A total of £37,500 donated to three Sussex-based charities.

East Grinstead, West Sussex -- (SBWIRE) -- 11/05/2010 -- On Sunday evening, October 17th, the annual Gala Charity Concert was staged at Saint Hill, home of L. Ron Hubbard and headquarters for the Church of Scientology UK. The charities chosen to benefit from this year's concert were the East Grinstead Museum, the Mayor of Crowborough's Charity, and the British Engineerium Trust.

Around 1,500 were in attendance, including Mayors, District Council Chairmen, Town Councillors, and community leaders from all over the South of England. In addition, guests flew in specially from all over Europe and as far away as the United States.

The evening's entertainment covered a wide spectrum of music - from the legendary Kenny Ball accompanied by the number one swing jazz band The Jive Aces to the Caribbean's premier female vocalist Michele Henderson; and from award-winning Gospel singer Jesse Stevenson and rapper Chill E.B., to the Italian Queen of Jazz Elena Roggero and drummer Woody Woodmansey (best known for his years with David Bowie and the Spiders from Mars). The Academy Award-nominated Hollywood actress Anne Archer hosted the evening and presented the official cheques on stage to the representatives of each of the local charities including the Mayor of East Grinstead Cllr Stephen Barnett and the Mayor of Crowborough Cllr Mrs Kay Moss.

Now in its 14th year, the Saint Hill Gala Charity Concert has supported numerous charities, such as the Royal National Lifeboat Institute, the RSPCA , the National Drug Prevention Alliance and the Bluebell Railway Trust. The concert follows the tradition that was started by L. Ron Hubbard in the 1960's when he resided at Saint Hill Manor and supported many of the local charities.

The Gala Concert concluded a three-day jam-packed weekend of activities at the Church of Scientology with over 7,000 people from around the world. The weekend is an annual staging of conferences and seminars for parishioners and community leaders alike, encompassing the Church of Scientology's social betterment programmes in the areas of human rights, drug education, common sense morals, and the volunteer ministry.

Press & Media Contact:
Graeme Wilson
Church of Scientology UK
Saint Hill Manor
East Grinstead, West Sussex RH19 4JY UK
+44 (0)1342 318229
press@scientology.org.uk
http://www.scientology.org.uk

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

East Grinstead, West Sussex -- (SBWIRE) -- 10/25/2010 -- In a video featured on the new Scientology Video Channel at http://www.Scientology.org, Marc Koska talks about his determination to make injection-transmission of HIV/AIDS a thing of the past.

Inventor Marc Koska is a man with a mission-saving lives. In 1984, as the world was learning of a new disease called HIV/AIDS, Koska, then 23, read an article predicting that unsafe injections would spread the disease like a plague.

That's when his life changed.

"Appalled at the prospect of such an avoidable catastrophe, I decided there and then to try and do something about it," the father of three from Sussex, England, writes on his website.

He set out to invent an inexpensive syringe that could be used only once, thus thwarting the spread of the disease through repeat injections. Although his concept was in place, Koska had no idea how to go about it.

"My ignorance of healthcare systems and syringes was complete-and the only thing I had ever manufactured was excuses, Koska says. But he went to work on the problem and after many years of research, the "K1" was born-the world's first auto-disabled syringe. In a nutshell, the syringe self-destructs after one injection.

In 2001, the K1 was adopted by UNICEF for immunization. Auto-disable syringes have since become the norm for disease prevention, but immunization accounts for just 5 percent of injections.

Koska, though gratified by the UNICEF adoption of his technology, was still concerned about the 95 percent of injections that still put lives at risk from re-used needles.

Traditional syringes are disposable, but unscrupulous doctors and desperate people, particularly in the developing world, buy used syringes and use them over and over. Every year, according to The World Health Organization, 1.3 million people die from diseases caused by non-sterile needles and 22 million more are infected with hepatitis and HIV.

"That is precisely why I formed the Safepoint charity in 2005," says Koska. Safepoint's mission is to inform parents and children around the world of the dangers of non-sterile injections and how to avoid them.

"We teach them that the syringe must come in a packet, be used once and then must be destroyed, put in a safety box and discarded properly," Koska says.

With the blessing of numerous health ministers, Koska has set up Safepoint centres in seven countries including India, Pakistan, Malaysia and Indonesia. Each centre trains and employs local staff who spread the message in schools, clinics and local communities.

Koska became a Scientologist in 1992. "I was always absolutely certain there was a system out there that would help Mankind and I was very eager to find it. My wife and I read many, many books and listened to hundreds of tapes trying to find the answer from motivational speakers, religious leaders, philosophers. It became a fantastic mission to try to find the right solution. Nothing really satisfied us and we knew that there was something better and bigger out there," he says.

A friend introduced him to Dianetics. "I read the first 50 pages and knew that I'd found the answer. It literally answered all the very sophisticated questions I had about life-questions I thought no one else had ever thought of. I knew that I'd found what I'd been looking for," Koska says.

"You read a piece of data which is very true to you and it just becomes part of you-you apply it on a continual basis. I suppose the easiest way to explain it is it's just easier to get over problems. You can handle things a lot better and if you confront a problem, you can get through it very easily and make progress very quickly."

Koska feels Scientology has made it possible for him to accomplish his life-saving mission: "It's being able to reach out and get in touch with people you would normally think wouldn't be possible."

He also credits the encouragement of those nearest and dearest to him. "I couldn't have done any of it without the support of my family," says Koska. "But parenthood only reinforces your determination to protect other families from what is an entirely preventable human tragedy. Preventable tragedy makes me angry. It's a terrible waste, and there's still so much more to be done."

Koska was awarded an OBE in 2006 for his contribution to Global Healthcare, having successfully pushed to table legislation to prevent syringe re-use in over 15 countries.

View the Marc Koska video: http://www.scientology.org/videos.html#/videos/world-map/meet/all/meet-a-scientologist-marc-k

The popular "Meet a Scientologist" profiles on the Church of Scientology International video channel at Scientology.org now total 150 broadcast-quality documentary videos featuring Scientologists from diverse locations and walks of life. The personal stories are told by Scientologists who are educators, teenagers, skydivers, a golf instructor, a hip-hop dancer, IT manager, stunt pilot, mothers, fathers, dentists, photographers, actors, musicians, fashion designers, engineers, students, business owners and more.

A digital pioneer and leader in the online religious community, in April 2008 the Church of Scientology became the first major religion to launch its own official YouTube Video Channel, which has now been viewed by millions of visitors.

Press & Media Contact:
Graeme Wilson
Church of Scientology UK
Saint Hill Manor
East Grinstead, West Sussex RH19 4JY UK
+44 (0)1342 318229
press@scientology.org.uk
http://www.scientology.org.uk

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm