Category: Charity

Congratulations to the Neuroscience Unit at Alder Hey for raising £4500 at the fundraising event. We were happy to help them and received a letter of thanks yesterday. You can help them today, go to www.alderhey.com for more information.

After the tragic and horrific murder of Francesca Bimpson, her father Kieron Bimpson has established the Francesca Bimpson Foundation. This is a charity to support families who have also been devastated by serious crimes.

Kieron and his twin brother Gerard, as well as a group of trustees, built a supercentre in which support and rehabilitation can take place with counselling and therapy sessions, advice, guidance and help with criminal injury applications.

To further this help and support the Francesca Bimpson Foundation provides, Kieron has organised a charity concert to help raise funds for a physical health rehabilitation room. The concert, Liver Aid, will be taking place at 7pm on 30th August at Liverpool Olympia and Hampson Hughes Solicitors can’t wait to attend and help support such a charity as the Francesca Bimpson Foundation. It will host special performances from Melanie C, Ian McCulloch, Ian McNabb, Brian Nash, Sad Café, The Real People and many more.

Tickets are £10 and can be purchased at www.liverpoololympia.com

Join us in helping support the Francesca Bimpson Foundation in what is to be a night to remember.

Hampson Hughes Solicitors are proud supporters & corporate partners of BRAKE – the independent road safety charity who’s aim is stop the 5 deaths and 66 serious injuries that happen on UK roads every day. BRAKE also helps to care for families bereaved and seriously injured in road crashes.

BRAKE’s Giant Walking Bus Event 2013 takes place today (Wednesday 12th June) and will see over 14,000 children from 73 schools across the North West march for road safety. The North West schools contribute to more than 100,000 children UK wide who will be getting involved in today’s Giant Walking Bus Event.

We hope everyone involved today across the country enjoys playing a part in a massive, and incredibly important, road safety campaign

For more information on how Hampson Hughes Solicitors supports BRAKE, email

PRESS RELEASE from Brake, the road safety charity
Embargoed until 0:01hrs Wednesday 12 June 2013
Ellen Booth 01484 550067, out of hours: 07976 069159 e:

Local kids march for safer streets for walking

14,022 kids from 73 schools across the North West are marching for safer streets today as part of Brake’s Giant Walking Bus (see below for participating schools). They are joining more than 100,000 children across the UK taking part in the event, which calls on drivers to ‘GO 20’ – slow down to 20 or below around homes, schools and shops – to protect kids on foot and enable more to walk. The event also calls for more safety measures such as widespread 20 limits and safe pavements, paths and crossings.

In a survey by Brake of more than 700 kids from the North West taking part, children explained their need for safer streets to enable them to get out more on foot and bike. It found:

• eight in 10 (79%) think more kids would be able to walk or cycle to school if roads were made safer
• more than half (59%) say their route to school needs to be made safer
• seven in 10 (70%) want more paths, cycle paths and crossings in their neighbourhood they can use to walk or cycle to the park, shops or to see friends
• one in three (34%) report being scared by traffic when walking or cycling in their neighbourhood.

Statistics revealed today by Brake show that in the North West, four in 10 primary school children (40%) are now driven to school, while half (52%) walk and 1% cycle [1]. Research shows parents’ fears for kids’ safety are a major barrier to getting more children walking and cycling [2], impacting on children’s health and contributing to congestion and traffic danger.

UK-wide, every school day 23 children are run over and hurt when walking or cycling to or from school and four of these children are killed or suffer serious, sometimes life-long, injuries. That’s 713 children killed or seriously injured walking or cycling to school each year [3]. Death on the road is the biggest non-medical killer of school aged children, greater than drowning, falls or accidental poisoning combined [4].

The GO 20 campaign – by Brake and a coalition of charities – calls for 20mph to become the norm in built-up areas, and appeals to drivers to slow down, to make roads safer for kids and adults on foot and bike. A recent World Health Organisation report on pedestrian safety urged widespread 20mph limits where people live, as they are proven to reduce casualties and encourage walking and cycling [5].

Schools taking part in the Giant Walking Bus in the region, who can be contacted by media to arrange filming and photos, are listed below.

