The Pink Party 2012 - Auction!

The charity night of the year!!

If you're reading this, you no doubt know I do a lot of fundraising for Cancer Research UK....I became involved as a volunteer fundraiser after losing my dear friend Sarah to cancer in 2008.  It amazes me every day when I see people passionately raising funds and awareness for a cause close to them - one such person who I came across on twitter last year, through my connection to CRUK, was Harry Moseley.

Harry sadly lost his life, way too young, to brain cancer on 8th October 2011....but in his short life, he touched so many hearts with his love for life, and his passion for helping others.  I was honoured earlier this year, to take part in the Reading Half Marathon as part of team Running for Harry and have been so touched to see people from all around the country, and indeed the world, fundraising in his memory.

When Harry's Ball was announced on twitter, and I saw my lovely friend Michelle Porter announce she was organising a twitter table, I jumped at the chance to be a part of what was sure to be an unforgettable event....

A few months after booking my ticket, Cancer Research UK announced the UK Stand Up To Cancer event....on the same night as Harry's Ball.  I was disappointed to find I'd be missing such a huge event, for a charity I'm so passionate about, but at the end of the day it was a TV show....and also quite fitting that 2 such major events should be running concurrently.

I was absolutely wowed by Harry's Ball.....fantastic organisation - not by people in the events business who get paid to run slick, posh parties - but by two people, touched by Harry and his story, who threw their hearts into putting on an event enjoyed by over 1200 people!

If you're ever lucky enough to meet Harry's mum, and listen to her speak about Harry, and Help Harry Help Others, you will clearly see where Harry got his determination, spirit and kind heart.  Losing a child is every parent's worst nightmare, and yet the strength she has shown despite her pain, inspires me every day.

For anyone who doesn't have a charity particularly close to them, but would like to get involved with a fantastic cause, please consider supporting Help Harry Help Others - not only are they helping to fund vital research into brain cancer, but they are also helping families affected by cancer with financial and emotional support.

The above photo is now known as my 'I carried a watermelon' moment....when Oliver Phelps so patiently posed for 3 takes of this photo, and all I could think of to say was 'which twin are you?' :D (if you don't get that movie quote, shame on you!!).

Thanks to my lovely companions Amanda, Claire and Lisa and to Michelle for organising our tickets and hotel, if it hadn't been for Michelle's help, I would probably not have made it to the ball!

Thanks also to organisers Pete and Tim, to the gorgeous Jack Groom for my kiss and to Harry's mum, Georgie for being just amazing.

I'm thrilled to say that Harry's Ball raised an incredible £101k...amazing!  And while the ball was in full swing, the UK pulled together and raised an amazing £6.5million for Cancer Research UK's life-saving work!

Together, we will beat cancer
Nx

Shine 2012

My very first blog post, more than two years ago, was about 'Shine' for Cancer Research UK....my reasons for doing it last year, and again in 2012 remain the same - to help beat cancer.

I was really pleased that a whole group of us from twitter had signed up to take part - lots of banter on our 'Team Shine' facebook group in the lead up to the event helped to keep us all focussed and also to share our concerns and last minute panics!  #Teamshine was made up of @surzy, @theramblingduck, @tractorboy21, @thornykate1, @pottijo, @amandaattwoodh.

So, on Saturday 29th October, #Teamshine all met at the pub across from Battersea Park train station - joined by 2 of Kate's friends, my friend @Pennysophia25 and a friend of a friend Stuart - got ourselves all togged up in our red, white and blue themed outfits and we were ready to go!

It always takes a long time to get going at these mass participation events, but by 9:30pm we were finally over the start line and raring to go.  For about the first 4 miles, we managed to loosely stay together, but as Penny and I strolled through the first 'Pit Stop', not realising that the others had stopped until we had a text from Amanda, it became clear it was going to be tricky to stay together.  This is the main reason, I've decided not to do Shine again next year - having done Mt Snowdon with a group of friends just 3 weeks previously, I'd prefer to stick to events where we can stick together as a team.  Anyway.....

