Latest News - Limbs 4 All

Like many websites, ours was hacked recently meaning a reboot with a version several years old – apologies for the missing few years, be assured we have been busy!

Keep an eye out for posts around our Limbs4All Kids Exceed program in Cambodia, 2019 – 2025 – over 115 differently abled youth getting access to opportunity – at school and in life – as we say, ‘a disability should not define your life’

The children at Fendalton Primary School riding to raise money for Nepal – they raised enough for us to supply an extra wheelchair!

It was great to visit the SIRC and Limb Care Nepal in Kathmandu on our recent Limbs4All trek – The 50 chair project is underway with the first recipients already using the donated rough terrain wheel chairs and the team at Limb Care Nepal progressing with the design and purchase of equipment to transform the workshop and fitting facilities.

People’s generosity have no bounds, recently a physiotherapist personally donated $2000 for our Nepal fund, this will add to the great fundraiser by the students at the Fendalton Outdoor School who cycled their way to almost $300 to help out – both donations will be used to support the DRC in Katmandu in providing specialist equipment to very deserving several young people – limbs and wheelchairs – ‘limbs4all’

Firstly, we will donate a very much needed fleet of 50 rough terrain wheelchairs to the SIRC, continuing our long relationship with them. This is approximately $29,000 NZD of support, pop over to Mark’s site for regular updates on the recipients also.

The second project is to assist the team at Limb Care Nepal, Amit and Armita, to safely build limbs by updating their workshop with essential safety equipment (dust extractors) and refurbishing their fitting room for better gait analysis with parallel bars, ramps and mirrors.

Keep an eye out also for an education announcement that will be a first for Nepal

The Nepal fund has now grown to $54,000, those funds it has now been decided will be used to help not just a few amputees in Nepal but generations of disabled – Limbs4All will fully support two Nepal students to complete their degree course at the CSPO and become fully qualified limb fitters – prosthetists and orthotic specialists.

A huge thank you to all that generously provided the resource to develop these ‘assests’

Our Nepal ‘eliminate disability’ fund has now grown to $42644.61 – A huge thank you 2 principle groups – the staff and business that is Pernod Ricard and the businesses that attended the Sports Surface Conference.

Mark will shortly travel to Nepal to do the final selection of the program to commit these funds to.

A busy year in every respect – except for updating the website! Apologies for that.

We currently have committed $39,000 NZD for our Nepal ‘eliminate disability’ fund. A huge thank you to the staff and business that is Pernod Ricard, so many of my old workmates were incredibly generous, almost $18,000 donated.

The ANZ Investment retreat participants in 2015 were likewise very generous and most recently almost $13,000 was donated at the Polytan conference in Queenstown – more details to follow.

As the world is now aware, on the 25th of April 2015 a massive earthquake struck Nepal causing extensive damage and huge suffering.

With our long history in Nepal it has been decided that all donations to Limbs4All from this time (most likely for the next 12 months) will go to a specific Nepal Earthquake Rebuilding Fund). The trust has started with a $10,000 donation.

Keep an eye out here for the projects that we will focus on and please suggest any opportunities if you have a close association, as we do, with Nepal

2013 was a huge year with so many generous donors – keep an eye out here for the donors and how their funds will be used on specific projects. The exciting news is we now have dates for the Limbs4All Nepal Challenge Trek, 2 – 15 November 2014 (ex Kathmandu) Come along, the trip will be led and hosted by myself and my daughter Lucy, experience Nepal and the Everest region in a unique way. The fee ex Kathmandu is $3990 NZD ($5990 ex NZ), great value and every person means a donation to Limbs4All the equivalent to a rough terrain wheelchair for the spinal injury challenged people of Nepal. email me for further information, be in fast as spaces are filling fast – mark@markinglis.co.nz

A huge thank you to Adrian and Christine Koppens who have again donated the equivalent of 4 limbs/3 wheelchairs – their generosity has helped us to offer opportunity and not just disability to well over 100 people, our heartfelt thanks for thinking of us and supporting the concept of opportunity.

While the website hasn’t been updated for a while, the trust has been very active, both in providing support to the SIRC in Nepal, the Cambodia Trust in Phnom Penh and also to some of the victims of the tragic Christchurch earthquake of Feb 2011.

