Charity reaches £170,000

The donation from the That’s Life magazine sees the total money raised to date hitting £170,000, a truly remarkable tribute to Lisa’s legacy which continues to help less fortunate young adults achieve their educational dreams and ambitions in the way Lisa did. Lisa was incredibly proud of her BA 2-1 in Business Management that she achieved at Southampton Institute (now Southampton Solent University). She would be incredibly proud to know that to date some 35 students have benefited from the charity that was set up in her memory.

As well as this, a recent raffle organised by the staff at Southampton Solent University raised £176 for the charity.

We would like to thank everyone for their continued support.

That’s Life magazine publishes story of Lisa’s stolen journal

National magazine ‘That’s Life’ picked up on the massive publicity that had been generated by story of Lisa’s stolen journal, and the subsequent return of it by the thief, and decided to publish it. The story was run in edition 12 of the magazine on March 22nd. The magazine offered to pay Lisa’s mum Tricia £500 for the story which has been donated to the charity.

Click here to read the full article..

Lisa’s journals stolen by burglar… but then returned!

Two weeks ago Clive and Trish returned from holiday to find that their house had been burgled. Amongst the items stolen along with the safe were Lisa’s journals and all the postcards she had sent during her travels. Devastated, Clive contacted the Daily Echo asking them to run an article in hopes of tracking down the burglar.. After a piece by Mike Osman on the local Radio Solent and the article in the Echo, Clive and Trish were asked to appear on Meridian News, to appeal for help.  On the night of Thursday 11th December, while Clive and Trish were at a Christmas party, the burglar crept back to the scene of the crime and left the journals and postcards in the front porch.

Since then there has been a rush of interest in this story, with newspapers and television news crews arriving at the house desperate to cover what has turned out to be a heartwarming Christmas tale with a happy ending. The Wilsons have now appeared on Meridian News and the ITV News at Ten, and have been approached by That’s Life magazine to run an article on the story.

There has been a LOT of press coverage! The news so far…

Online:

BBC News – Thief returns journal to parents – with CCTV footage of the burglar’s return

Daily Mail – Guilt-ridden thief returns couple’s journal detailing last thoughts of dead daughter

Daily Echo – Couple plead for return of tragic Lisa’s journal
Daily Echo – Burglar returns family’s mementos of late daughter

The story even made it into the news in Australia: Melbourne Herald Sun

Scanned newspaper articles:

(to be added soon)

Kemal Omag receives “Outstanding Achievement Award”

After three years of studying, student and bursary recipient Kemal Omag was presented with the Lisa Wilson ‘Outstanding Achievement Award’ following his graduation ceremony on November 5th. Kemal graduated with an outstanding B.A. Hons in graphic design.

We would like to wish him every success in the pursuit of a new career, he has been a great example on behalf on the Lisa Wilson students.

New bursary recipients for 2008

On October 27th at a ceremony at Southampton Solent University this year’s intake of bursary recipients were presented with their cheques by Clive and Tricia Wilson.  This puts the number of students who have benefitted from the awards up to 35.  The ceremony was attended by 40 people including parents, tutors, staff, and many others. Widening Participation Officer Geeta Uppal welcomed everybody and Clive Wilson spoke about Lisa and the awards.  He then showed a pictorial DVD, put together by Lisa’s brother Ross, called ‘Lisa’s Dream’.  This showed her journey around the world before she tragically died en route to Ayres rock.
Pro Vice Chancellor Academic Jane Longmore replied on behalf of the university stating that the ‘Lisa Wilson Scholarship Fund’ had now become an integral part of the university.

In addition to the 7 new students a further 11 will be entering their second and third years; this includes World Champion Boccha player Ali Lalani who had taken a year out because of the Olympic games.

The names of the new recipients for 2008 entry are as follows:

Nathan Campbell
Hollie Calton
Sabeen Ditta
Craig Dookie
Sharon Elegbede
Ajay Sharma
Tracy Phiri

The names of the continuing students are as follows:

Richard Dacombe
Michael J Green
Carly Hansford
Chloe Pickup
Sue Gatesman
Kirsty Anne Smithers
Denise Mutoni
Vanessa Langlais
Kayleigh Doughty
Tom Dowsett
Naomi Jane Linton
Ali Lalani

Lisathedaddy retires to become Lisathemummy!