The next pit stop with toilets was at 10 miles, so we stayed in touch with the group behind by text and the plan was to meet up there - however, after standing in the queue for the loo, it suddenly became clear just how cold it had become.  We managed to meet up with Jo and after unsuccessfully trying to find out where the rest of the group were, we decided it was too cold to stand around and off we went.


The halfway point is always uplifting.....for about a minute.... until you realise it's cold, it's the middle of the night and you still have 13 miles to go!! The sign at the halfway point told us it was 5 miles til the next pitstop so we decided not to stop but march on the the 18 mile point.

At about 17 miles, Penny started to complain that her ankle was hurting.....the alleged 18 mile pitstop, turned out to be at 19 miles and by the time we got there poor Penny was really struggling - as were many other people!  This pitstop was quite a sight - massive queues for the loos, and the medical tent was over capacity, people sitting/lying all over the place with foil blankets.  Sadly, Penny had to make the choice to stop and to take the bus back to Battersea Park to have her ankle properly seen to.  Jo and I headed off, as the others were still a couple of miles behind.

The rest of the walk was uneventful (aside from a lovely sunrise as we approached Battersea Park) - Jo and I crossed the finish line about 9.5 hours after we started and I then stayed to wait for the rest of the team to finish.  Sarah and Amanda crossed the line after over 11 hours of walking and still managed this with a smile on their faces, despite lots of aches and pains - they were even on the telly!!


For me, it was a good night, I didn't really struggle physically apart from freezing whenever I stopped walking, but my biggest disappointment was the fact that we couldn't finish as a team.  We are planning on a #teamshine reunion soon.....in the pub!!


I did shed some tears at the end when I went to meet Amanda with a hug....we all had our reasons for taking part in Shine this year, but it's particularly raw for her right now - seeing her face brought back all those memories of helplessness while watching loved ones fight this awful disease.  One day we will #kickcancer.

Nx

Snowdon!

This was the perfect weekend away.....no traffic hold ups, great company, beautiful weather, a fantastic walk with amazing views!

Some time back, a few of our fundraising group decided it would be nice to take on a personal challenge, a step away from our community fundraising, and something different to Race for Life which we'd all done a few times.  So, we settled on Mount Snowdon, and after months of planning and training walks we set off for Wales on Friday 7th September.

After a little deliberation on the friday night, a look at the weather forecast and some advice from a friendly local, we decided to take the Pyg track up the mountain - "the most rugged and challenging of the 6 paths up Snowdon" - quote from Snowdonia park website, I'm not making it up ;-)

I still can't quite believe how lucky we were with the weather.....there's not much I can say about this hike so I'll let the photos speak for themselves.....

I would like to thank my lovely friends for making it a weekend I'll never forget, and also all the fantastic people who sponsored us - in particular the many people who sponsored me some of whom I've never even met and only know through twitter, I really appreciate the support.  Altogether the team raised over £1300, which is more than double our target!!

Nx

Scafell Pike....almost

This post is way overdue, and I was actually about to write about my latest adventure when I realised I hadn't written about my Scafell Pike trip....or as it turned out, my non-Scafell Pike trip!

So, having hiked up Ben Nevis last year, my aim this year was to try to do Scafell Pike and Snowdon - I would then have done all 3 of Britain's highest peaks, and would consider doing the 3 Peaks Challenge in the future.

My friend Helen convinced me to sign up to the Scafell Pike challenge for Marie Curie Cancer Care and after I convinced my friend Amanda to come along (in turn she convinced her friend, Donna) we were raring to go.  Now, you may remember June was a pretty wet month.....well, after being on the road up to the Lake District for about 6 hours, we got the message that the event had to be cancelled due to flooding at what was meant to be the start of the walk.

