Members of St George’s, Tooting, Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) visited Cranleigh School to talk about their work and the importance of the new ventilator which was funded by Tildy’s Trust. Dr Martin Gray treated Tildy and he spoke of the lives that will be saved by the new equipment. The evening was an incredible insight into the work of a team of people who’s work never ceases. Thank you to everyone who came.

The visit was reported in the Cranleigh Newsletter. Click ‘Read more’ below.

Friends of Tildy Curran (West ’09-’10) continue to carry her spirit on a variety of adventures to support the work being done by Tildy’s Trust, the charity she herself set up with her family when she was first diagnosed with leukeamia, in 2008.

Specifically, in 2012/13, they helped the charity to raise the £25,000 needed to buy a state of the art ventilator for St George’s PICU where she spent the last days of her life. This involved two major fund raising efforts: a mountain climb to the top of North Africa’s highest peak, Mt Toubkal, and an 18 mile canoe challenge from Guildford to Pyrford and back.

They were therefore delighted when Dr Martin Gray, who looked after Tildy at St George’s, was able to make time in his busy schedule
to come to Cranleigh this week to explain to her year group what a difference the new ventilator has made to the unit. To see exactly what their efforts had produced was as inspirational as the courage Tildy herself showed in battling her illness.

Through all of its fund raising efforts over the last two years, the school has raised in the region of £40,000 for Tildy’s Trust and her friends will no doubt be thinking of ways to help them reach their 2014 target which is to fund two day treatment areas for teenagers undergoing chemotherapy at Southampton General Hospital, which has a partnership with St Christopher’s in Chichester where Tildy also spent time during her treatment.

Chris Allison