Apologies for the deafening silence that has populated this site for the last 8 months.... gulp. There has been so much going on and we are still too small to be able to afford a dedicated blogger.... The FirstLight shop at 63 Newborough has become much more than just a shop; it is a drop in, the centre from which we run our Ebay and there is always a brew and a chair available for a chat - you never know who you are going to meet there. Gill is busy beavering away up at Stepney Hill and is growing not just vegetables, but absolutely amazing flower. Produce is available at the farm shop; you never know quite what you are going to find. And we have honey on the go courtesy of Kevin and his amazing bees. We sold out at Armed Forces Day, and hope to have some more on sale soon. But it slightly depends on how much is made as the bees need to make enough for winter before we can draw any more off (I hope I have that right, Kevin?). So rather than babble on, I have uploaded a whole mass of pictures to give you an idea of what we have been up to.....

It is amazing who our veterans get to help them with the work!!

Even pouring rain doesn't stop them helping out, and it soooooooooo rained.

And then we had Matalan collecting for us at @It's a Knockout' and we are looking forward to collecting the proceeds at the beginning of September - a huge thank you to Matalan and all those brave participants.

And now for something completely different......

create & buy custom products at Zazzle "Our products are now on Zazzle - please buy them and support our incredibly worthwhile charity. You can find them on http://www.zazzle.co.uk/firstlighttrust*"

We are SO getting there

I can hardly wait to get up to Scarborough to see the the gardens at Stepney Hill Farm. The progress has been absolutely amazing. And I simply have to thank Yorkshire Coast Homes, Jewsons, and HESCO who have come up with the goods and how. I really really do hope that these companies realise what a massive difference they are making and how we are so incredibly grateful. How about these for some raised beds?! We are going to have such a celebration when this work is completed - see below.....

Dance Day UK launch

Well despite the weather forecast, which had been dire, Scarborough sort of put out the bunting - well at least it did not rain although it threatened it. But most importantly we all had a great time.

Matt Flint did us proud. After Mayor Andrew Backhouse with Mayoress Sue Backhouse opened proceedings, events were kicked off to a lively start with Jonathan Blazer teaching some Zumba to the fabulous young dancers who turned up from Stage Coach and Dance Warehouse....... I so wish I was not so old and crook! Then it was Matt's turn who coaxed, inspired and bribed us into well, almost strutting our stuff......

Miracle worker

How can I ever thank Phil, and M J Builders for doing this work? It is such a massive step for us in creating gardens for the Veterans and for us to run our occupational therapy programmes from. A heartfelt thank you.

A nearly blank canvas.....

A massive thank you to Phil the miracle worker on the digger - what a day's work and on a Bank Holiday.... thank you so much....

Now we only have to get rid of the pig pen, remove that interior fence, build a bund, paths, fencing.... but oh the joy of seeing soil!! Thank you guys.

The gardens......

At last..... and thanks to the massive perseverance of Gill Taylor, Viki Bayes, Andy Scholes, with the assistance of Yorkshire Coast Homes, and Jewsons (how can we ever, ever thank you enough) the work has started on the gardens at Stepney Hill Farm. And just in case he thought I had forgotten, none of this would have been possible without Ashley Tyson whose willingness combined with Gill's vision this is. A picture conveys more than one thousand words, so here they are.... the bottom garden before the digger gets to work........

Scraping the bottom garden:

The top paddock before work starts with the digger......

What a difference!

We are open for business

What a great day! We have opened our first FirstLight charity shop in Scarborough, at 63 Newborough on one of the main roads down to the front. Tra and Terry Kennedy have just about worked all the hours that are possible to work in the last few weeks to get us up and running. And what a fantastic day we had; we had the mayor elect and his wife to open the shop; Yorkshire Coast radio running pieces in the news and The Scarborough taking pictures... and we had a fantastic day with a packed shop .

This is the Dance Day UK team who put the video together.... So many many thanks to you guys. Let's hope the whole event goes viral......

Dance Day UK here we come......

