So today is 1st October - until tea time today, I had eaten no chocolate whatsoever since 31st August!! If you haven't read or heard about my chocolate fast, in brief, I pledged to stop eating chocolate for a month as an additional challenge to a fundraising event I signed up to take part in - the Sleepwalk in aid of The Children's Trust.
The Sleepwalk took place last Saturday evening - I went along with one of my school mum friends, and we set off on our 10 mile walk at 10pm. The walk started in Priory Park in Reigate, Surrey and then carried on around the town before ending again within the park. Only on the morning of the walk had my husband said to me 'isn't Reigate quite hilly?' - well, the answer was yes!! In fact, there are very few flat bits! Anyway, a lovely walk around what looked in the dark to be a very lovely town - and I will definitely return in the light of day for another look. We finished in 3 hours 10 minutes and were very pleased with our time - a quick cuppa and a donut later, we set off home for a well-deserved sleep!
I would like to thank my fabulous twitter sponsors who helped me raise an incredible £155 for the Children's Trust, who honestly change the lives of disabled and brain injured children:
@StephenGradwick @Rawker28 @ThornyKate @GreenMousey @NimbleRunner @sloanyxxx @Janine_B_Lewis @cancermatters @bowelcancer
right.....off to continue my #chocfest ;0)
Nancy xxx
Friday, 1 October 2010
Monday, 6 September 2010
Chocolate blog....week 1
Today is my 6th day without chocolate.....
Last thursday I waved off one of my best friends to her new life in Australia. As we left the airport we stopped into Boots to get something to drink, and I instictively picked up a chocolate milkshake....but put it back.
Yesterday, I went to visit a friend losing his battle with cancer....I have known him for 15 years, he was at my wedding and was there when I arrived home with my first baby. On my way home, I opted for crisps from the vending machine instead of my usual chocolate.
Today, I found this cake in my daughter's party bag from the weekend - I would normally have eaten it without even mentioning it to her, but dutifully (and a bit sadly) handed it to her on a plate (and wasn't even offered one of the marshmallows!!).
At the moment I wouldn't say I feel any better in myself for not eating chocolate, but life is pretty emotional right now.... but I think it can only be a good thing, and I'm confident that I can make it to the 30th without caving in!!
My previous post explains in detail what this whole 'no chocolate' thing is for - and whereas this aspect is going quite well, my training for my 10 mile walk isn't!! But still 3 weeks to go ;-)
Thursday, 2 September 2010
Chocolate Blog.....
I have written a few posts about fundraising challenges others are taking, from Ironman to cycling the length of the country on a 7-seater circular bike!! My own upcoming challenge, a 10 mile walk in aid of The Children's Trust, may seem to pale in comparison so I decided to try and stretch that challenge in the hope of raising some sponsorship.....
Anyone who knows me well , if asked to describe me, would definitely include chocolate/chocoholic/cadbury in there somewhere! So, having done absolutely no exercise over the school summer holidays, having an appalling complexion anyway and looking for a challenge, I've decided to go on a chocolate fast for 1 month - not only will I be challenged and hopefully raise some money for a good cause, but I will (fingers crossed) feel and look better and healthier too!
So, I started yesterday (1st Sept) - this no chocolate lark includes chocolate biscuits/hot chocolate/choc chip muffins btw - and so far I've done a good job of ignoring the box of chocolate covered flapjacks on the kitchen counter, and the pack of kit-kats which call out to me every time I open the fridge!
Like many people, probably mostly women, chocolate is a real comfort food - I have often resorted to scoffing a mars bar in the understairs cupboard following a 'difference of opinion' with my pre-adolescent son!! Tonight will be a real test for me, as I say farewell to one of my best friends when she leaves to emigrate to Australia.... I may just have to have a glass of wine instead ;-)
As you may know, I do a bit of fundraising now an again ;-) This year I have taken part in 2 Race for Life events, walked a marathon, and also organised Little Legs for Life which my kids all took part in....as I'm so often asking for sponsorship, I'm hoping to get just a few more lovely people to donate just £2 to this fabulous cause for my efforts!
If you would like to kindly sponsor me £2 the link is: www.justgiving.com/NancyScott
Many thanks for reading - there will be a second chocolate blog post next week to keep you updated on my progress :-)
Nancy xx
Anyone who knows me well , if asked to describe me, would definitely include chocolate/chocoholic/cadbury in there somewhere! So, having done absolutely no exercise over the school summer holidays, having an appalling complexion anyway and looking for a challenge, I've decided to go on a chocolate fast for 1 month - not only will I be challenged and hopefully raise some money for a good cause, but I will (fingers crossed) feel and look better and healthier too!
So, I started yesterday (1st Sept) - this no chocolate lark includes chocolate biscuits/hot chocolate/choc chip muffins btw - and so far I've done a good job of ignoring the box of chocolate covered flapjacks on the kitchen counter, and the pack of kit-kats which call out to me every time I open the fridge!
Like many people, probably mostly women, chocolate is a real comfort food - I have often resorted to scoffing a mars bar in the understairs cupboard following a 'difference of opinion' with my pre-adolescent son!! Tonight will be a real test for me, as I say farewell to one of my best friends when she leaves to emigrate to Australia.... I may just have to have a glass of wine instead ;-)
As you may know, I do a bit of fundraising now an again ;-) This year I have taken part in 2 Race for Life events, walked a marathon, and also organised Little Legs for Life which my kids all took part in....as I'm so often asking for sponsorship, I'm hoping to get just a few more lovely people to donate just £2 to this fabulous cause for my efforts!
