Ty Olwen

Members of Elim, Nebo, Pantycrwys and Salem Chapels recently visited Ty Olwen and presented a cheque for £1000 to Margaret Bartlett, President of the Ty Olwen Trust, from their Cymanfa Ganu Fund.

All of the students from Level 3 Hair and Beauty Therapy at Afan Campus, NPCT Group have, for a second year, chosen to support Ty Olwen with their charitable fundraising. Mrs Juliana Thomas, Deputy Head of School at the School of Hairdressing and Applied Therapies at the College visited Ty Olwen with some of the students involved to present a cheque for £1000 to Ty Olwen President Margaret Bartlett.

Rotary’s Service above Self

Rotarians from Swansea and Mumbles Clubs have united to support Ty Olwen Hospice and fulfil one of their objectives as an organisation, Service above Self. By arranging a concert together, which took place at All Saints Church, Oystermouth and featured ‘Phantom of the Opera’ star Peter Karrie they raised £1768 for Ty Olwen. President of the Swansea Club, Alan Giles along with Senior Vice President Tom Barker and Colin Griffiths, Past President of the Mumbles Club recently visited Ty Olwen where they met Ty Olwen Trust Chairman Helen Murray to discuss the work of the Specialist Palliative Care Service.  As an organisation Rotary supports many charities both home and abroad and anybody who feels they would like to get involved would be more than welcome at their meetings and find out more about membership. Helen Murray said “We at Ty Olwen are extremely proud to be associated with the Rotary Clubs of Swansea and Mumbles, who have been generous supporters of the service from the time of the original building appeal in the early 80s and we thank them for this latest donation which we will be using to purchase a specialist chair for use by our patients.”

Some members of the Olchfa Sixth Form Charity Committee visited Ty Olwen recently to see at first hand the Unit and Day Centre and to find out from staff about the work that they do for the service.  They presented a further donation of £60 to Sister Erica taking their total to £160.  They are now busy planning further events to support Ty Olwen.

The family of the late David Palmer called at Ty Olwen recently to present £502, the proceeds of a fundraising event held at Sherwood’s in Morriston recently. They hoped it would show some gratitude for the care that he had received. They stressed that they had had great support from various healthcare groups during his illness but when it became terminal  the help and care from Ty Olwen was invaluable, firstly from the community team and later when he spent some time at the unit itself.  They take up the story themselves , “We cannot express how great the care and attention was that Dad received whilst under Ty Olwen. All of the staff, including the volunteers, were outstanding and we cannot thank them enough. We would like to say to any patients  and families in a similar situation do not hesitate to enlist the help of Ty Olwen. Dad always said he didn’t want to go in to Ty Olwen but all that changed after a two week stay on the ward which was used to regulate his medication. On his return home he expressed on many occasions how he would willingly go back to Ty Olwen, if needed, as all his fears and preconceptions were wrong.”

Daughters Janine and Michelle presenting the money to Health Care Support Worker Mary Wildman whilst Student Nurse Sophie Lewis, grandchildren and great grandson Dylan look on.

Thank you to John Davies and the organisers of the Aber Dewi Festival in Swansea for supporting Ty Olwen and allowing us to collect during the event, Thanks also to the people of Swansea for donating £420 in the collecting buckets.

Staff Nurses Debra Cross and Lynda Hopkins collecting in Swansea at the Festival.

Ed Murray

Phantom of the Opera Star, Peter Karrie, brought a little bit of the West End to Mumbles last Saturday with a concert at All Saints Church, Oystermouth. The concert, organised by the Rotary Clubs of Swansea and Mumbles, was to raise money for the Ty Olwen Specialist Palliative Care Service based at Morriston Hospital.

Welshman Peter Karrie who has played the lead role in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Phantom of the Opera for over 3000 performances throughout the world, as well as other major productions including Les Miserables and Chess, was accompanied by Soprano Elizabeth Tiley.

Peter sang some of the greatest songs from the musicals and Elizabeth showed what a delightful soprano voice she had singing the wonderful aria from Act two of Tosca “Vissi D’arte” and then together they brought the Phantom of the Opera to life with some spine tingling duets.

The Lord Swansea Chapter of Freemasons invited Helen Murray, Chairman of the Trust, to talk on the work of Ty Olwen and the role of the trust at their recent gathering and during the evening presented yet another donation from the Masonic fraternity to Ty Olwen.

The cheque was presented by Brian Matthews who was supported by Ted Thomas, Stuart Seabourne, Ray Cope and David Cox. Since the inception of Ty Olwen in 1980 Lodges and Chapters across the area have been wonderfully generous with their donations and Ty Olwen is grateful for their continued support.

The Rising Stars Theatre Company, a group of young adults with additional needs, took a break from rehearsals for their next production to present a cheque for £540 to Helen Murray the proceeds of a coffee evening held to raise money in memory of Pamela Howell who played a large part in the formation of the Rising Stars and who passed away at home last August.  Two of the members, Pamela’s daughter Bethan and Louise Jefferson have both lost their mothers under the care of the Ty Olwen Team.

Their next production, ‘They said it would be over by Christmas,’ when The Rising Stars put their own unique twist on the events of the three day blitz over Swansea in February 1941 takes place at the Taliesin Theatre on Thursday 26th February.

Tŷ Olwen has received over £1000 from Gwalia after it was nominated as their monthly charity day for 2014.

Staff organised a host of fundraising activities throughout last year including cake sales and monthly dress down days, raising £1,011 in total.

Gwalia’s Director of People, Sarah Jenkins said: “Early last year staff in the Kingsway office voted for Tŷ Olwen to become our charity of the year. This fundraising initiative has truly been led by our staff and I’m very proud that they have been so supportive of this local charity.

“It’s clear that Tŷ Olwen is close to a lot of people’s hearts and hopefully the money we’ve raised will go some way towards maintaining the first class services Tŷ Olwen provides to those suffering from life limiting illnesses.”

After receiving the donation Mrs Helen Murray, Chairman of the Tŷ Olwen Trust said “It’s always a pleasure to meet people face to face and say thank you on behalf of everyone at Tŷ Olwen. It also gives us an opportunity to reinforce the fact that we are a local charity where at least 95p in every pound donated goes to the care of our patients and to allow them to have the best possible support we can offer. This wonderful donation will make a huge difference to so many people.”