How EBP is working to support Tommy’s…

Over the past 16 years Tommy’s has been our house charity; we have proudly supported them in numerous ways in that time. We have donated over £800,000 in total towards Tommy’s work and continually look for extra opportunities where as a company we can go that extra mile for them.

Tommy’s also develops and distributes medically informed pregnancy information guides, and has a free phone PregnancyLine which is staffed by trained midwives. Through these services Tommy’s work with families to give every baby the best chance of being born healthy.

What your support means to Tommy’s

Over the years, thanks to support from companies like us, Tommy’s has grown into an internationally renowned resource of pregnancy health information and a pioneer of the innovative medical research taking place at Tommy’s Maternal and Fetal Research Centre at St Thomas’ Hospital, London.

One of the benefits of our long term support is that it enables Tommy’s to provide sustained funding for medical research staff, such as Research Midwife Annette Briley, who is one of St Thomas’ principal investigators. Enabling researchers to be retained after the conclusion of each project means that their expertise is not lost to another programme. This enables Tommy’s researchers to continue working from one project to another increasing their skills and expertise, and ultimately benefiting the future health of mothers and babies.

“EBP’s support is invaluable to Tommy’s as it is only with committed supporters such as EBP that we can continue to fund medical research that helps families across the UK, and provide them with the information and support that they need, when they need it most”.

- Mary-Alice McDevitt, Fundraising Account Manager – Tommy’s.

How we support Tommy’s

Some of the ways that we have supported Tommy’s recently include:

The ‘Green’ Award – This year Environmental Business Products sponsored the all new Tommy’s ‘Green Award’

(March 2011). This new award is part of the Tommy’s ‘Let’s Get Baby Friendly Awards’ and recognises the most environmentally friendly baby brand. This year’s winners were ‘The Organic Baby Company.’

The Clapham Common 10k – This is a 10k run which EBP staff ran on the 8th May 2011 in support of Tommy’s. The team of 12 staff raised over £2000 for Tommy’s through their fundraising for the event.

“It was a great day for our company, the charity and gave our team a unique feeling of personal achievement. I implore anyone who is unsure of how they can support a charity to give this ago. It’s fun, challenging, exciting and so rewarding; both personally but more importantly for the charity!”

Allison Parkes, Runner in The Clapham Common 10K – EBP.

Incentivised Survey – EBP staff have taken part staff surveys with donations being made to Tommy’s for each survey returned.

EBP works with Tommy’s to help save babies lives.

Tommy’s exists to give every baby the best start in life. Here is how they make a difference….

In the UK:

• One in four mums and dads lose a baby during pregnancy or at birth; a devastating experience.
• Every year 55,000 babies are born too soon, too small. For many this could mean living with a disability for the rest of their lives.

Tommy’s work to help mums and dads to have a healthy baby by:

• Funding pioneering medical research into pregnancy complications such as pre-eclampsia, miscarriage, and premature birth.
• Giving parents information that will help them have a healthy pregnancy.

This is baby Cicely’s story…

After the difficult pregnancy and birth of their first baby, Logan, who was born premature at 28 weeks, Rory and Louisa Caroline-Hines then went on to experience two miscarriages. The first at 6 months and the second at 5 months gestation, due to her medical history Louisa was referred to Professor Shennan at Tommy’s clinic for Fetal and Maternal Health at St Thomas’ Hospital, London.

“Our lives were falling apart, but it was Professor Shennan that gave us the conviction that we could have a normal pregnancy and give birth at full term under his guidance.” Said Louisa. “At this point Rory had had enough, but I so desperately wanted another baby and so we agreed that we would try just one more time.”

Lousia was entered into the ‘MAVRIC’ medical trial, funded by Tommy’s, which investigates the use of different types of cervical and abdominal stitch on women to help strengthen a weak cervix during pregnancy. Louisa’s pregnancy was closely monitored using the innovative ‘Rapid fFN’ Test which is a non-invasive method of predicting whether or not a women is likely to give birth within a two week period.

“Every one to two weeks, Louisa would have the Rapid fFN Test at St Thomas’ Hospital and we would wait in clinic with bated breath for the result,” recalls Rory, “Every test came out negative which was such a huge relief to know that our baby had the chance of surviving another couple of weeks until we had the Test again. Every week that went past was a real joy and bonus to us.”

On 29th December 2010 Louisa gave birth to her baby Cicely at 39 weeks and 4 days. Louisa told Tommy’s, “We feel truly blessed and have a complete little family unit now. Logan adores his baby sister and is very protective of her. We wouldn’t want any other parent to go through what we went through, but meeting Professor Shennan and his wonderful team at St Thomas’ and with the help of Tommy’s that helps to fund research into clinical studies such as the MAVRIC, it is enabling couples like us to be given the chance and hope of having a healthy baby at full term and enriching our lives. We couldn’t be happier, thank you Professor Shennan and team and thank you Tommy’s – we couldn’t have done it without you.”