Disappointed, was not the word.  Amanda, Donna and I had meticulously planned time off work and childcare to take this trip - it's not something busy mums can just do at the drop of a hat, we weren't going to get the chance again any time soon.  We decided to make the best of the weekend and pressed on to our hostel.

After much discussion with the very friendly and helpful staff at the hostel, we decided against trying to do Scafell Pike without a guide - the weather was set to be extremely wet and windy and 3 birds on a mountain with no map-reading skills wouldn't have been wise!!  So we settled on Skiddaw instead.

Wet and windy doesn't really describe our day - on our way up, nearly everyone we met coming down said we wouldn't make it to the top, it was just too windy.  And they were right...visibility was poor, and when you have to crouch down on the ground for fear of being blown over, you know it's time to head back!  We weren't far from the top, another 100m or so and we'd have been there... very frustrating, but we were happy we'd made the decision to do something, even if it wasn't our intended challenge.

 We were delighted to receive our medals from Marie Curie even though we didn't do the planned event - we felt we'd deserved them :)

I would dearly love to return to the Lake District to explore more of its beauty - but in better weather!!Nx

Klout Pout....

There are a few things which I find irritating on twitter....hundreds of meaningless #ff lists, twitlonger, people who don't reply....but one thing which beats them all is Klout.

For those not familiar with Klout, it's a measure of online influence, calculated daily based on some algorithm no one seems to understand.  So things like follower count, retweets and engagement contribute - but funnily enough interactions with people who have a low or 0 Klout score actually count against you!

Don't get me wrong, if you choose to sign up to Klout and play that game (which is essentially what it is), that's up to you - but what irritates me is the spam in my twitter timeline:

I gave X a +K in Y.....or I received a +K in Y from X....or thank you X for giving me a +K in Y.....or my pet hate: please give me a +K in Y!!!!  The odd one or two are fine, but some seem inclined to reel off 10-20 tweets at a time!

I likened this the other day to playing Words with Friends, which is something I enjoy doing....but I don't feel is necessary to tweet out every time I win a game, or get a particularly good score - that stays in the game, and people interested in playing see that.  Surely people can see who has given/received what from within Klout? So why clutter up twitter with it, unless it's purely to gain attention of other Klouters...which is pretty sad....

Now, someone has tried to explain to me that often a person's Klout score is used by potential employers to decide whether that person even gets an interview - personally, I'd rather be able to explain to a potential employer, my reasons for not using Klout and hope they value the fact that I don't follow the crowd.  If someone wants to employ people based on a dubiously calculated online score, rather than my ability to do the job, do I want to work for them anyway?

I don't have many twitter followers compared to a lot of the people who play Klout....I like to follow and interact with people I have something in common with.  People who have a genuine interest in what I do on twitter, which is raising awareness of the cancer charity I volunteer for.  Of course, I have other interests too,  kids, travel and anything community related, so I tweet about that too.  My aim isn't to 'influence' people as such, but if I can encourage someone to sign up to volunteer for something, or tweet something which raises awareness of an issue, I consider my time here well spent.

Anyway, those are my feelings on Klout....please don't try to tell me I don't understand it, quite frankly, I don't want to :-)

#rantover ;-)

Nx

Running for Harry.....

I'm no runner....in fact until yesterday I'd have said I hate running... but yesterday I completed my first half marathon and can honestly say I loved every minute!!

So, what makes a non-runner sign up to a half marathon?

In October last year, I attended the funeral of someone I'd never even met...some may think that strange, but he was someone who had captured my heart via twitter, Harry Moseley was one special boy.  To see the numbers of people who came to pay their respects to Harry, showed me just how many lives he had touched, and I felt then that what he had started would continue for a long time to come.

When I discovered @runningforHarry on twitter I was only too keen to help spread the word about the event - but firmly sitting on my hands for some time, as I'm usually very eager to put my hand up for anything for charity!!  I hated running, I did not want to run a half marathon - but then I thought that lots of people do things they don't want to do every day, including carrying on with life without their loved ones, like Harry's family.