Okay as a decrepit 50 year old something, it is not often (if ever) my privilege to be surrounded by lovely young people who are lithesome, fun, creative and downright brilliant. It was my luck today to be a part of something really special; that is the shooting of the promo video that will launch Dance Day UK our major fundraising day on 1 June 2013. The concept was put together by Gillian Taylor several years ago, and is becoming a reality through the creative talent of Matt Flint who won So You Think You can Dance? and who is a great choreographer, and fab dancers. Not only that he is patient (a brilliant teacher) and very funny. We had a superb day courtesy of The Hospitality Club at 24 Endell Street, London who gave us the venue, the music, and lighting for free. Thanks so much guys. John Griffith, who has done the camera work, and is editing it all with Matts help, and Oz who had no idea what he was going to be involved in but was there with his camera taking fantastic shots. And to the fabulous people who turned up (who will be credited properly on our Dance Day UK page when that gets updated); Amy, Alice, Jordan, Rhea, Sharna, Helen and Jan..... And here is a shot of the venue - so very many thanks to Gail Jaffa, Sue Walter, and Dan Maxwell who made it all possible via John Higgin. A humungous thank you.

Vodafone World of Difference

I was lucky enough to win one of the awards in the Vodafone UK World of Difference. This is an annual award that allows 500 people to work in the charity of their choice by supporting them with funding. So talk about fortunate! This means that I can expend effort and energy over the next few months looking at funding streams and ideas for FirstLight Trust and hopefully start to get the ££s rolling in, keep the donors informed of what we are doing, and build awareness of our work. But of course most importantly help get veterans off the streets and supported back into their lives and the community. So a huge thanks you to Vodafone for their support. It really does make a difference.

Walk for Life, Scarborough

I love this picture... But even more I love the fact that Christine went out and raised nearly £200 for us, and that McCains then matched the funding - which is simply fantastic. In case you are wondering which one is Christine - she is, apparently, to the left of Cruella when you look at this picture. And these are all the other ladies she walked with. So a massive, massive thank you Christine.

The Yorkshire Terrier

And just when you feel like giving up people show how much faith they have in what we are doing with the charity..... and I love but love the picture.... So here is our very own Yorkshire Terrier, Dave A 10km yorkshire terrier race that 20 of our members including 3 of the Barons Staff (myself, Vicki and Daisy) got involved with. The event was held on Saturday at Newborough Priory, Coxwold and consisted of 10km of obstacles, Mud running and River crossing. We were all running to raise money for charities including the FirstLight Trust, MS Multiple Sclerosis Society, and also Little Heroes (Childrens Cancer Charity). In the months before I held training sessions to prepare everyone for the event; the training was made up of outdoor runs using the clubs surroundings including lots of hill running and cross country running. A number of our runners completed the event wearing fancy dress costumes including Flat caps and braces to go with the true Yorkshire theme of the event. The course itself was around 70% uphill and was made a lot harder with the wet and muddy condition. Our top runners were Tommy Alexander who completed the event in 1 hour 5 mins and our fastest female runner was Mikki Swann who finnished in the top 6 women runners for the event. Everyone completed the event in good spirit and came back nice and Muddy! We are now focusing on our next event and will be entering more events more frequently taking people from the club. Training sessions are going to be held for anyone joining us in preperation for which ever event we decide to enter.

Technology!!!

Yes, I know it is supposed to be easy, but I am soooooooooo not good at technology. Setting up JustTextGiving is supposed to be a doddle to set up - and it is, particularly if you remember to save the code..... which I did not. However it is now sorted and we have a JustTextGiving code of LIGH20. So all you now have to do is to text 70070 and put in the code LIGH20 followed by the number of pounds you want to donate (£1 - £5 or £10) hit the send button and we get the lot with no fees. Hurray! I am off up to Scarborough this weekend, so if it is sunny I will take some pictures of the progress we are making with the vegetable garden..... roll on summer.