A huge thanks to a range of very generous donors to Limbs4All (the figure in brackets is the wheelchair/limb equivalent of the donation) including:

2011 Bondor NZ Ltd (14/18)
Fendalton School (4/6)
The Fongs (1)
Outward Bound Staff (7/10)
Adrian and Christine Koppens (3/5)
and more recently: Debortli Wines – many thanks to Darren! (14/18)
The conference attendees at the 2012 ALSA Conference (14/18)

A likely project that will need funding in the coming year is the supply of a set of basketball chairs and other sport chairs to the great team at the SSK – The Spastic School of Karnataka in Banglore. The team there educate and inspire a large number of Cerebral Palsy clients (over 200), placing them in great jobs at companies like MindTree and InfoSys, our job will be to take that to the next level and challenge them through sport!

Great to see the donation to the SIRC has been processed, great to help out in such a positive way!

We have just approved a $10,107 NZD donation to the SIRC in Nepal to help complete their 200 Wheelchair project, this is enough to fully fund 50 great wheelchairs.

Also, the Outward Bound staff, as part of their 24/24 challenge have raised a trageted fund for one of the very deserving new amputees from the Feb 22 Christchurch earthquake – the funds are to purchase an iPad2, a great tool for her to stay intouch with family, friends and the world.

Even with the earth being shaken by quakes from Christchurch to Japan, costing so many people their lives and creating many more new amputees and spinal patients, kind people are still supporting our projects, ensuring that all those that desperately need our support still get it.

We have received significant donations over the last few months for our 200 Wheelchair Project, Ian Robertson (Australia), the Koppens (this was the 3rd donation from Adrian and Christine) and the staff from BDO. In total, the equivalent of 26 wheelchairs! Many thanks from all of us.

Many thanks to the van Rijn family, while Rene and the family can’t join us on our next Nepal trek they have donated the funds for 4 of our rough terrain wheel chairs, it will make a huge difference to 4 lives and take us a step closer to our 200 Wheel Chair project target, many thanks!

Due to the desperate need for support following the Christchurch earthquake, we have posponed our joint national fundraising drive with InterCity Group until Feb 2011, keep an eye out for it as we still need to fund those 200 wheelchairs!

Helping in his own way is David Jessep, one of our trustees. David has taken on the challenge the Buller Marathon with Limbs4All as his chosen charity, support David and Limbs4All by donating at Daves Marathon for wheelchairs

On Saturday the 6th, Anne, Mark, Lucy and the team head to Nepal for another venture, again raising valuable funds for Limbs4All and our wheelchair project.

Only 4 spaces left on the Limbs4All Gokyo Lakes trek in November, hurry to book a great adventure!

Limbs4All is partnering with the InterCity Group to raise funds for 200 of our rough terrain wheelchairs to be delivered to the outlying regions in Nepal – a brutally tough place to be in any wheelchair, so the better the chair, the greater the opportunity in life!

Look out for our promotion in the 2 weeks before Labour Weekend, an opportunity to help us help others.

This is the style of wheelchair that transforms peoples lives in these tough environments, all we need is $115 per wheelchair!

Limbs4All is now ‘twittering’! You can find us as limbs4all on Twitter, keep an eye out for an exciting opportunity to support us in October!

Mark is just back from a 2 week speaking tour in Australia that culminated in 2 very generous donations by Grand Pacific Tours and the InterCity group – thanks so much to you all, the donation will go a long way towards helping our vision to enable the disabled to help themselves.

Well Mark and 16 Kiwis are back home after the first World Expeditions/Limbs4All Gokyo Lakes trek – a huge adventure for all!

Trekking through sunshine snd snow to 5380m (summit of Gokyo Ri) over 16 days saw challenges met and overcome. The patients at the SIRC (a L4A supported venture in Kathmandu) presented each member with a hand made candle to remember the trip by, one of many memories I am sure!

The next trips are 7 – 27 November 2010 and March/April 2011, book early for a great adventure linked to a charity that makes a real difference in peoples lives!

Gilby did a huge job, not just riding 1200km but raising about $2000 for L4A, great job mate!

