Funday 2006 – @Bristol
On the 18th March 2006, families from all over the UK gathered together at the @Bristol complex, a science and wildlife centre in Bristol. We are very grateful to Asda for their support and for providing a cheque for £2000 for the Ichthyosis Support Group, Funday 2006.
Our Chairman, Ray Rowley and his family were unfortunately unable to attend. Ray’s appendix was removed just one week before and in his own words, he was still ‘stapled up’. We’re very glad to report that the staples are now removed and Ray is recovered and has returned to work.
On the other hand, Claire Winter a newly recruited trustee of our small charity had organised the event brilliantly, and our families were provided with a pleasant and private meeting room to gather together for a chat and refreshments before moving off to experience the first attraction, Wildwalk.
Wildwalk is a kind of mini Eden centre housing a tropical rainforest with free-flying birds and butterflies with a spiral ramp leading from the ground floor up through the trees to the top floor. Then it was time to meet up again for a packed lunch.
The families attending represented a range of ichthyoses – Bullous, Harlequin, Nethertons, Lamellar, X- Linked and CIE. The children were shy at first; some had not previously met anyone else with ichthyosis and stood just looking around, but they soon came out of their shells and played and talked merrily together. One mother expressed her surprise at feeling quite emotional at meeting and seeing others for the very first time!
Lunch was soon finished and most of us drifted down to a fantastic underwater show in the IMAX theatre. This left just about enough time for the Explore building, a feature with hundreds of interactive exhibits through science, the forces of nature and the workings of the human brain and body. And then it was time to say goodbye and leave.
Next year – 2007 – is the 10th anniversary of the Ichthyosis Support Group. Exciting plans are already under way and we are possibly thinking of March, so try to keep your diaries free. Write, email or telephone – get in touch with us and let us know what you would most like to see and do, and we’ll make the 2007 National Day – the best ever!