Alex RKThis is not an update, but a request for your assistance with a really important cause.
Three colleagues and I from Chambers have joined forces with The Big Give Christmas appeal to pledge up to £5,415 to the Mental Disability Advocacy Centre.
However, there’s a catch. We need to raise a further £5,415 from other people to draw down all the money from The Big Give. Every pound we secure from our friends and colleagues up to £5415, will be matched by another pound from them.
We could raise a total of £10,830, but we need you to click on the link below, as close as possible to 10am (but not before), on the 4th, 5th, or 6th December. Your gift will then be doubled.
https://secure.thebiggive.org.uk/donation/to/64050/22137/
We know at this time of year you’re asked to give to many causes – but this is an exciting initiative which has the potential to quickly raise a substantial amount for a great cause. You may have seen the report in The Sunday Times in June, featuring JK Rowling, which exposed the fact that cage beds are still used to hold children with mental disabilities in the Czech Republic. Even more recently, we have seen images of mentally disabled children in Greece locked in cages, by psychiatrists who consider that sort of treatment to be perfectly appropriate. And these problems are not just those of faraway places – see Lisa’s story in the CQC’s “Three Lives” report
MDAC have been very active in fighting appalling treatment of this nature through legal action and high-level advocacy. The Big Give campaign will support MDAC’s ongoing work to ban the use of cage beds for people with mental disabilities, which has already been successful in helping to ban their use in hospitals in the Czech Republic.
The Big Give is a brilliant initiative, but it’s very popular so it’s ‘use it or lose it’. We really need you to give at 10am or soon after on one of the dates above so that we can secure their matched funding.
Please do let me know if you will be able to give, and if you have any questions. And please forward this message to everyone you know to help us spread the word.
Thank you very much,
Alex
