Author: Gaynor Leech, Founder of L-W-O Community
After 15 months of being ‘safe at home’ several family crisis’s the month of June has seen a return to some normality. We have had two meals out in restaurants catching up with friends and two barbecues at home with family. How lovely to be able to talk to people in person instead of via a video screen. Dare I hope more of this will follow? Fingers crossed as I have a big birthday and our 50th Wedding Anniversary in August in the planning.
L-W-O Community has gone from strength to strength. Our new logo designed by Chris Fickling has been very well received, with lots of you ‘liking’ the question mark and some suggesting it also looks as if it’s a magnifying glass whichever way you look at our new logo we think it represents the questions we frequently get asked "Lymph What".
The end of March I undertook a major project to build and design a new website, something I had been thinking about for 12 months. Not a simple task, lots of hair pulling and expletives, however the results are quite different from our other websites which will remain for the foreseeable future as I work through the transitions and rebranding, we are undergoing. The new website and new logo will reflect the name of L-W-O Community. We will officially launch on the 1st July 2021, this will give us the ability to add far more tools to the toolbox and give us the ability to collect donations direct to our bank account, in addition CRM services, Marketing tools, Events and better Analytics which will free up more time for me. I am getting better at scheduling in advance all our new posters and videos.
June is Lipoedema Awareness month and during the last month Mary from PhysioPod produced some amazing videos and I did a short write-up, if you missed her latest Newsletter do take a look. Mary is currently taking a well-earned rest; I really do not know where she gets all her energy from but pleased, she is taking time for herself. I look forward to our future working partnership, which is inspirational, fun and together we have reached far more people than either of us could have imagined.
In the meantime, L-W-O has received requests to work with other organisations and discussions are ongoing. I love the idea of working with other organisations with similar interests, of raising the profile of lymphoedema while each of us retain our own independence.
From a financial standpoint we survived the last 15 months, it has been extremely tough however we did end the year in the black with a small bank balance. Since then, we have received a donation from Juzo to cover our Canva software, which I am grateful to Adam Withey for his support. The North Warwickshire Cancer group has sadly now disbanded and in accordance with charity law their funds must be redistributed to similar groups, and we meet that criterion. I am truly thankful to them that they chose L-W-O Community as one of their recipients. The funds we have received from them has secured our hosting package and domain names for the next two years. This has taken an immense pressure off me and while L-W-O will still need to fundraise, we are in a better position than we were at the financial year end of 20/21. I am also grateful to the members who make monthly donations, as their support helps pay for the standing orders.
Conferences, Courses, CPD points and Webinars have been in abundance over the last 15 months, and I thank all those of you who either sent me invitations via email or pointed out the courses or webinars I might be interested in. I loved the 8th National Lymphoedema Conference nicely presented and informative. While in April and May I did have to decline several webinars due to family circumstances my biggest success was undertaking the 12-week course on Technology Enabled Care online with North Warwickshire & South Leicestershire College (NWSLC). This course really has had a big impact on the way I think and will be useful as we move forward.
Finally, I would like to thank Michelle on Twitter, Lisa & Sue on Facebook Support Group and Marie on our Families Support Group, for keeping things running while I have dealt with all my family’s issues over the last nine months.
“A bright future beckons.
The onus is on us, through hard work, honesty and integrity,
to reach for the stars.” Nelson Mandela
