Jamie Powell
I came across this challenging story on my Twitter feed today. Ivan Toney generously offered his match shirt to a Brentford fan who is need of help and I decided to offer my two grains of sand. Thanks, Ivan.
Jamie is 41 years old and lives in Ashford, Middlesex with his wife Carly. They have been married for 7 years and have 2 beautiful boys Jackson, aged 9 and Frankie aged 6.
Jamie is a plasterer by trade and works in the film industry at Shepperton Studios where he has been Head Plasterer on numerous film sets and TV shows.
Jamie is also a lifelong Brentford FC fan and season ticket holder at Griffin Park/Brentford Community Stadium. He has rarely missed a match and has passed this passion onto his 2 boys who join him on match days.
Their whole world was turned upside down in June this year (2020) when Jamie suffered a seizure whilst sleeping. He was hospitalised, put under numerous tests and scans and 2 months later delivered the heart breaking news that he was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma (a rare and aggressive bone cancer) of the skull.
At University College London Hospital (UCLH), Jamie is currently undergoing a course of chemotherapy, but he has been informed that this won’t really do anything other than slow the cancer. Following this chemo, Jamie would be given Rapid Arc Photon Therapy which the radiologist have advised will not cure his cancer – and only give Jamie months to short years to live.
Devastated isn’t a strong enough word for how Jamie, his family and friends are all feeling right now.
So what do we do? We fight! And Jamie’s family have heavily researched alternative treatment options within the UK and abroad. Sitting back at 41 with a young family, hopes and unfulfilled dreams ahead – there’s no way Jamie isn’t going to fight this with everything he’s got.
There is a renowned hospital in Boston, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) who have confirmed they will treat Jamie with Proton Beam Therapy!!
Proton therapy is a specialist form of radiation which only targets the cancerous cells and not the surrounding brain tissues meaning they can give him a much larger and more powerful dose. This means that no other parts of Jamie’s brain and skull will be damaged by the radiation which could potentially leave him with long term neurological problems – something we want to avoid.
Proton therapy is widely available in the United States, but due to cost, the UK only have 1 machine available in Manchester. This has a long waiting list and therefore Jamie isn’t a suitable candidate to use it.
The amazing doctors in Boston however, have given Jamie a chance. They have offered him a longer prognosis and are ultimately looking to cure him of this terrible disease.
Proton therapy will be followed by DNA sequencing and possibly Immunotherapy in months or years to come which is just unavailable on our NHS.
This is where you come in and we need your help!!
If you know Jamie – you know he’d do anything to help anyone – and he’s probably done something for you already over the years. If you don’t know Jamie – he loves his family with all his heart! He’s the hardest working person you’ll likely to come across in your lifetime and there’s nothing he wouldn’t do to help someone.
We need to get Jamie to MGH in Boston for this treatment ASAP. As you can see from how much we need to raise, medical treatment like this does not come cheap. It will cost a considerable amount of money as it will need to be paid for privately and this is where you can help by donating anything you can to get him to Boston in the next few weeks to commence the Proton Therapy treatment.
PLEASE – if you can donate anything, it doesn’t matter how big or small it is – every penny counts and please share the link on your social media platforms as we need to reach as many people as possible and as quickly as we can.
Donate here please.
You’ll be potentially helping to save his life and I know Jamie and his family will be eternally grateful for any contribution you can make.
Thank you so much
Jamie’s family & friends xx
UK Merchant Solutions Ltd
I am delighted to welcome another sponsor to the fold. They are UK Merchant Solutions Ltd from Manchester. They offer a full range of merchant solutions for businesses of all sizes. They will be the official provider for the Tuktuk Challenge.
Please do not hesitate to contact them if you have any requirements on
07591460142 or 0800 0029152
.
The Worlds Most Expensive Link
The World’s Most Expensive Link
I am delighted to welcome another new sponsor onboard. It is my friends at The World’s Most Expensive Link who have been with me right since the first Shirt journey in 2010. Thanks again!
The World’s Most Expensive Link is easy to own.
It simply always goes to the highest bidder. Why not add your link now for as little as a £1?
If you are outbid at anytime and knocked off the top spot you can top up your link to get higher up or back on top.
For Example, if somebody put on a link and it was topped up by £1 per week, a second link added 1 year later would need to pay £53 to get above the first link.
Links don’t devalue over time but will get lower in the list if higher value links are added.
If your links falls from the top spot it will still get long term recognition on Hall of Fame
Your link is guaranteed to stay live until at least December 31st 2022.
We encourage all participants to link to www.theworldsmostexpensivelink.com from their website.
The site is self-publicising in that the more people that participate the more people know about it.
Every time someone else joins the site they will see your link till at least December 31st 2022.
We send out a monthly newsletter by email to promote the site.
ShareWest Ham Breast Cancer
I was delighted to be sent this today from my friends at West Ham. I think it is a fantastic initiative and one well worth supporting. Congratulations and respect to everybody who brought these products to market.
To read more and order click here
Lanzarote
Best Shirts Ever
The Sunday Mirror yesterday published the results of a poll among fans to find the Best Shirts Ever. Quite obviously, this was going to be very subjective but nevertheless the results were interesting.
Full list:
1 Napoli 90/91
2 AC Milan 88/90
3 Manchester Utd
4 Sampdoria 90/92
5 Juve 83/86
6 Real Madrid 95/96
7 Newcastle United 95/97
8 Barcelona 76/78
9 Ajax 94/95
A few moments later a fellow member of a favourite Facebook group, English Football of the 1980s, kindly linked to a 2015 poll which had some interesting alternatives and chose the West Germany shirt of 1988-1991. It was indeed an iconic shirt and was the very last shirt designed for West Germany pre-reunification in 1990 and the one they wore at Italia 1990.
Of course, this is really the best ever!
Posters
I was really excited to see the first posters for the challenge today. Great work by Dave Baldwin at Papilios Creative
LpoolPins
Delighted to say that the boys at Lpool Pins jumped at the chance of being sponsors of the TukTuk challenge. They say, “We are match going fans creating LFC inspired pin badges for the fans. All products & sticker packs are available at http://lpoolpins.bigcartel.com. We offer worldwide shipping. All pin badges cost £5 plus postage.” I was hugely impressed with the quality and price of the pins and if they ever do them for my Gillingham I will be getting those too!
They are sponsoring the 10 miles into and out of their beloved Anfield. They continued, “We are very pleased to sponsor part of the challenge as the charity is close to our hearts. Hopefully it will make a difference to others in need.” You will find them on Instagram and Facebook too.
Welcome onboard.
The Pope
Archbishop Paul Gallagher meets Rehman Chishti MP.
Rehman Chishti, the Member of Parliament for Gillingham and Rainham, and a close friend of the club, has met Archbishop Paul Gallagher, with a Gills shirt to be delivered to Pope Francis, head of the Catholic Church.
The MP is in Vatican City for a few days and, prior to his visit, was given a couple of replica shirts by Chairman Paul Scally.about:blankout.stream powered by ADITION
Archbishop Paul Gallagher is the Vatican City’s secretary for relations with states, and has held this position for nearly six years.
Chairman Paul Scally said: “Rehman had told me he was heading to the Vatican so we made sure we got our hands on a couple of shirts for him to deliver. We look forward to seeing the photographs!”
ShareThe Shirt 2021 Tour
On Saturday the 23 March 2021, Steve Hall, the owner of www.TheShirt2010.co.uk ,will start off on a new 1000 mile tour of England.
Steve is a seasoned traveller – 50 countries, 700 flights – but this trip will be unique. Is he back in the saddle and cycling? No. Is he running? No. Horseback/canoes? Dream trips but not this time. No, this one will be in a tuktuk! He will be back visiting the many football clubs in England he loves so much! Yes, the motorised rickshaw much beloved of travellers in Thailand and India will be visiting Old Trafford and Villa Park, Elland Road and St James …. and many, many more!
So, what is this journey? Why is he doing it? There are two main reasons. The number one priority is to raise money for Prostate Cancer Like all charities, Prostate Cancer is having a torrid time during the Covid 19 crisis. He is keen to raise many thousands of pounds for the charity and has set himself various targets. The first is to get £10,000 to them asap. He has many innovative sponsorship options starting at £1. Yes, for just £1 you can sponsor a mile of the journey, for £50 you can sponsor his visit to your favourite ground where hopefully you can meet him. Anyone who sponsors a stadium gets a signed print and a jigsaw puzzle of the ground. If you can persuade him that your club is better than his beloved Gillingham FC …. you can get your money back. Tip! Nobody has persuaded him in 55 + years. He has auctions and raffles planned and every single pound will go direct to Prostate Cancer with not a penny taken out for expenses.
Secondly, it’s a tour of the UK to see what football 2021 is all about. It has been a crazy decade. He’d say that Sky TV gets stronger, more games are televised, the top teams get wealthier and the rest are left to survive. Is that the reality? Let’s see. Steve has been a football fanatic for nearly 60 years and is keen to see what football really means to everybody. In 2010 Steve did a similar journey but that time on a pedal cycle That was a journey of four months and 5000 kilometers. Whilst he was on the journey he lost all his possessions in a storage centre fire and was left for dead by a hit-and-run driver near Sunderland. Next year’s tour looks a little easier!
He is still tidying the route but it will be a figure of eight from Brentford FC in West London to Southampton up via Cheltenham and the Midlands to the North West. He will cross the Pennines and continue to Sunderland and Newcastle before the long trek back to London via Yorkshire the Midlands and the Home Counties. It would be nice to finish at Wembley or maybe Brentford or maybe his local team, Deportivo Galicia at Heathrow. All will be finalised soon.
Please follow him as he travels his journey through England. The journey will be charted daily on www.ThisIsSpain.info and www.TheShirt2010.co.uk and will be shared on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, Empire Avenue and many other social media channels. Previous trips were always well covered by local radio and the printed media. Obviously, this makes it a great opportunity for businesses great and small to become involved. He will be announcing corporate sponsorship packages in the next few days starting from just £5. In 2009/2010 he helped Bjorn Heidenstrom with his social media on the epic cycle ride from Oslo to South Africa. 35,000 kms, 10 months in the cycle ….. and 2 million page views! He will be pleased to show you how you can showcase your business. Please, shout if you have any suggestions – now is the time to lock them into the itinerary
At this point he would like to thank a group of very special people who put their faith in him when the whole trip was little more than a coffee-inspired idea. They promised to sponsor and support, help and advise. Stand up Keith Nicol at PhotoVideoSpain, Dave Baldwin at Papilios Creative and all his friends at Go Wild Magazine, Vibe Electric,The World’s Most Expensive link and, of course, all at TukTukUK without whose help this journey could never progress.
