Ty Olwen

Rhian O’Brien did an all day ‘Fit Day’ and a Charity Night (Night at the Races) early in April and raised £510 for Ty Olwen. Rhian visited Ty Olwen recently to present her cheque to Margaret Bartlett, President of the Ty Olwen Trust.

The courtyard between the main unit and the day centre looking nice after it’s recent maintenance. Thanks to those concerned.

Mothers Day Guardian Angel Sets now available at Ty Olwen for sale at £12

Anne Morgan and Michael Hughes recently visited Ty Olwen to present a cheque for £1500, the proceeds of a concert arranged by them in Resolven. They wished to thank all the artists who made it possible, everyone who attended the concert and made donations. They want give a special thanks to Elvis.

The Chairman and Vice-Chairman are pictured with their Grandson, Elgan Arthur John Murray, who was born on February 26th. Colleagues of the Chairman at Olchfa School held a sweep to guess the sex and weight of her first Grandchild and raised £20.00 for Ty Olwen. At 23 hours old we think this makes Elgan our youngest fundraiser.

Pictured from left to right. Tegwyth Curtis, Anna Gabrieli, Marian Evans, Ursula O’Sullivan and Jeannette Curtis. (Janeda Thomas was unable to attend)

Anna’s Story

In 2009 my sister, Susan Evans was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a blood / bone marrow cancer and underwent a Stem Cell transplant and Chemotherapy at the Cancer Unit, Ward 11, Singleton Hospital, Swansea.

Her consultant, Dr. Sati had mentioned to my sister that he wanted to set up a Swansea Myeloma Fund for research into this disease. Susan really wished that he would be successful as she wanted to donate £1,000 into this Fund.  Sadly on the 10^th April 2011, Susan passed away before the Fund was set up.

Together with Susan’s two daughters Natalie and Stephanie, we wanted to raise this money to give to the Swansea Myeloma Fund to fulfil Susan’s wish.  We initially made and sold jewellery to family, friends, nurses and patients in the Cancer Day Unit on Ward 11.

At the end of February 2012 my friend gave me a Guardian Angel and I had so much comfort from this that we started to make Crystal Birthstone Guardian Angels.  We then decided to include the Lymphoma Leukaemia Myeloma Fund (Wales) in our fundraising.  The Angels were such a huge success that more friends volunteered to help.  As a group we decided to call ourselves Team Angel!

In January 2013, I decided that I wanted to support Ty Olwen as my sister spent her final days there.  The care she received at Ty Olwen was outstanding and I will always be grateful for that.

In addition to this, we also support the Chemotherapy, Radiotherapy and Lymphedema Units at SingletonHospital.  We also made Pink Angels and sold them to support Race for Life, Macmillan and Tickled Pink Cancer Charities.

Some of the Guardian Angel products available

Team Angel, led by the inspirational, Anna Gabrieli, work tirelessly making, promoting and selling the beautiful Guardian Angel jewellery. The team are constantly trying out new ideas and are about to reveal their new boxed Mother’s Day necklace and earring sets.

To date, Anna and friends have raised over £58,600 for Cancer Services as a whole.

 £1153 of this total has been donated to Ty Olwen Trust from sales at Ty Olwen. This is an ongoing venture and the popularity of the jewellery is increasing by the day. It is a great idea to buy an angel as a gift for a loved one, they signify love and protection as well as being extremely pretty and stylish but best of all you have the satisfaction of knowing that your money will be going to a very worthy cause.

Margaret, 88, still fund-raising for Ty Olwen after all these years

Three generations of a family of dedicated fundraisers – led by 88-year-old veteran charity worker Margaret Bartlett – will be donning their Onesies for a fun day to raise a mountain of cash for a Swansea hospice

The grandmother, daughter and granddaughter team will join staff at the Quadrant Shopping Centre‘s Blue Inc store for a special Onesie Day on Friday which will see them rattling their buckets, holding a raffle and generally having a good time fundraising for Ty Olwen Hospice.

Margaret Bartlett, 88, says she’s quite happy to spend the day dressed in a Onesie if it helps raise much-needed cash for a cause that has been a huge part of her life.

