Shotokan Karate Black Belt Academy
The following dates are for all grades including brown belts for whom assessments will be held on the same day as the gradings.
March 13th 2016
June 12th 2016
September 18th 2016
December 4th 2016
17th April 2016
11th September 2016
The gradings will be held at Harpenden Leisure Centre, AL5 2HU.
Here are the final lesson dates for 2015 and the starting dates for 2016.
On August the 27th 2015 Sensei Gary Allen completed his sponsored parachute jump from 13,000 feet for Kitty.
Gary raised over £1000 which will be going to NeST, The Nephrotic Syndrome Trust.
Thank you to everyone who sponsored Gary. It’s still not too late – please speak to your instructor or you can sponsor Gary online.
Congratulations to Gary on his very brave effort and for raising such a considerable sum for a very worthy cause!
Sean Roberts
Sensei Sean Roberts 5th Dan, 3 times European Champion & 10 times National Champion is with us again on Sunday August 30th.
9.30am -10.30am
Roundwood Park Sports Centre, Roundwood, Harpenden, Herts AL5 3AE
11.00 -12 noon
Gadebridge Community Centre, The Nokes, Rossgate, Gadebridge, Hemel Hempstead, Herts, HP1 3LF
£10 per lesson
Sean is a great instructor with a vast knowledge and understanding in the art of Shotokan Karate. Do not miss out on this opportunity to be able to train with one of the best.
Please see your instructor to confirm your place.
No Tiny Tigers – coloured belts and above only.
A message from Sensei Gary Allen
A few of you from our Abbots Langley club will know Kitty. For those who do not, unfortunately a few days before her 7th Birthday she was diagnosed with Nephrotic Syndrome.
For Kitty I am arranging a sponsored parachute jump. The height I will be jumping from is around 13,000 feet or about 2.4 miles, and it will take place on August 27th in Beccles, Suffolk.
From the jump company website:
You will fall at about 120 mph, descending to 5,000 feet in around 40 seconds
Monies raised will be going to NeST, The Nephrotic Syndrome Trust.
The sponsor forms are with your instructor. You can also sponsor me online on my JustGiving page.
Fund raising has gone well so far and thank you to everyone that has sponsored so far.
The message below is from Kitty’s Mum and Dad.
Gary and the team at Minakami Bushido Karate have blown us away with their amazingly brave idea to do a sponsored parachute jump and raise money for the NeST charity, for which our Kitty is associated with… Please, please sponsor them, and help Kitty and the other children out there with Nephrotic Syndrome / Kidney Disease.
Kitty has been with the Abbots Langley Dojo since she was 4, and loves her karate. Those that know her will have noticed she’s not been around much as sadly a couple of days before her 7th birthday she was diagnosed with Nephrotic Syndrome, the cause of which is unknown.
NeST is the Nephrotic Syndrome Trust, that funds research completed by Bristol University Hospital in to all forms of NS, they work closely with centres around the world and provide much needed support for the patients and families. Because it is a rare disease, and ultimately not enough people die from NS, there isn’t much in the way of NHS funding or drug company research. Most of the treatments out there are happy accidents from drugs used to treat other auto immune diseases like arthritis. In NS the immune system attacks the kidneys, Kitty’s has failed to respond to standard treatments, so we took her to Great Ormond Street, who performed a biopsy on her kidney which showed she has a rare aggressive form of NS, called Focal Segmental Glomeruli Sclerosis (FSGS). FSGS is sometimes treatable, but not curable, it is a chronic disease and ultimately unless the right treatment can be found, it will lead to kidney failure. That may not be the end, because the underlying cause is unknown the FSGS can come back in the transplanted kidney sometimes within hours.
Kitty has had to take a range of really foul medicines and chemo for 8 months trying to put her in to remission, none of which have worked yet, and have left her with virtually no immune system. Chicken pox can land her in hospital for weeks, and worse, but we are hopeful that by funding research a cause and ultimately a cure can be found.
As a parent, this isn’t the rosy happy future we envisioned for Kitty, and the sadness felt at the loss of all she could have become and done, if not for this vicious and painful disease is devastating. Literally Kitty is one in a million.
Lets hope that Gary can complete one Kata in free-fall – Good Luck.
Thank you. Chris & Debbie
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