About Paying40Forward

You can’t buy happiness, but you can buy local and that’s kind of the same.

I am an avid follower of the social media musings of Jayde Leeder who owns a small gift and stationery business in Mona Vale called Little Paper Lane. Apart from the shop, Jayde and her husband run a diverse business that is incredibly creative. I frequent either in store or online for unusual gifts and cards and an opportunity to top up my obsession with unique lead pencils. So if you haven’t come across Little Paper Lane in real life or on social media, you need to know that Jayde writes one of the most honest and brave blogs that I read regularly. This week she bared it all about the struggles of running a small retail business and how hard it is to survive.

And it got me thinking about the buy local conversation. Out of the over 30 businesses that are supporting the Paying 40 Forward fundraiser a large majority of them are local small businesses. So while these people work a lot of hours and put in a lot of effort to bring you their craft, creativity and best they can be; they are also extremely giving people.

So here is a few of the locals that are helping us help the Australian Shunt Registry. Please follow them on social media, visit their shops, buy their wares, engage their services and remember retail happiness lasts longer when its local.

Continue reading →

Ssshhh… I’m searching for silent auction donations

The fundraising 40th birthday is about a month away. The event is coming together nicely, although we could do with a few more items for the silent auction.  We are lucky to already have great local support on board, so if you are lucky enough to score an invite to the night then trust me you will be well fed and watered.

So getting back to my main focus – the silent auction, we have been lucky with support already from Novotel Manly, The Sydney Swans and some great health and wellbeing items, but yes we always need more to make the night truly amazing. So if you know someone who could donate us an item or a service for our auction that would be superbly helpful – please note nothing is too big or too small anything would be really appreciated.

If you have not seen our supporters page check THE HELP page on this website to see who is already on board, these are being added daily right now so keep checking back.

On another note I am off to vote in the federal election this weekend, I always keep in mind what is going be best for my family and our local area. For too long we have been a safe seat, time to shake things up a bit I think. If the status quo doesn’t change then that’s fine. Make the politicians fight for it, being a marginal seat in the future can only make projects and ideas come to fruition rather than promised for a very long time. So just have your say everyone is entitled to have a vote – so do it!

While we are talking politics, I will be meeting with our State Member for Parliament the Hon. Brad Hazard about the importance of the Australian Shunt Registry on Monday morning bright and early. So preparing the facts and figures and getting slightly nervous about doing a good job of representing the cause as best as I can – wish me luck!

do something day

Today is Do Something Day, it is also MRI day for us.

There is a celebration today of volunteering and random acts of kindness being promoted by the Daily Telegraph. Do Something Day is initiative to remind people, a couple of minutes is all it takes to make a difference in someone else’s life. This is the same theory behind paying my 40th birthday forward and raising awareness of hydrocephalus to my family, friends and people who share this post. So if you don’t have the time or opportunity to help an old person across the street then simply just share our message about Hydrocephalus.

While I am an avid volunteer, today I will be spending my do something day focussed on Miss K. We have our regular MRI checkup that the Cerebral Spinal Fluid in her brain is flowing sufficiently and the ETV performed by our neurosurgeon, just over two years ago is still open and working correctly. Miss K will go under general anesthetic tomorrow for between 1 to 2 hours, we have been preparing ourselves and Miss K for this since it was requested in March.

So as far as our five-year old is concerned a MRI consists of funky hospital gowns, colourful playroom and a little sleep while they take photographs of her brain. And yes a bag full of treats for being nil-by-mouth since midnight last night (skipping breakfast is strange when your five!).

So don’t think for a minute that this is a negative day for us – we always approach treatments appointments and anything related to Hydrocephalus as only a positive experience for Miss K. We never show her that we are worried ( we may get a bit antsy the day before, but we keep it to ourselves) it’s just another day as we are the lucky ones. It is our job to keep reminding you of other families who spend weeks (not just a day) in hospital with their children who have the same condition as Miss K – this is important and if you have nothing to do today then #GiveYourBest for Hydrocephalus.

Do it Share or Comment on this post, Donate to either Paying40Forward Donate Page or you can also directly donate to the Hydrocephalus Support Association who help families just like ours.

 

Why it is important for me to be Paying40Forward

So what is the driving factor for me to donate my 40th birthday? … well of course it is personal.

Our daughter Miss K who is almost five has hydrocephalus, some of you may know already and some of you may not. It doesn’t define her or us as a family from an outsiders point of view we are just everyday people doing everyday things.

Just before her third birthday, Miss K had neurosurgery and an Endoscopic Third Ventriloscopy was performed to help her Cerebral Spinal Fluid flow better through her brain. She has a skinny tube that doesn’t perform maybe as well as it should.

How did we find out she had congenital Hydrocephalus? Well she got Enterovirus 71  (the yucky strain of hand foot and mouth) the year before from daycare and we were in hospital for five days. Enterovirus 71 can lead to Viral Meningitis so the doctors wanted to lumbar puncture her to be sure. Like all kids having lumbar punctures they CT Scan them before they do it, well that’s when they found the extra fluid on her brain, and our journey of MRIs and Neurosurgeon appointments began.

Hydrocephalus doesn’t seem to affect her, as it can do for many others on a daily basis. We took the advice of our neurosurgeon to best address the condition and to date she is travelling fine. She has completed a year of speech therapy and could now talk underwater. She is working hard at ballet, soccer and swimming to gain confidence in gross motor and she is going to be so ready for school next year I hope that school is ready for her!

Down the track who knows what will happen, this condition is for life, no cure, no easy fixes … no-one has the answer to this question, but maybe we could.

The people with Hydrocephalus, the neurosurgeons and the various support associations are working really hard towards implementing an Australian Shunt Registry which will assist Miss K and others with Hydrocephalus to have better information, better research and better quality of life in the future.

So if you want to know more I have setup a website with more information, check out the THE CAUSE page it will fill you in with lots more details.

So here starts the change from being everyday people doing everyday things to striving to be extraordinary people doing extraordinary things

 

 

I’m paying my 40 forward

SO what’s this all about?

I celebrate my 40th birthday in August 2016 and while I am the youngest in the crew of all my friends and have enjoyed the many wild and crazy evenings over the past year spent with friends celebrating this now young milestone… it got me thinking how do I want to celebrate mine?

My husband let his pass with very little fuss a nice gift and a good meal, its just another day, another number and he still looks 30 so he could celebrate in another 10 years and people would believe him!

Well in my slice of this world, I have it all! In my mind I don’t need anything more, I love my family,  my friends and yes I even love my job which offers a perfect work life balance and I have a great day to day life living in what I consider to be one of the best places in Sydney.

I would say i’m genetically gifted with volunteering, my mum and dad do it with ease ( my mum has an Australia Day award to prove it!) and my sister could organise her way out of a war zone without breaking a sweat, I have given 12 years to non-for-profits in my chosen industry, so now when reflecting on this milestone – what can I give now?

Well I will fill you in more as the details come together but I am paying my 40 forward to a project that is lacking in both funding and awareness and yes it is close to my heart, so lets see what we can achieve….watch this space!