Mark is off to Nepal tomorrow to lead 17 Kiwi’s on a 17 day trek to over 5000m, Gokyo Lakes, this will be a great adventure and will also will raise $8500 for L4A – thanks to World Expeditions for doing the hard work – organising it!

While in Kathmandu Mark will deliver our next $3000 donation to the SIRC for rough terrain wheelchairs, these are not just wheels but the opportunity to live a new life, a life of hope.

Another year starts, another year of opportunity to change disability to opportunity!.

The trust has approved a $3000 donation to the Cambodia Trust (limbs for youth and women in the Kampong Chhnang region). The donation is going via CT NZ, that way NZAID will multiply the funds meaning almost four times more limbs – fantastic!

Also funds have been committed to the SIRC in Nepal for more wheelchairs, Mark will be visiting the clinic as part of his guided trek (with 20 Kiwis) in March.

With the March 2010 Gokyo Lakes Trek full, almost $10,000 has been raised for Limbs4All and a new trek is planned for November 2010 – another valuable $10,000 will be raised!

Check out Chris Gilbertson’s challenge – 1200km in 8 days, mountainbiking in the South Island, support Chris and Limbs4All bu donating at his fundraising site, click right here! Chris Gilbertson

Many thanks to Bob Boxall, shaving his head generated much needed funds for Limbs4All, thanks to all the people who supported him.

We will be back online in the new year so have a great Christmas and thanks to everyone who has been such great support over the year.

Help Bob Boxall generate much needed funds by sponsoring him – shaving his head for charity!

Join Mark on a 21 day trek to the Gokyo Lakes in the Everest region of Nepal and raise funds for Limbs4All. A portion of the trip fee will be donated to Limbs4All allowing us to continue and extend our work! It will be a special experience, to have Mark on hand to interpret this amazing landscape and introduce you to his many sherpa friends, an insight that few have the opportunity to experience. Make sure you book early as there are only 20 spots available!

The Outward Bound Instructors, in their run of the Queen Charlotte Walkway (over 70km!) raised over $4500 for Limbs4All, every year they step up and make a huge difference in the world for disabled.

As have the Rotary Clubs, Mark will be speaking at their conference (Mount Cook, May 9) and accepting a $5000 donation for Limbs4All, a big step up on our journey to make a difference!

12 March 2009
The evening of March 6 saw 30 people enjoy an evening of food and culture, ‘A Taste Of Everest’.
Excess funds from the evening came to Limbs4All, enough for the equivalent of 2 wheelchairs in Nepal – fantastic thank you, especially to the lady who donated $300 and asked not to named, extremely generous and humbling!

Have you seen the Outward Bound pages on fundraiseonline? what an awesome job the OB instructors do every year for us.

Thanks to Hospira, the staff and company raised $2500 at a recent event in Queenstown, very generous thanks.

March 6, if you are in Christchurch then book to go to ‘A Taste Of Everest’ at Hinton’s (03 358 8599), the more people there, the more money to Limbs4All!

Email me if you want more info, there are some seats left, a great evening of Nepali and Tibetan food, the culture and Mark’s stories.

Katrin Walbert has decided the international MTB tour in rockies isn’t enough of a challenge so she has dedicated it to Limbs4All as well, raising funds for us while undertaking a hige challenge, go Kat! Check out her adventure at http://drkatsadventures.blogspot.com/

To start off the new year we now have a Limb4All FaceBook Cause, hop on FaceBook and check it out, let’s see how big it can grow!

Firstly, many thanks if you were one of the 90 or so people that came along to our Auckland launch, while we only raised about $1000 in the end we definitely had some great exposure on TV3, radio and in print, so many thanks to Cushla for all the organisation and the support.

A special thanks to the team at the new Bunnings Warehouse in Nelson, they picked Limbs4All as the charity for their opening with staff and management presenting a cheque for $2000 to us – that is a great step forward for our capital fund which is at about $70,000 NZD so far, well on the way to the $150,000 target for this our first year.

To put it in perspective, $2000 is the equivalent of 7 rough terrain wheelchairs in Nepal or about 11 limbs in Cambodia, that is 7 Nepalese or 11 Cambodian lives transformed!

