise £35,000 over the course of Iris's treatment, this is based on the approximate annual cost of funding one Rainbow Trust Family Support Worker. It costs us nothing to have our worker for as long as we need her.

Check the blog site, or link to Sean's flickr site through the blog for lots of photos.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure, plus, if you are a UK tax payer, every £10 you donate will result in the Rainbow Trust receiving £11.92.

Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - we raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now.

 In Greek Mythology, Iris (Ἴρις) is the personification of the rainbowand messenger of the gods. As the sun unites Earth and heaven, Iris links the gods to humanity. She travels with the speed of wind from one end of the world to the other, and into the depths of the sea and the underworld.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Previous events

01.05.2010 Ali and Julia Teo (Iris's aunties) shaved all their hair off in Tauranga and Wellington (New Zealand) to raise money for Child Cancer. Donations can still be made at http://www.fundraiseonline.co.nz/alijulia/ 

16.05.2010 Barney Chan (Debra's cousin) had his head shaved in Kuching, Malaysia with funds going to the Sarawak Childhood Cancer Charity. Barney arranged the appointment with the doctor who diagnosed Iris when we were on holiday, and Iris had her initial surgery in Kuching.

29.05.2010 Iris's mum, Debra and Dave Barwick from Floral Affairs in Upminster had their heads shaved by Stuart Ikeman Hair Design, Upminster. Over £700 collected on the day and £200 sponsorship by Dave. Thanks to Stuart and team!

28.06.10 Pesto week at Harlequin Montessori School. Natascia, Karin and other mums made delicious home-made Italian pesto, rasining over £800! Yum.

03.07.2010 Renate Mullins and Anno Vanderman had their hair shaved off outside Marks and Spencer on Brentwood High Street. Entertainments and donated good helped to raise over £3000 so far!

10.07.2010 Family Fun Day at Katie and Mark's house - a fantastic day was had by all, thanks to Kaite and her hardworking volunteers, and local businesses. Total raised to be announced soon.

11.07.2010  Laurie Edmonds, Kate Goldfarb and Renate Mullins ran the London 10k in very hot weather, well done!

17.07.2010 Danny Gage, his Mum Sue and friends cycled from London to Southend and then home to West Horndon, a distance of over 75 miles. Danny grew up in the same road that Iris and her family live in. Total raised = £605.10 plus giftaid

17.08.2010  Charity Golf Day at Warley Park Golf Club - over £5000 raised

08.01.2011 Renate Mullins and family raised £721 auctioning off their belongings before heading off to live in the land of Oz. Renate is now less than £200 off of her total target of £5000

17.04.2011 Rory O'Connor ran the London Marathon 

 25.06.2011 Iris herself raised over £1,200 cycling around her local park with her friends.

Offline donations

£405 sponsorship by alphavet customers for Debra's London Marathon run

£730  sponsorship for Iris's bike ride donated by her daddy's work colleagues.

£654.44

£69.30 sponsorship for Iris's bike ride donated by customers of The Rainbow Trust charity shop in Upminster.

£116 sponsorship for Iris's trike ride collected by Iris's famiuly in Aylesbury.

£400 donated by The Irish Society in Aylesbury.

£524 in sponsorship from the customers of Alphavet (Debra is planning to compete in a marathon next year).

£150 plus gift aid raised on a charity evening held at the West Horndon Bridge Club. Thanks Tony, Marcia and all of the other members.

£600 plus gift aid so far in offline donations to Rory O'Connor for his London Marathon run

£1000 plus giftaid £282.05 donated by Professional Greyhound Trainer Jim Reynolds (Romford Track)

£50 donated online by Ali Teo before we made some changes to this page.

£20 donated by a couple who did not identify themselves but overheard our planning discussion while dining. Thanks Robin .....

£50 donated by the staff of The Kilns Hotel, Warley Hill, Essex.

£10 donated by 'Big Dave' a driver for Professional Greyhound Trainer Seamus Cahill

£150 plus giftaid £42.31 donated by The Gables, kennels of Professional Greyhound Trainer Martyn Wiley 

£420 plus giftaid £94.49 collected by Maureen Pattinson from Greyhound Trainers and staff at Sittingbourne and Harlow Greyhound Racing Stadia

£130 plus giftaid £25.38 donated  by staff and owners at Seamus Cahill's greyhound kennels

£835 plus giftaid £100.12 donated so far by clients and friends at Deb's work, Alphavet

£150 plus giftaid £42.31 collected by Professional Greyhound Trainer Alan Ward

£135 raised by  Gabrielle Houghton through a 13 mile sponsored walk. http://www.justgiving.com/Gabrielle-Houghton

£57 donated by Dave and Julie Barwick's customers at Floral Affairs, Upminster.

£26 donated by Kevin Soobrayen

£892 raised by the PESTO TEAM at Iris's school - they made and sold hundreds of the tastiest pots of pesto in all of Essex - thank you ladies. http://www.justitalian.co.uk/iris/

£98 collected in the donations box by customers at Deb's work - Alphavet

An extra £3,050 plus giftaid of £860.25 raised during the fun day organised by Katie Miller and friends (in addition to the online donations above).

£600.10 plus giftaid of £xxx raised by Danny Gage's London - Southend - West Horndon cycle ride. Sponsorship received from Royal Mail workers at Dagenham and the people of West Horndon.

£545 plus giftaid of £148.07 raised at the Coffee Morning on 6th. August 2010 at St. Francis church, West Horndon.

£500 donated by The Romford and Ilford Royal Mail Carers Society in support of the fundraising efforts of Danny and Sue Gage.

 £1380 raised by Paul Bar through completing the 'Survival of the fittest@ course - see www.justgiving.com/PaulBar . 

A further £721 raised by Renate Mullins and family.

£600 donated for Debra's marathon event by the members of The Epping & Ongar Farmers Greyhound Associated.