An Afternoon with Jamie

Thursday 16th May 2014 may not be the most significant day in most peoples diaries but there's one amazingly passionate and driven Essex Boy who's turned it into a life changing day for millions of kids around the world.

Today is Food Revolution Day. An event created by Jamie Oliver as a day of action to draw attention to the need for the children of this world to understand what real food is and how to enjoy it in a fun and educational way.

I'm a big fan of Jamie, as a chef, an entrepreneur, an action taker, a revolutionary and as a great family man, this guys got it all going on. He admits himself that he's "Marmite" but whether you love him or hate him anyone fortunate enough to spend time in his company can not ignore the fact that he is a man on a mission to literally save the lives of the younger generation of this planet.

His message was first brought to prominence in 2005 with his TV series School Dinners which highlighted not only the poor nutritional quality of the "food" on offer - who could ever forget the dissection of the "Turkey Twizlers?!"

But also the resistance from parents who not only complained about his ideas but also passed bags of chips through the school fences to their kids.

The sceptical ones out there would say that he's found a niche and he's milking it for his own gain and yes his restaurant business has gone from strength to strength in the last 10 years but he's got a great product and obviously has great business mentality. The biggest thing for me that comes across in everything I see him do is that he genuinely cares.

For me it's amazing to see someone trying to make a hugely positive impact on the world.

I've always been hugely impressed with anything Jamie has done, I've read his books, cooked my girlfriend some of his dishes, dined in his restaurants and just over a year ago I signed up to be one of his Food Revolution Ambassadors. 

That got me a ticket to his live cookery class today at City Hall in London. 

30 kids were fortunate enough to be part of his live lesson and had great fun creating Rainbow Wraps as the whole thing was beamed round the world via his internet broadcast. 

I watched, I listened, I cheered along when the floor manager told me to but as I sat there I realised that this day is hugely important for the wellbeing of our young people.

Jamie spoke of the fact that poor nutrition is now the third biggest cause of death in the world. More people die of obesity related disorders than of hunger! We are literally eating ourselves into an early grave!

We have a tough battle to fight in turning kids away from fizzy drinks and sugar and in educating adults on the fact that the reason certain foods are so cheap is because they are not actually real foods but food like substances that provide no nutritional value to the body and only contribute to weight gain and disease.

It's a long road ahead but Jamie is going full throttle. A million kids in 160+ countries worldwide had the pleasure of joining his cookery class today and every one of them will go home with a positive experience from it. The kids will tell their parents all about it - but will they listen? will they take action? and will they make one or two small changes that will have a HUGE impact on the lives of their children?

I feel privileged to be part of something so inspiring, thank you and good luck Mr Oliver.

Tri4Stanley Studio Triathlon

On Monday 12th May through to Saturday 17th May we will be holding a triathlon within our studio at All About You. This will be to raise money for an absolutely fantastic cause - so we are hoping as many of you as possible can take part!
The studio triathlon will have all the aspects of a real triathlon - but don't worry it wont be as far or nearly as hard! We will be doing two different levels for each part:

• Rowing (instead of swimming) - either 1000 meters  or 500 meters
• Running - either 1500 meters or 750 meters 
• Cycling - either 5000 meters or 2500 meters 

It doesn't matter what you do or how many parts of the triathlon you do, but we urge you to take part as the money you donate will be going to such a good cause! 

We will also be doing a class 'triathlon' on Monday 12th and Thursday 15th which will include 1 lap around Waterlow Park followed by a spin class, so come along and get involved! Please check with us for the times of these classes during the week. 

We hope you will contribute donations for entering the triathlons as I'm sure all of us at the studio will be too!

So where will your money be going? 

Tri4Stanley is a charity raising money for Zoe’s Place baby Hospice who focus upon providing specialist palliative and respite care for babies and small children from birth through to 5 years old.  They provide bespoke one to one care for babies who suffer with life limiting or life threatening conditions. This care is provided by registered nurses, play leaders, physiotherapists and other care specialists 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Zoe’s Place care for up to 6 babies at any one time and currently support on average around 50 families per year. 

However, currently, it costs the charity in excess of £3,500 per day just to maintain their current level of care, which is continues to steadily increase. So this is where we and Tri4Stanley come in!

Stanley's Story

From birth Stanley needed care for support with his breathing and feeding, and at only 2 weeks of age was already on a life support machine. Nobody knew what was wrong with Stanley other than he was unable to breathe for himself or maintain his own temperature.

Whilst in an induced coma Stanley had numerous tests and investigations to try and find out what was wrong. After three days he started having seizures and it became evident that his illness had started to affect his brain.

Stanley was diagnosed with Viral Meningo Encephalitis, which is an inflammation of the tissue surrounding the brain and the brain itself.  It was at this point we were told that he was "unlikely to survive" and that if he did his life would be "severely compromised".

 Specialists identified that Stanley had caught a relatively common virus in the first few weeks of his life, a virus which most of us will have had a some point, but no one knows why it spread to his brain and affected Stanley in such a devastating way. 

As Stanley hadn’t had human contact for 4 weeks, he had actually become fearful of human touch, which broke his parents’ hearts.

As a result of his infection Stanley has an acquired brain injury (ABI), which has resulted in complex care and medical needs, including global developmental delay, and chronic inflammatory lung disease. 

Tri4Stanley Charity Challenge 2014 - 2.5 marathons in 1 day!

On Sunday 18th May Tri4Stanley will be embarking on a big challenge to raise money for Zoe's Place Baby Hospice. 
They will be starting their challenge by setting off in the early hours from Wales on a 26 mile marathon kayak along the River Dee to the Groves in Chester. They will then stumble their way to Chester Race Course where they will compete in the Chester Half Marathon. Following this they will be cycling a further 26 mile marathon up onto the Wirral, onto a ferry across the Mersey where they will continue to cycle through Liverpool to Zoe’s Place. So that's around 65 miles kayaking, running, walking and cycling in one day!

Tri4Stanley is aiming to raise more than £10,000 for Zoe’s Place Baby Hospice, which might sound a lot, but its less than three days funding! 

So we encourage you all to take part in our studio triathlon and donate whatever you can to help Tri4Stanley raise money for Zoe's Place Baby Hospice! The distances we have asked are nothing compared to what they will be enduring and it will really make a difference! 

You can also see more information and donate money to Tri4Stanley on their website - http://www.tri4stanley.co.uk/ or on the Zoe's Place website - http://www.zoes-place.org.uk/