PROMINENT shipping figures have begun to rally behind an inspirational new shipping industry campaign to raise funds for the redevelopment of part of the world-renowned Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (GOSH).
Spinnaker is proud to be closely associated with the OSCAR Campaign, which was inspired by the survival of Oscar Parry, son of our Chairman Phil Parry.
Oscar, now 11, has survived two different forms of leukaemia since he was three years old, three transplants, one spleen removal, five brain haemorrhages and two spells on life support. His story was featured on TV's X-Factor in 2009, which you can watch online at http://www.gosh.org/x-factor/the-charity-single/the-story-so-far/oscar/
"There are very few places on earth that could have saved a child as sick as Oscar," explains Phil. "GOSH takes patients from all over the world, especially Greece, Cyprus and the Middle East and collaborates with other international research centres to pioneer new treatments that literally save lives every day. Oscar would not be here were it not for the funding that enables GOSH to go beyond what other institutions can do."
The aim of the Ocean and Shipping Community Advancing Children's Health and Research (OSCAR) Campaign is to raise funds to complete the development of the Seas and Oceans inspired floor in the new Morgan Stanley building at GOSH, due to open in 2012. In less than a month the Campaign has raised almost £100,000 towards an initial target of £500,000, part of the £2.2m needed to complete the work.
The Campaign was launched in April at a dinner at the Henry Root restaurant in London, which was generously given over for the evening by RS Platou's Richard Fulford-Smith and his co-owners from the shipping industry. Supporters already include Tradewinds, shipowner Henning Oldendorff, Augustea's Raffaele Zagari, Oldendorff's CEO Peter Twiss, Ince & Co's James Wilson, Polestar's Julie Lithgow, Mark Jackson of AM Nomikos, North of England P&I's Paul Jennings, Angus Frew from the Chamber of Shipping, ICAP's Greig Macpherson and JLT's Nick Lockyer.
Companies and individuals are being asked to donate £20,000 (or more!) to the Campaign. "We're aiming high," says Phil, "but that's not to say that smaller donations and individual events should be overlooked. Far from it, Paul Jennings' wife Kaye has raised over £8,000 in sponsorship running the London Marathon, much of that from shipping supporters. The staff at Polestar have raised just under £1,000 at a recent quiz night. And a number of friends and clients in the industry have spontaneously put their hands in their own pockets and made donations of a few pounds to several thousand dollars."
"We have been overwhelmed by the early support and we are sure that the OSCAR Campaign will become living proof not only of the good work done at GOSH but also of the decency of the people involved in the global shipping industry."
For more information about the Campaign and Oscar's amazing story visit www.gosh.org/oscar If you'd like to support the Campaign in any way, join the Campaign Board or tell us about other shipping people with a Great Ormond Street story, please email [email protected] or Gordon Smith at Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity, [email protected]