We would love to hear from you, especially any opportunities to add to the capital fund, it feels so good to be part of a truly sustainable charity organisation!

If you are going to be in Auckland on May 13 then the must do event for that evening is our fundraising evening at The Bluestone Room. Tickets are $45 (yep it is a charity, we all have to pay!) and for that you get canapes (ie finger food!), a welcome drink and a presentation about the work that we are doing in Nepal and what we would like to do around the world.

Our friends at World Expeditions have kindly organised this for us with a team of sponsors but for it to be of use to the people we are helping around the world then we need you to come along!

Firstly, welcome to autumn! Here in Hanmer Springs the trees have turned rich shades of red and yellow and look spectacular.

Hanmer Springs recently was also the venue for what has become an annual event by the staff of Outward Bound, their Limbs4All fundraising challenge. This year by entering teams into the Hanmer 12hr Mountain Bike Race and what a race it was, rain all day meant that people looked more like the mud version of mummies! A huge effort by the teams in completing the event and even more so in raising more than $4000 for Limbs4All, including $970 dollars generously donated by many of the other 750 entrants to the event – a huge thank you to all.

2008 already! 2007 ended with a great trip to Cambodia, I ws pviledged to meet the King and Deputy PM, to see the refurbished limb centre and meet old friends and new, most importantly though to see the huge impact that a modest amount of support from us can achieve!

We were notified on the 22nd of January this year by the IRD that we have been granted Donee Status, a great recognition of the Trust that means donors to the trust can claim a tax rebate, a very valuable tool when encouraging individuals and companies to contribute to our capital fund. Just a quick reminder, as a capital fund based trust the aim is to hold all donations as a capital fund and finance the projects and Trust activities with the interest, that way our core and your contributions are never frittered away, they stay working forever!

My apologies for being tardy in keeping the site upto date! The broken shoulder has pretty much mended so I have 2 hands again!

What are we aiming for this year? Our focus is to grow the fund from it’s $30,000 currently to a useful $200,000 at least by years end, from there we will be able to start supporting targeted, sustainable projects, an exciting prospect!

Exciting news! Limbs4All is now registered with the New Zealand Charities Commission, a complex process that Katie and the team at Minter Ellison Rudd Watts have managed over the last 6 months. You can check us out by going to www.charities.govt.nz and search the register for ‘Limbs 4 All’, great to see the confirmation that we are real!

I am off to Cambodia next week as a guest of the Cambodia trust, a very exciting trip to see the rebuilt limb centre at Kampong Chhnang and to give a speech at the graduation of the Limb Fitters at the CSPO in Phnom Penh.

Always a bit nervous though as I know it will be hot and sweaty, a very tough situation for my stumps, especially coming out of a Hanmer Springs winter! Hopefully I will get a day or so to get out and about on a mountain bike, it is an awesome place for riding.

Sefton School in North Canterbury went to great lengths to raise funds for Limbs4All, about $500, a great effort for such a small school. We were very humbled by young Caleb(6) and Noah (4) from Amberley who raised $39.40, their Mum and Dad helped out with another $100, all up the equivalent value of a limb for some lucky person, many thanks from all of us at L4A.

Well we haven’t been sitting still over the last few months even if I have been too slack to do an update!

June saw the instructors at Outward Bound take on a huge challenge, a non-stop run/walk of the Queen Charlotte Walkway, 73 km! Each of the team gathered sponsorship from friends, family and the community for each km they would run, in total over $5000 was raised. While these funds will go into the capital fund with the interest available for the projects, it is a good time to reflect on how much potential this will give the people we support. $5000 NZD will provide the equivalent of 16 rough terrain wheelchairs in Nepal or at least 26 lower limbs through the Cambodia Trust, a huge change in a lot of peoples lives.

The end of June saw Merck Sharpe and Dohme hold a conference in our lovely alpine town of Hanmer Springs. The team took on a challenge of gathering products which they then auctioned, thanks to their efforts and the generousity of Hanmer businesses they raised over $1800 (6 wheelchairs or 9 legs in our currency!)