If you would like to kindly sponsor me £2 the link is: www.justgiving.com/NancyScott
Many thanks for reading - there will be a second chocolate blog post next week to keep you updated on my progress :-)
Nancy xx
Thursday, 29 July 2010
more Superheroes....
so.... it's been a while, I know! I've been rubbish at writing blog posts, and rubbish at twitter - I've just been struggling to find the time lately! On 4th July we held our major annual event, Little Legs for Life - a Race for Life for kids (450 took part!!). We are still counting the pennies as they roll in, but we've currently raised over £18 500 :-) Anyway, I digress, the point of this post is to tell you about some amazing people doing amazing things this coming weekend.... I will then try to do a similar post each week :-)
1. First and foremost, because they are raising money for my favourite charity, comes @ConferenceBike - these crazy guys set off on Saturday from John O'Groats and will head for Land's End visiting Cancer Research UK research centres along the way. So what is so crazy about these guys? Well, a Conference Bike is a 7 seater circular bike and they will pedal the entire distance on this contraption, as a group! And.... it gets even better! They want YOU to help! There are enough seats on the bike for helpers, so they are looking for volunteers to cycle a few miles at different points along the way. Please visit their website http://www.cobiuk.com/ for more information on their challenge and their route. If you can't help with the cycling, perhaps like me, you can check out the route and plan a day to go and cheer them on - or of course you can donate via their website :-) Good Luck guys - and I'll see you somewhere along the way!
2. Another mad challenge taking place this weekend is @adakane - Adrian is not only walking 26.2 miles....he is doing this around a school athletics track....oh, and he'll be pushing a car! Yes, he is walking a marathon whilst pushing a car, trying to break a Guiness World record. Sadly, Adrian lost his mum to stroke earlier this year, after a battle with cancer and he is raising money for both the World Cancer Research Fund (UK) and The Stroke Association. Adrian is running 2 separate fundraising pages - one for traditional sponsorship, and the other is like a raffle, where you can donate just £1 and guess how many steps he will take to complete various stages of the challenge, and be in with a chance to win a great prize!! Best of Luck Adrian - and for anyone in/near Woking in Surrey, please try to get down to St John the Baptist School on 31st July!
3. Last, but by no means least is @TakeChallenge - Christopher has already run over 100 miles in one go, earlier this year, all in aid of the @VeteransCharity. He will be challenging himself to the max again this Sunday as he takes on the British Ironman event in Lancashire. If you don't know what this involves, it's a 2.4mile (3.86km) swim, 112mile (180km) bike and then a run, a marathon 26miles (42km), ran in that order without a break - oh and it has to be done in less than 17 hours! Donating is easy....Text: P65 IRONMAN to 70007 and Project 65 will receive £2.55 from every £3 text message :-)
Best of luck to all these Superheroes - though I don't think they'll need it, they're all determined enough ;-)
thanks for reading - please support these amazing people, even if it's just a follow and a tweet!
Nancy
1. First and foremost, because they are raising money for my favourite charity, comes @ConferenceBike - these crazy guys set off on Saturday from John O'Groats and will head for Land's End visiting Cancer Research UK research centres along the way. So what is so crazy about these guys? Well, a Conference Bike is a 7 seater circular bike and they will pedal the entire distance on this contraption, as a group! And.... it gets even better! They want YOU to help! There are enough seats on the bike for helpers, so they are looking for volunteers to cycle a few miles at different points along the way. Please visit their website http://www.cobiuk.com/ for more information on their challenge and their route. If you can't help with the cycling, perhaps like me, you can check out the route and plan a day to go and cheer them on - or of course you can donate via their website :-) Good Luck guys - and I'll see you somewhere along the way!
2. Another mad challenge taking place this weekend is @adakane - Adrian is not only walking 26.2 miles....he is doing this around a school athletics track....oh, and he'll be pushing a car! Yes, he is walking a marathon whilst pushing a car, trying to break a Guiness World record. Sadly, Adrian lost his mum to stroke earlier this year, after a battle with cancer and he is raising money for both the World Cancer Research Fund (UK) and The Stroke Association. Adrian is running 2 separate fundraising pages - one for traditional sponsorship, and the other is like a raffle, where you can donate just £1 and guess how many steps he will take to complete various stages of the challenge, and be in with a chance to win a great prize!! Best of Luck Adrian - and for anyone in/near Woking in Surrey, please try to get down to St John the Baptist School on 31st July!
3. Last, but by no means least is @TakeChallenge - Christopher has already run over 100 miles in one go, earlier this year, all in aid of the @VeteransCharity. He will be challenging himself to the max again this Sunday as he takes on the British Ironman event in Lancashire. If you don't know what this involves, it's a 2.4mile (3.86km) swim, 112mile (180km) bike and then a run, a marathon 26miles (42km), ran in that order without a break - oh and it has to be done in less than 17 hours! Donating is easy....Text: P65 IRONMAN to 70007 and Project 65 will receive £2.55 from every £3 text message :-)
Best of luck to all these Superheroes - though I don't think they'll need it, they're all determined enough ;-)
thanks for reading - please support these amazing people, even if it's just a follow and a tweet!
Nancy
Friday, 28 May 2010
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
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.
thanks for reading
x
Thursday, 27 May 2010
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
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
Saturday, 10 April 2010
pics....
So, I've bored everyone enough with details of my walks whilst training for Shine, so thought I'd share some photos I've taken on some of my walks. Living in suburbia, just half an hour on the train from London, it's easy to forget we have some lovely scenery around us and are lucky enough to have not only The Thames, but also the river Mole within easy walking distance.... just 1 week to go til Shine in Manchester, eek!
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