After a  highly successful career – winning four times with numerous places – we have decided to turn her into a brood mare and she has gone to her new home at Woodhaven Stud. The intention is for her to be ‘covered’ by 2002 European horse of the year, the highly successful Kyllachy, the sire of whom is the famous ‘Pivotal’.
Lisathedaddy has done much to raise the awareness of the charity and we are hoping for a foal in early 2010.

Meanwhile Rileyskeeping faith had a great start to his career winning three times in only nine outings. Rileyskeeping faith was named after Lisa’s nephew Riley and will give us the opportunity to stay involved in racing  following Lisathedaddy’s retirement.

Charity fund hits £150,000

With the addition of the the funds from the recent golf day, the total amount raised on behalf of The Lisa Wilson Scholarship Fund has now broken through the £150,000 mark.

The charity which was started in the spring of 2003 following Lisa’s tragic accident has managed to raise on average £30,000 a year. This funding will make a huge difference to so many young people’s lives; it will give less fortunate young men and women the opportunity to fulfill their educational dreams and ambitions in the same way that Lisa had aspired to do. This means that Lisa’s growing legacy is now a minimum of 150 Years of education, a truly remarkable legacy to a truly wonderful daughter.

Clive and Tricia Wilson and their family would like to personally thank everyone who has contributed to help keep Lisa’s memory alive by supporting the charity.

DP World make amazing donation with the help of Aussie Dave

DP World, who previously traded as Southampton Container Terminals, have just donated an amazing £5,000 to The Lisa Wilson Scholarship Fund.  The Fund was one of five local charities chosen to receive part of a total sum of £35,000.  Campbell Mason, The Managing Director of DP World, has explained that when the company makes major procurements they request that their suppliers make a contribution towards their funding of local charities, which enables them to pass it on into the local community.

The company’s initiative is to get their employees to nominate local charities who may benefit from their donations. One of their employees is our friend Dave Lloyd, the Aussie who owned the back-packers establishment in Sydney where Lisa and Jo Harwood stayed during their travels in 2002.

Dave & Jo fell in love and eventually married, and are now living in the UK.  They have just recently given birth to their first child.  Dave moved from Australia to be with Jo and has worked with DP World for the last few years.  He approached his company on behalf of the Lisa Wilson Scholarship Fund, hoping that the charity may see some small benefit and was absolutely gobsmacked when he was told how much the charity would benefit. The timing of the donation is absolutely in line with the announcement of this year’s bursary recipients, and this donation should cover this year’s intake of students and help continue Lisa’s legacy.

Commemorative donations help to swell the Fund

Following the death of Lisa’s Grandfather, Peter Wilson, on 2nd August 2008, we would just like to thank everybody who made donations to the charity instead of flowers and feel sure my father, Peter, would be very happy knowing that young people will benefit from these donations.

~ Clive Wilson

The 6th Lisa Wilson Golf Day raises in excess of £7000

On Saturday 2nd August 2008 the 6th Lisa Wilson Golf Day took place at Wellow Golf Club where Lisa worked and played before her tragic accident. Over 120 members played in the member’s competition which was open to men, ladies and juniors. We also had a record number of guest entries; an amazing 48 people turned out to play in the Guests’ and Sponsors’ competition.

Although the weather was miserable to start with, it brightened up towards lunch time and during the afternoon became quite hot with some very sunny patches. The course was in exceptional condition and looking at the points score, the golf was exceedingly good.

The prizes were presented by former Grand National winner and race horse trainer, Brendan Powell. Brendan spoke about the race horse named after Lisa, Lisathedaddy, and told a few anecdotes about his career.

Ladies winner Margi Burt receives her trophy from Brendan Powell

(For a full list of winners, please click here)

Clive and Tricia Wilson pose with the Drifters.

Nearly 100 guests and sponsors sat down to dinner whilst the members enjoyed a barbecue. Close on 200 people were in the club-house for the prize giving, which was followed by a star cabaret from the legendary Drifters. They gave a truly outstanding performance, singing over 25 songs including many of the Drifters hits, and many other motown classics. The dance floor was absolutely heaving.

Many thanks to everyone who supported the event, it truly was a fabulous day.

Photographs from the evening will soon be available for download and printing. Please check back later.