The ongoing support of Limbs4All by these groups is fantastic, adding momentum in our journey to make a difference, thanks from the team here at Limbs4All.

Well Anne and I have been home almost a week, jet lag has subsided, well almost! Our 2 weeks in Kathmandu were divided up into 3 parts, the first few days we caught up with the Everest team before they headed over to Tibet for the 2007 season, I sure hope Russ, Woody, Bill, Whetu and the team have a successful and safe ascent. Dorji, my sherpa from 2006 was there to meet us, Amanda’s (our daughter) school, St Margarets College is sponsoring Dorji’s daughter this year, Ang Chutin is only 5 years old and at boarding school in Kathmandu already, at least 2 weeks trek from her home. What a delightful bundle of energy she is and what a great start the girls at St Margarets are giving her, many thanks from all of us. Anne and I then headed into the hills, flying into Lukla (great flight!) then the plan was to trek the 2 -3 days up to Namche Bazar and back. Unfortunately my new stumps and sockets weren’t to keen on going downhill, went up great but not down so we didn’t quite make it to Namche, the hill up looked fine but for every hill you go up you need to come back down, no thanks! We had an excellent time, guided by Lhakpa, Dorji’s Dad. It was great to spend time amoungst the Sherpa people, getting an understanding of how we can help them in the future via Limbs4All. Back in Kathmandu the focus was on working with the team at SIRC, the Spinal Injury Rehabilitation Centre, Esha Thapa hosted us and we were able to meet many of the current patients. Some of the current staff are actually patients that I had talked to last year, awesome to see how well they were doing. We finalised Limbs4All’s support, we are providing 10 specialist wheelchairs (check out the images Photos from Nepal 2007) to enable far great mobility on the rough terrain that is Nepal. As each patient is given one of our chairs, we will receive an image along with their name and village. In addition we were able to provide the centre with resource material sourced from The NZ Spinal Injury Trust based out of Burwood Hospital in Christchurch. All in all a very successful trip, many thanks to the Trevor Rogers and the team at the Everest Rescue Trust who helped out with contacts in Nepal and also with some of the airfares to get us there.

It doesn’t seem like only a year has passed since I last flew TG319 into Kathmandu, there certainly has been the odd adventure or 2 since then, that’s for sure.

Today though I get to fly in with Anne, 2 weeks here in Nepal to catch up with old friends (Russ, Whetu, Woody, Bill, hopefully Dorji and so many others) and then to start to deliver back some of the support we have been able to organise principally through Limbs4All, check it out at www.limbs4all.com.

Firstly we will be working with Esha and the team at SIRC (the Spinal Injuries Rehabilitation Centre) here in Kathmandu, providing them with resource material like the ‘Back on Track’ manual created by the NZ Spinal Injury Trust and assessing the need for for all terrain wheelchairs that we hope to be able to supply.

Then we will be visiting the school that will be teaching Ang Chutin, the daughter of my Everest Sherpa, Dorji. Anne and I, in conjunction with the students of St Margarets College in Christchurch have undertaken to cover the costs of her boarding school education, a big thanks to the teachers and girls at St Margarets, hopefully they will get to learn heaps as part of the experience.

While here we will also be looking at how the Everest Rescue Trust can help the people of Nepal and how it is likely to best operate.
Add to this 4 days trekking and we will be as busy as always, a very exciting time.
First though I can sense a G&T at the Red Onion coming on! (if you have read Legs On Everest then you’ll know about this home from home)

Keep an eye out for another update and some images later in the week, Photos from Nepal 2007
Cheers
Mark and Anne

Welcome to our new website, well the trust is now registered and about to take on it ’s first projects, a very exciting time.

A huge thank you to the team at Minter Ellision Rudd Watts who have helped create the trust, doting the i’s and crossing the t’s!

One of the first projects will be the support of the Spinal Injury Rehabilitation Centre in Kathmandu, providing them with wheelchairs through Motivation (www.motivation.org.uk), resource material through the helpful people at The NZ Spinal Trust (www.nzspinaltrust.org.nz) and most likely bedding and general support for the team there.

The work that we are doing complements my role and the work being done with the Everest Rescue Trust, keep an eye out for some major announcements coming soon!