OHMI Fundraisers

Here’s just some of the wonderful support we’ve received from our dedicated supporters:

Running the London Marathon for OHMI

We’re delighted that musician Freddie Draper is running next year’s London Marathon for OHMI.

As Freddie describes: “I’m a musician myself, and I work with hundreds of other musicians and music students each year. The idea of making music accessible to everyone, no matter their physical ability, really resonates with me.”

You can learn more about Freddie and make a donation here: Freddie Draper's London Marathon for OHMI.

If you fancy joining Freddie and other individuals who have raised funds for OHMI, please read on for inspiration. Or please get in touch if there’s a particular idea you’d like to discuss.

Music Therapist Lizz Lipscombe raises funds for OHMI by running 100km!

Lizz and Sue at the end of a gruelling 100km ultra marathon!

Lizz Lipscombe trained for 5 months to run a 100km ultra marathon to raise funds for the OHMI Trust.. Runnng, running and running some more! Why?
Because she felt she had no excuse not to, and every reason to celebrate that she can!

Working as a music therapist, she is constantly reminded
how lucky she is to have 4 working limbs.

Recently, she got in contact with OHMI when she was working with a client who lost use of their right arm as the result of a stroke and they wanted to re-connect with their violin. The delight on their face as they were supported in playing again was overwhelming. Adapted musical instruments can be life-changing.

Thank you to Lizz for all her hard work, but it is not to late to help Lizz support OHMI by sponsoring her to run 100km! This is quite literally the furthest anyone has gone to raise funds so we want to ensure her efforts are ultra successful!

https://gofund.me/4618cf2f

Barton Music Makers raises funds for OHMI’s purchase of adapted instruments and enabling apparatus

OHMI General Manager Rachel Wolffsohn together with Barton Music Makers representatives Dr Stephen Taylor and Tim Hornblow.

Barton Music Makers is a highly active community organisation based in Barton-under-Needwood in Staffordshire. They organise trips to concerts, hold performances in the village, and support their community choir, ‘The Bar-Tones’. Over the course of one year, they raised a staggering £2,588.91 to help OHMI purchase adapted instruments and enabling apparatus.

Langley Band Donation offers vital financial and
practical support for OHMI

OHMI Assistant Manager Tim Low with Oliver Wilson from Langley Band.

OHMI has delighted at being the chosen charity for a number of bands and music groups in the Midlands. Prominent amongst them has been Langley Brass Band which, as a member of the Championship Section, is one of the finest brass bands in the area. Their support for the OHMI Trust has been practical as well as financial, having used our adapted instruments in performances at the European Doctors Orchestra Concert and at the OHMI Annual Conference.

A cheque for £1,000 was awarded by the Band at their concert in Warley Baptist Church. This ongoing support illustrates the true partnership of aims and ambitions shared by the band and OHMI.

Student Ben Low runs the London Marathon for OHMI

Ben Low running the London Marathon for OHMI.

Student Ben Low ran the London Marathon for The OHMI Trust. Ben is a keen musician who has been playing the trumpet and drums for over 10 years.

Here’s why he ran for OHMI,
“I decided to take on the challenge because I’ve always enjoyed doing cross country and other short distance running. After my Dad became involved with The OHMI Trust and I heard about the marathon, it seemed like too good an opportunity to miss. I wanted to push myself to the limit as well as fundraising for a great charity.”

OHMI Founder Raises £5,000 in the Great Birmingham Run

Stephen Hetherington raising funds for OHMI in the Great Birmingham Run.

We’d best let Stephen tell it in his own words: “The bare facts are these: my run raised just about £5,000, it took 2 hours and 22 minutes, and my injuries are not expected to be permanent. I like to think that all my wonderful and generous sponsors will feel that they’ve had their money’s worth: those looking merely for completion, a decent effort, should be well satisfied, while those hoping to hear stories of pain and suffering should be equally pleased. It's been 35 years since I last ran regularly (I’m now 68, by the way). In those days I could run a mile in about 5 minutes. When I started training for last year’s Birmingham event, I could do no better than a mile in 12 minutes – and that was on the flat. By the start of the Birmingham run, things had improved somewhat. In fact, I had strong (if naive) hopes of managing the whole course in around 90 minutes. If you don’t have your calculator to hand, that’s a mile every 7 minutes. And I did set off at that pace. But two miles in (I should emphasise that – only two miles in) a painful knot in my calf had me limping. The pain became increasingly worse over the course, such that the last two or three miles were quite excruciating. Worse, added to what I later learned was a torn meniscus, my knee joint exploded (no, not literally) in a stinging pain. Medical experts tell me it could be Spring before it all heals. Anyway, the good news (for me at least) is that I now feel much more noble that even a world record time would have justified.”

Donate to OHMI

There are so many disabled people who are desperate to play music with their peers. We can help to make that happen – but we can only do that with the wonderful support of our funders and donors.

As our instruments have to be hand-made by experts, they can only be produced in small numbers and are therefore expensive.

Every little really does help.

Make a Donation »

Contact us

If you have a query or wish to contact us, please use the contact form available here.

You can also write to us: The OHMI Trust, 29 Woodbourne Road, Harborne, Birmingham B17 8BY

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The OHMI Trust is a registered charity (Registered in England and Wales Charity No. 1143623, Scotland Charity No. SC052047).
Registered office: 29 Woodbourne Road, Harborne, Birmingham, B17 8BY