Supermen

So....following hot on the heels of my Wonder Women post, comes 'Supermen'.... Just 2 today, I'm sure there are more than 2 Supermen in the world, but these are the 2 I find myself thinking about the most at the moment.

When I first joined twitter, like most people, I found like-minded tweeps by doing a twitter search on words that interested me - in my case 'Cancer Research UK'.  I've come across many, many amazing fundraisers in this way, but this special mention is for Colin, @365er.  Colin came up with the idea for the 365 Challenge after he sadly lost his sister to cancer, and also had his own experience too!  A simple idea - getting sponsorship for rowing the length of the Thames, swimming the channel, cycling LeJog.....but all of these challenges achieved without leaving the gym!  Colin has personally raised £10k in this way, and has inspired others to do the same, and in total the 365 Challenge has raised over £30k for Cancer Research UK.  We were all shocked a few months ago, to learn that Colin had been diagnosed with cancer himself again, but he has not let this stop him and he is still frundraising and encouraging others throughout his current course of chemotherapy.  Please show Colin your support, especially through this tough time....together we will beat cancer.

In my previous post, I mentioned the lovely @sarahezekiel and her battle with Motor Neurone Disease.  In a bid to find out more about the disease, I did a twitter search on #MND and came across a tweet by @stickyparkour, mentioning his 1000 Miles of Parkour challenge, raising money for the MNDA.  Johnny has an amazing website with full details of his entire journey, but in short he is currently in France after running and jumping his way from John o'Groats in Scotland to Dover in just over 5 weeks.  He is still running as I write this, and is on his way to Paris, the home of Parkour.  I have followed his tweets closely over the weeks, and know he has been in incredible pain, but has shown unrelenting determination through darkness, rain, sleet and searing heat.  Having done over 800 miles of his 1000+ mile journey, I think this photo says it all and I hope it will prompt people to support him and this very worthy cause.

thanks for reading
x

Wonder Women

Fridays have become a bit stressful for me on twitter..... Like everyone, I love to be mentioned in someone's #followfriday tweets  It makes me feel that my time on twitter isn't wasted and that somewhere out there are people who might occasionally value something I have to say!  However, the stress for me comes when I don't have time do #followfriday properly, when I feel like I'm not reciprocating, or heaven forbid I forget someone really important! 

When I do a #followfriday, I prefer to give a reason for why I value that person or people, rather than just doing a #ff followed by a long list of names - I think while it's nice to be mentioned in any way, no one really pays much attention to a #followfriday list (am I right?).

So, what I have decided to do is to write a blog post each Friday, and attempt to put into words the reasons why I follow certain people/charities and what inspires me about them. 

Since I have rambled on somewhat in this particular post, I will stick to 3 Wonder Women for today (but look out for my Supermen post too!).

I have followed the @Childsi charity for sometime on twitter, but I follow so many charities, I didn't *really* know what they were all about, or who the people were behind it.  I knew they were about children (obviously) and were based in Uganda and that is was headed up by @LucyChildsi.  However, that vagueness all changed as I watched Lucy Buck's GMTV interview today.  It would take a whole blog post to detail the wonderful work of this charity, but Lucy deserves a special mention for her selflessness and her passion.  The way she described connecting with the babies in their care, inspired me today.....and I urge everyone to watch the short video and look deep into yourselves and consider what you can do for others.

I came across @sarahezekiel when someone retweeted the fact that she was up for a mashable award for Sarah's Story (which she subsequently won!).  Sarah suffers from Motor Neurone Disease - a cruel, debilitating disease which can strike at any time in seemingly healthy people.  The reason I find Sarah so inspiring is her amazing mental strength and determination not to allow the disease to beat her, and her tireless efforts to raise awareness of MND.  As I write this, Sarah is currently in her local hospice to try and regain some strength.... as with many twitter relationships, Sarah is someone who regularly pops into my mind in my 'real life', here's hoping she's home with her family soon....

My third and final Wonder Woman is @bubblybex who I'm sure needs no introduction to most people.  Bex is famous in the twitter world (and the real one since her recent ITV appearance!) for her #positivityispower attitude towards her cancer.  She has shared her cancer experience with her twitter followers with incredible openness and always with humour.... we may cry occasionally too... but then she'll make us laugh again!  Not only has she managed to raise an incredible £3.5k for Cancer Research UK through social networks, but she has created the cancer awareness and support network, @kickcancer.  There can't be many people who have never been touched by cancer in some way.  Please support Bex and her #kickcancer campaign....together we will beat cancer.

and if you're still here after all that lot - well done ;-)
xxx