19 June 2006

Leading Scottish property firm J & E Shepherd raised a spectacular £60,000
at a charity dinner last Thursday (15 June) in aid of the Meningitis Trust.

Over 500 guests at the event, which was held at the Sheraton Hotel in Edinburgh, were treated to a champagne reception, live music from singer Katie Target Adams and a fabulous three-course dinner. Olivia Giles, a successful Edinburgh lawyer who contracted meningococcal septicaemia when she was 36 resulting in the loss of her hands and feet, spoke at the event about her personal encounter with the disease.

J & E Shepherd are also sponsors of the Shepherd Ocean Fours Rowing Race, currently underway in the Atlantic Ocean. During the event guests heard from one of the rowing teams, who are also raising money for the Meningitis Trust, via satellite telephone link. Army Commando Pete Rowlands, who recently lost his teenage son to meningitis, is competing in the race with three colleagues.

“We have all been moved by the enormous courage and strength of character demonstrated by Pete Rowlands and Olivia Giles,” says George Brewster, Managing Partner at J & E Shepherd. “We were determined to do something positive to help raise people’s awareness of meningitis, and would like to thank all our clients and partners for their tremendous support at the event.”

Seven of the Shepherd partners had only just returned from a trip to New York to meet the competing rowers and to officially start the race. This is the first ever rowing race to cross the North Atlantic, and the first trans-Atlantic race to finish on mainland UK soil. The sponsorship coincides with the firm’s growing profile in England, led by its national survey centre in Nottingham.

Shepherd Ocean Fours Rowing Race 2006

The Shepherd Ocean Fours Rowing Race 2006, in which crews of four cross the North Atlantic, started in New York on 10 June and finishes in Falmouth, Cornwall after 3100 nautical miles and around 65 days of rowing across some of the world’s most treacherous and unpredictable seas. www.oceanfoursrowingrace.com

About the Meningitis Trust

The Meningitis Trust is the UK’s leading meningitis charity, raising awareness of meningitis and septicaemia through an education and training programme and offering practical support for life to people coping with the devastating after-effects.

Specifically, the Meningitis Trust provides support through the following services:

• A 24-hour helpline led by specially trained nurses offering information and support in over 100 languages - 0845 6000 800 (calls charged at local rates)
• Free professional counselling
• Ahome visiting service
• Financial grants to fund special equipment; respite care; therapeutic activities; special training; travel and accommodation costs; and much more.