Brief update

Yes we are still alive and kicking, and there has been a lot going on. The main news is that by the end of next week we should have our phone lines active at the Stepney Hill Farm office. Our mobile numbers are active are as the 0845 numbers but we hope to have real landlines within a fortnight....... We also have some fantastic people on board helping us, who I hope to introduce you to over the next week or so. And even more importantly, we hope to have some pictures of progress which I will post....... Watch this space (again!!).

Happy New Year

I am really excited about 2013. There is so much to look forward to. Working with great people for great people and starting to actually 'do'. The team we are putting together at FirstLight is amazing. We have Bernard Cornwell, OBE, our patron..... We have Justine Dignam who is helping with the marketing and PR for FirstLight. We then have our amazing team on the ground headed up by the indefatigable Gill. We have our office, will soon have our landlines, broadband will be up and running shortly ... And most importantly we are doing what we said we will do give back 'Honour, Respect and Hope' to our veterans. Thank you for supporting us. I will keep you updated as we grow.

A fabulous patron

We have been incredibly lucky and Bernard Cornwell has agreed to be our patron. Which is, not to put too fine a point on it, absolutely fantastic news. He is being unbelievably supportive of what we are doing, and to be truthful I cannot say it any better than he can, so here it is..... When asked about his appointment Cornwall commented “ I’ve made a living writing about the adventures of soldiers, and it just seems appropriate to give something back to the men and women who’ve provided me with so much material over the years! I have a huge admiration for those who serve in our armed forces, they risk everything to make certain we have a comfortable existence, and too often their problems and needs are ignored when their service ends. A very good soldier once told me that his career had been spent ‘fighting battles for those who can’t fight for themselves’, and now many of those men and women who fought those selfless battles need help themselves, and FirstLight is trying to offer that help, and I’m honoured to be involved” He continued “I think Firstlight have identified an need that has been overlooked; it isn’t enough to provide housing or employment for veterans, though God knows those things are hard enough for many ex-servicemen and women, there is a need for psychological support that a low-key and welcoming organization like FirstLight can provide”. So a huge, huge thank you Bernard. Your support is the best Christmas present anyone could have hoped for.

'Thermals required' it said on the invite and oh boy did we all need them !! It rained, it hailed, it snowed ......but nothing was going to put people off. A brilliant day. Thank you to EVERYONE that made this day possible.Now the real work starts!! And thank you Gillian for organising it all - I am sooooooooo sad I missed the hog roast - I know how good they are!!!

Such fun....

Having become completely neurotic about my own personal 'rain cloud', I drove to Scarborough last weekend to help Gillian and crew with some ground clearing. The weather in the south was atrocious and showing no sign of improving. The drive was a nightmare - accidents, the M1 doing its normal impersonation of a car park, and it took over 8 hours to get there. And lo and behold, clear skies, and a stonking frost. Saturday dawned cold and clear - simply gorgeous. I met up with Gillian to learn that the 'crew' had disappeared into nothing bar two great guys, Martin (who makes a mean cup of tea and builds a brilliant bonfire) and Kevin who cleared, chopped and sawed with the best of us and the lovely Ruth. We beavered away for most of the day and had an epic bonfire - so so so satisfying. So many thanks guys - it was great to see you and I am sorry I will not be up this weekend to launch the charity with an epic hog roast! Lucky lucky you.....

This is the before shot......

And as you can see here from Gill's expression - it was hard work!!!

The view from the hill

As you may or may not be aware, one of the things I am passionate about is the importance of 'the view from the window'. Which, translated, means that what you look out on is as important as what you live in. Which, if you have ever been housebound or ill you really, really appreciate. So I thought that you might like to see the view from the 'hill'! This is the fabulous view that you can look out on when you come and visit us as Stepney Hill Farm; well the cafe anyway. I know that Gillian et al will be beavering away to try and get everything readied for FirstLight's soft launch, whilst I sitting down in the south am worrying away at other admin and boring stuff. So like you I too can come and look at this view and know that all that we are doing is worthwhile and desperately needed. It helps too when you can go outside and breathe in fresh air, and space!!!

And here are some of the current residents.........