LATEST NEWS
MORE MEDIA INTEREST!
UK DonorLink has been approached again by a TV production company who are researching for a documentary project. Below is their request for involvement from our Registrants:
"We are a television production company interested in speaking with donor conceived people, parents and donors who are willing to tell their stories of searching and/or finding biological relatives for an upcoming documentary project.
If you have a story and would be interested in this project please contact me at celine@offthefence.com / 0117 909 7567. I understand the sensitivity of this issue, all conversations will be kept confidential and only taken further at your request.
'Off The Fence Productions' is an Emmy award winning independent television Production Company renowned for making distinctive and high-quality factual programming."
Celine Ritchie, Development Producer
www.offthefence.com
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‘Fabulous' magazine also want to do an article on sisters aged 18-40 years who were united through UK DonorLink.
Registrants who are interested in media involvement please contact the UKDL Co-ordinators on 0113 264 1631.
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UK DonorLink is pleased to announce that the Government has offered us a further grant to keep our service going until the end of March 2012 while they consider alternative options. While this is not as firm a commitment to the security of the voluntary register service as we would have liked, it allows us to resume our service for the time being.
WE WILL THEREFORE RESUME TAKING REGISTRATIONS FROM THURSDAY 15th SEPTEMBER UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE AND WILL GIVE PRIORITY TO THOSE WHO JOINED OUR WAITING LIST SINCE WE SUSPENDED REGISTRATIONS ON 26th AUGUST.
We ask for your patience while we work through the large backlog.
In her letter to us of 5th September the Minister, Anne Milton, said: “I am keen for options to be considered in the next few months, bearing in mind the difficulties that have been encountered in sorting out a more settled future for the register.” .
We are highly concerned that the service is now facing a further period of uncertainty. UKDL will continue to press for the voluntary register to be placed on a more permanent footing. We would like to thank those of you who offered support nationally and internationally through this difficult time and invite you to maintain contact with us as we enter this new and uncertain time. ****************************************************************
NEWS ITEM
UKDonorLink ePetition setup for continued Government Funding
A supporter of UKDonorLink has set up an epetition calling on the government to restore our funding. We urge you to all to sign the petition and to circulate it to all your contacts.
To sign the petition online - please click here.
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NEWS ITEM
BBC1 DOCUMENTARY 30th AUGUST 2011
A BBC1 documentary ‘Donor Mum: The Children I've never met' was broadcast at 22.35pm on Tuesday 30th August. UK DonorLink staff and registrants helped with its production and several appear in it.
The documentary tells the story of an egg donor who became a single mum by choice through a UK clinic in the autumn of 1990. Delighted by her own experience, she decided to donate eggs and did so via a Harley St clinic the following year. The documentary explains the very unusual circumstances in which she came to know the identity of the twins who resulted from her donation from their early years. When the twins reached age 18, she decided to approach the family to make herself available to them should they want any more information from her or to have contact. UK DonorLink helped with this - a most unusual request in our experience to date but one with very important messages. The documentary charts their contact and brings us up to date. The documentary presents sensitively and respectfully the complex emotions that can surround donor conception and its aftermath.
We anticipate that the documentary may bring forward significant numbers of people who are personally affected. It is with great regret that UK DonorLink has had to take the difficult decision to only take enquiries but not registrations from Friday 26th August as they cannot guarantee that registrations including DNA testing and linking could be completed before the service may have to close at the end of October. However, if the funding crisis is resolved then we will progress all enquiries as soon as possible.
For further details on the documentary from the BBC website please click here.
We hope to have the documentary available for sale on DVD soon.
Outside of the UK Area
For Rest of the World Visitors, you can view a streaming version of the documentary by clicking here
For further details of the current future of UKDL please click here.
If you are able to help in anyway with the funding needed for UKDL please click here.
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Urgent plea for UK DonorLink funding!
UK DonorLink (UKDL) was originally set up as a pilot project with a grant from the Department of Health.
The DoH will cease to fund the project from October and we urgently need to find new ways of funding our valuable work , including donations from individuals and grant making bodies.
If you value the work of UKDL and can help us in any way, please make a donation today.
You can send us a cheque made payable to “UK DonorLink” FAO: Christine Gunter, UKDL, Hollyshaw House, 2 Hollyshaw Lane, Leeds. LS15 7BD
If you are a UK Taxpayer, please remember that if you Gift Aid your donation, it will be worth 25% more.
Thank you |