Julie Townsend, deputy chief executive of Brake, the road safety charity, said: “Many parents are in a difficult situation when it comes to letting their kids walk or cycle, often forced to weigh up the benefits of their kids being active and getting out and about with the risk of their child being knocked down and hurt. We need to make it easier for them by making roads safer for children and people of all ages, to help kids have the fun, active childhood they deserve – and a proven way to do this is to reduce traffic speeds. We’re appealing to drivers to listen to the thousands of kids marching today, and take the simple step of slowing down to 20mph or less around homes, schools and shops. It’s a case of putting kids before getting there a few minutes faster. We’re also welcoming recent progress in the North West in bringing in more 20mph limits, and urging government and more authorities to work towards 20mph being the norm across all communities, to help kids walk without being put in danger.”

About Giant Walking Bus
Brake’s Giant Walking Bus is an annual event in primary schools where children learn about traffic pollution and danger, and transport choices. Schools taking part get their kids to march (in a crocodile of supervised kids, holding hands on safe pavements, or around the school’s grounds) which gives kids a voice, helping them tell drivers to slow down and look out for people on foot. Kids can be sponsored to take part, helping fund Brake’s campaigns and services for families bereaved and injured by road crashes.

See list below and contact Ellen at Brake on 01484 550067 or for filming opportunities at schools taking part in the Giant Walking Bus.

About the GO 20 campaign

GO 20 is a coalition campaign backed by 12 charities calling for all our communities to GO 20, on the basis that GOing 20 means:

• Fewer casualties: at 20, drivers have more time to react and stop in time if they need to. Studies show when 20 limits replace 30, it means fewer casualties among pedestrians and cyclists [6].
• More walking and cycling: danger from traffic is a major barrier in enabling more people to walk and cycle. Town and city-wide 20 limits have resulted in more people walking and cycling [7].
• Healthier, happier people: More walking and cycling means healthier people, and more enjoyable outdoors activity for kids and adults. It helps communities interact and be communities.
• Less pollution: GOing 20 means lower emissions from vehicle journeys [8]. Plus if more people can switch their commute or school run to foot or bike, it means less polluting traffic.
• Lower costs: Poor health from inactivity costs society dearly [9]. Road casualties cost even more, due to the suffering and burden on health and emergency services [10]. Preventing casualties and improving health means GOing 20 pays for itself many times over [11]. It also helps people save money by choosing the cheapest ways to get about: foot and bike.

Read more about the case for GO 20.

Advice for parents
Deciding at what age to let children walk or cycle to school unsupervised is a difficult decision for many parents, who are faced with having to weigh up the benefits of their child living an active lifestyle with the threat of their child being hurt by traffic. Research shows many are put off letting their child get out and about by traffic danger [12]. Making roads safer helps more parents to let kids walk or cycle.

Parents who are worried that their child’s route to school isn’t safe enough have a number of options. If it’s possible, they could walk with their child to school, helping to keep them safe, or set up a walking bus with the help of other parents. They could also work with the school to set up a local campaign for safer roads, calling for measures such as a 20mph limit, crossings, pavements and paths. They can also check if their child’s school runs practical pedestrian and cyclist training, and encourage them to contact the local authority to provide this if they don’t.

Read more advice for parents.

Schools that have invited media to attend in your region

Contact Ellen at Brake on 01484 550067 or for filming opportunities at schools taking part in the Giant Walking Bus.

Brake
Brake is an independent road safety charity. Brake exists to stop the five deaths and 66 serious injuries that happen on UK roads every day and to care for families bereaved and seriously injured in road crashes. Brake runs awareness-raising campaigns, community education programmes, events such as Road Safety Week (18-24 November 2013), and a Fleet Safety Forum, providing advice to companies. Brake’s support division cares for road crash victims through a helpline and other services.

Road crashes are not accidents; they are devastating and preventable events, not chance mishaps. Calling them accidents undermines work to make roads safer, and can cause insult to families whose lives have been torn apart by needless casualties.

Good luck to all the HH ladies taking part in the Race for Life this July in Sefton Park – if you would like to support us, and help to raise money for a very important cause, visit our Just Giving page today!

Yesterday (Wednesday 8th May 2013) Hampson Hughes Solicitors were kindly invited along to the Women