She said: “I became interested in palliative care more than 40 years ago before I’d really heard of hospices. We didn’t have a hospice in Swansea and the decision was taken to raise the funds needed to open Ty Olwen.

“Swansea people took up the challenge and that’s how Ty Olwen was born.  Together with my husband, Mick, who I lost three years ago, I have been involved from the start really.

“Mick and I ran a tea-bar every Thursday evening which was very popular. I lost my own mum to cancer and know how difficult it was nursing her so I wanted to do anything I could to help.

“I actually opened the Ty Olwen charity shop in the High Street. I remember putting our bungalow up as guarantee for the opening costs. When I came home and told Mick what I’d done he said he’d better buy a tent!

“My daughter, Helen and her husband, have also been involved for a long time and now my granddaughter, Kate, is helping too. We are educating Kate so she takes up the baton so to speak!”

The manager of Blue Inc, Owen Walbyoff, 22, says shop staff are keen to help raise funds for such a popular local good cause.

He said: “We are more than happy to help. Everyone in and around Swansea knows of Ty Olwen Hospice and the amazing work they do.

“In fact we have a member of staff whose mother was recently looked after by the hospice. It’s a charity we really want to help as much as we can.

“The amount of fundraising Margaret Bartlett, her daughter Helen and granddaughter, Kate, and the rest of their family have done over the years is amazing and we are really pleased to be able to help by organising a Onesie Day. I know all our staff are keen play their part.”

He added: “We have been collecting for over a week now and we will be raffling one of our cosy Onesies as well. We want to help raise as much as we can for what is a really good cause.”

Margaret added: “It’s so lovely to give something back to society but what you can’t give is health unfortunately, that’s something you just can’t buy. People do come into Ty Olwen in dreadful pain but go home pain free which is so important.

“I know of one man who went home for Christmas but just wanted to go back to Ty Olwen as they could manage his pain better and he felt more comfortable. That is so, so important.

“But Ty Olwen wouldn’t have the name it has nor be so loved by Swansea people were it not for the fantastic and incredible staff who look after their patients so well.”

She added: “I have always said I’d do anything for Ty Olwen and dressing up in a Onesie at my age will be quite fun, especially as I’ll have my daughter and granddaughter alongside me.

“It’s wonderful that Blue Inc have agreed to help us fundraise and I’m sure we will raise a good sum of money.”

Margaret’s daughter, Helen Murray, 56, has also spent a lifetime involved with the hospice and is now chair of Ty Olwen Trust.

She said: “I took over the chair two years ago and what we don’t want is people thinking you just go to Ty Olwen to die. We want people to realise you go there to live.

“One of my responsibilities is to head-up the hospice’s fundraising team. We need to raise £400,000 every year just to stand still and that’s a huge ask.

“It’s fantastic that Blue Inc at the Quadrant Shopping centre are backing us because the Onesie Day promises to be a bit of fun and also allows us to get our message across to everyone.”

Helen, who works as an admissions officer at Olchfa Comprehensive School, Swansea, added: “It isn’t just about fundraising, I’ll be using the day to talk to people about the work of Ty Olwen and raise awareness of the hospice.

“I’m not sure what I let myself in for dressing in a Onesie. Mum, who is 88, agreed to do it and after my daughter Kate joined in and I thought I’d volunteer too. Three generations together will be good fun.”

Kate Murray, 23, says every since she was a little girl she remembers going to Ty Olwen to help out. She said: “I used to go with my grandmother and granddad on a Thursday when they ran the tea-bar. Being there was sort of natural in a way.

“When grandma said she’d wear a Onesie I agreed to join her and then of course mum gave it a go too. It will be quite unique in a way, having three generations together.”

The fishing competition organised by Mainwaring’s Angling Centre with the help of PAKA (Pleasure Angling and Kayaker Association) and the SA1 Fishing Club raised £1000 for Ty Olwen Hospice Trust. Llinos and Rhys Mainwaring helped Dad, Rob, present the money to Helen & Paul Murray whilst Alan Duthie (Chairman of PAKA) and Paul Bendle look on.