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About Us

Max Appeal! was founded by parents of children diagnosed with DiGeorge Syndrome/VCFS/a 22q11.2 deletion. We were granted National Charitable Status in a record 3 weeks from the date of application. This is all down to Sam Hawkesford's hard labour! We feel certain that the Charities Commission would have felt obliged to grant it just to stop the enormous flow of paper!

Our Charity No. is 1088432.

We are very proud to be affiliated to both the Children's Heart Federation and Contact a Family. This ensures that relationships are being cemented with both umbrella groups and other support groups so that we reach a wide audience to educate about 22q11.2 deletion.

If you think that you would like to be more formally involved with Max Appeal and think that you have a skill which could be of use to the charity we would be pleased to hear from you.

Trustees are voted on at the AGM and conference which we host each year in November.

THESE ARE OUR TRUSTEES and a few of our brave volunteers>>>>>>

Paul, Julie, Georgia and Archie (you can work out which is which!)

Paul and Julie are parents to Georgia and Archie as well as Max. Georgia was born on 4th January 1994 and Archie was born on 4th January 2000. Not giving the birthdates for the parents… eek! If you click on “Max and Friends” you can see Max’s story.

We all live in Stourbridge in the glorious Black Country! Georgia attends the Royal Grammar School in Worcester and Archie attends The Knoll School in Kidderminster, fortunately they both enjoy school life.

Paul has a small property development company and is a consultant to housing associations on property development and asset management issues.

Paul is treasurer of the charity and so it is his responsibility to ensure the finacial probity of Max Appeal. Last year the auditor gave him a glowing report and a gold star sticker!

Julie (aka Dobbie) works from home as chair of trustees for Max Appeal and in September 2003 took over as chair of the board of trustees for the Children’s Heart Federation which has been quite a challenge!

We are always looking forward to the future of Max Appeal and the support we can give to families.


More information from:
max-and-friends.asp


Susie and Robert run the Family Support side of Max Appeal from their home in Gloucestershire, which they share with their two children and an assortment of animals. To find out more about the Family Support Group, click on the link below.

Susie doesn’t usually appear with a drink in hand, but this photo was taken on Rob’s 40th birthday last year (there, given the game away)! Apart from being Mum and running the Family Support Group which they began with the help of their paediatrician in Gloucestershire in 2001, Susie works mornings as a Learning Support Worker at a local primary school. Rob works in marketing and sales (nothing to do with Gary and Sam!) mostly within the marine industry and, in his spare time, is very involved with boats and anything to do with water as well as building up something of a small holding. They have two children – Maximilian (Max) was born in 1992 and Helena in 1995. Max was diagnosed with VCFS at age 2 (when the test was relatively new) having had open heart surgery at Southampton Hospital at age 6 months to repair multiple VSD’s . Since then we have had frequent stays at Southampton and Cheltenham Hospitals, as well as visiting Frenchay for Max’s palate problems. As he has grown though, Max has not had so many infections and our visits to hospital have been less frequent. He had a second heart op in 2000 and since then has grown like a weed (and now overtaken his Mum – not difficult – and trying to catch up with Dad who is 6’5”!) and, having hardly eaten a thing when small, is now eating us out of house and home! We’re not complaining. Max started at secondary school last year and is passionate about trains, motor racing, planes, boats and anything that goes really fast!

Helena is also going to be much taller than Mum: she is very sociable, loves music and singing, parties, shopping, running and boating and especially looking after small children which is always a real help at our Group meetings!

We are really looking forward to working with members throughout the country to provide support for families nationwide.

More information from:
family-support.asp


Hi there! I’m the odd one out.

At the moment I’m the only Health Care Professional acting as a Trustee.
Not only that but I have no children of my own, I share my house with my cats and my maximum exposure to children is on the annual MaxAppeal! family day in late November.

I’m a Clinical Scientist with a special interest in Primary Immunodeficiency Diseases.

I became involved with MaxAppeal! about 5 years ago when Julie Wooton called the hospital in Birmingham where I used to work to ask if any one had any cartoons to explain the working of the Immune System. I met Julie, Sam Owen and Sharon Hunt and was so impressed with the work they were doing that I wanted to help…and the rest is, as they say, ‘…History’.
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(ED> if you would like a copy of Hilary's cartoons posted to you in either paper format or on CD ROM then click on the link below and send your details!!!)
More information from:
contact-us.asp


We're Harrison's parents. While not attending to his duties as a Max Appeal trustee, Bernard tries not to pass on all of his bad habits to his son. Lindsey home educates Harrison and is planning to start a business helping other parents to do so. She is the brains of the family operation and ensures it all happens!

Bernard's best-ever present was on his 30th birthday (a while back now...) when Harrison was finally taken off a ventilator one month after major cardiac surgery. Helping other families "joining the VCFS club" is Bernard's motivation for helping Max Appeal. He works in the IT sector and spends an unnatural amount of time about aeroplanes as he works at several airports. When not working, he dreams of running the marathon for Max Appeal but still hasn't made it to the shop to buy those running shoes.
More information from:
http://www.maxappeal.org.uk/max-and-friends.asp