The University of Bradford Midwifery Society kick-started their busy fundraising year for APP in style with Freshers Week last month where they signed up lots of new members and donated % from each membership to APP - many thanks! 

Looks like they had lots of fun recruiting new members to the society too!

They are now very busy organising a conference with midwife, Ellie Durant called  'The kindness conference: Getting positive midwifery cultures to flourish' which is taking place on 11th November 2017. The Kindness Conference is being jointly planned and hosted by UoB Midwifery Society and any current or aspiring midwives should definitely get this in the diary!

They say:
'This conference is likely to be different from others you’ve attended. We’re not afraid of digging into the hard issues and talking about the realities of midwifery culture right now.

But we’ll also be sharing some of the most inspiring, insightful and clear ideas for improving midwifery culture as well as tools and techniques that you can use to support yourself in practice right now. We want you to feel supported in your work because you’ve learnt from the best at the conference.' Read more on their Facebook event page here.

Tickets are on sale now with discounted £5 tickets available for University of Bradford students and staff but these are strictly limited, with all the money being donated to APP! Please click here find out more about the event and to purchase tickets.

There will be a number of stalls on the day including our own APP stall and we look forward to meeting everyone there on the day! 

In the run up to the conference, Ellie is also doing a series of blog posts entitled 30 days of Kindness in Midwifery' which you can check out on her website here to understand more about some of the themes which will be covered at the conference.

A lot of fun was had at The Barberry Centre Mother & Baby Unit's annual FUN DAY event on Sunday 3rd September! Arts and crafts, bouncy castle, face-painting, tea parties and lots more took over the the Rowheath Pavillion in Birmingham for the afternoon.

This year's theme was Alice in Wonderland (spot the Cheshire cat!) and by the looks of it everyone had a great day!

 APP were delighted to have a stall at the Fun Day event and it was great to meet everyone and join in the fun - many thanks to our volunteer Katy as well!

Three cheers for Jill who successfully completed the Royal Parks half marathon on Sunday 8th October!  Jill lucked out on the weather with a fantastically sunny day on Sunday alongside the other 16,000 runners taking part, running through four of London's eight Royal Parks including Hyde Park, The Green Park, St James’s Park and finishing at Kensington Gardens. 

Jill said: 'Legs are a bit sore today but not as bad as I expected! Thanks for all the support and for all the work you’re doing with APP – I’m very privileged to have been able to play a small part!'

You can still donate via Jill's Virgin Money Giving page here - and a very big thank you to Jill!

Congratulations to Rik & Hannah who successfully completed the Barns Green Half Marathon on 24th September!

They said:

'Thanks to all of you who have supported us and donated to this fabulous charity. We did it! It was a hot, hilly, lovely day with lots of other great charity runners we met along the way. Our official chip finish times were 2.11 and 1.59 - so very happy with that! So stiff I am struggling to get down stairs or walk in a straight line today!'

The donations are still coming in on their Just Giving site, please do donate what you can.

Hannah got in touch after the event and said:

'It's by far the furthest I have run since having children and I still ache today! We did it in a very respectable 2.11 and 1.59 ( Rik went ahead for the second half and I got chatting to some wonderful fundraisers for another great mental health charity ' young minds' )

Fundraising for App and Running in the App vest and talking to people about my experience was a really big thing for me and the whole event was very emotional. Having PP really tested Rik's and mine relationship and ultimately made it stronger - also I experienced PTSD after my PP hospital admission and it took a long time for me to really own the experience of having had Postpartum Psychosis and understand that it was not my fault. So running in a vest and talking to people about it was a real achievement in itself ( perhaps more so than the distance! )'

What a great achievement for Hannah & Rik. Thank you both so much for supporting APP!

A very BIG THANK YOU to Gill Wood for successfully completing the Great North Run on 10th September, in aid of APP!

Gill says:
'I have just about recovered now, I've been on a couple of short runs to get my legs moving again! I'm amazed at how generous everyone has been and I hope that the sponsorship really helps APP.'

We are so grateful to Gill and to everyone who donated and supported her along the way - and you can still donate via her Just Giving page here.

...and if you're interested running the Great North Run next year (9 Sept 2018) then why not sign up to their reminder service and they'll send you an email as soon as the ballot opens!

Warm thanks go to all those who donated items for a recent quiz & pop-up shop at The Leopard in Tutbury, also to the ladies at Helping Hands from Swadlincote who utilised all the remaining pop-up shop items at another table top sale for APP and finally to Alex and Heather Heron who hosted an annual barbeque (with blow up assault course!) for MVH Triathlon club at "Hoon Ridge" at the end of August.

Heather said: 

"Great evening at Hoon Ridge even though the weather forced folks inside for some of the time. That said, it did not daunt those competitive types who wanted to win the massive, blue blow-up assault course race."

The combined total raised for APP was £720. 

Wonderful support from all of our APP friends! Thank you so much.