And so, here I am the day after the event with very mixed emotions - I won't bore you with a mile-by-mile account, but here are my highs and lows of the day.....

Highs
Spotting team mate @nataliepeperell at the 3 mile relay point :-)
Running past a school band playing 'We are the champions' half way up a hill :-)
The fabulous Reading community cheering all the way along the route :-)
Kids giving high-fives and jelly babies :-)
Seeing Harry's mum and sister at the 9 mile relay point, and being spurred on remembering why I was there!
Running into the Madejski Stadium and feeling very very pleased with myself :-)
Meeting up with team Running for Harry in the bar :D

Lows
Getting to the top of a hill just past 7 miles and feeling like I had nothing left - stopped to walk and felt like my legs were going to collapse underneath me!
Getting to the 11 mile marker and being gutted I had a whole 2 miles left....
A phone call from my son saying they couldn't find parking, and realising my family wouldn't be there to see me at the finish :-(

Overall, it was a fantastic experience, I was very proud to be a part of Running for Harry - thanks to my lovely friend Claire for our training sessions and for letting me gently persuade her into taking part ;-)

Sadly, after all the elation of the day and much happy tweeting in the early evening, the day ended on a massive low point.  I read a tweet that someone had died after collapsing at the finish line, and later found out that it was @12pmclub who I had met just a few weeks before.  Absolutely tragic, and my heart goes out to his family and our good friend @theramblingduck - RIP @12pmclub xxx

thanks for reading... if you would like to support team Running for Harry by making a donation, you can do so here: http://www.justgiving.com/runningforharrymoseley

Nx

Missing....

Most parents have had that feeling of panic when they lose sight of their child for a moment, and felt the huge relief that comes with spotting them....but what about families for whom that moment turns into minutes, hours, days and years?


Imagine saying goodbye to your partner as they leave for work, or waving off your child to school.....and never seeing them again, with no clue as to why or what happened to them....

When we lose a loved one to disease, or if they are tragically killed in an accident, this is traumatic enough, but when a person goes missing their family are subjected to unimaginable anguish, sometimes never finding out the truth about what happened.

Missing People offers a lifeline to families searching for a loved one, giving specialised support and advice around the clock.  They also help families with publicity appeals and use social media to highlight missing people cases.

Today I volunteered at Miles for Missing People in Regent's Park in London - the main event is a 10k run, but what made this event so special was that it was accessible to the whole family as there was a children's run, and a fun run, so not everyone needed to be able to manage 10k!

I was handing out water with a lady whose nephew disappeared when he was 21 - he's been missing for 19 years!  Madeleine McCann is of course a very high profile case, and both her parents were taking part in the event.  People can be as judgemental as they like about the circumstances surrounding Madeleine's disappearance, but the fact remains she was just 3 years old and no family deserves to go through what they have.

There are many ways to support the fantastic work of Missing People - if you can't donate or volunteer your time, please be sure to follow them on twitter and facebook and share their appeals.  Just one tweet or facebook post could reunite a missing person with their family.

Nx

Little Legs for Life

Little Legs for Life is a fantastic opportunity for children to take part in a fun event, and support Cancer Research UK!  Children of all ages can take part, and they can run or walk as far as they can manage.

Little Legs for Life events are organised by volunteers, but your local contact at Cancer Research UK will support you every step of the way. The beauty of the event is that you can make it completely unique - it can be as big or as small, as simple or as grand as you want to make it!

Here are 10 basic steps to a successful event:

1. Get a group of friends together to help you and make contact with your CR-UK Area Volunteer Manager
2. Find a venue - school or sports club ideal
3. Seek support from local schools and community groups
4. Promotion - go into schools and speak to children.  Leaflets & posters, local press, social media
5. Registration - as many options as possible: online, registration sessions at schools, by post
6. Contact your participants with event details and fundraising info (encourage just giving)
7. Apply to local businesses for support - sponsorship or raffle/auction prizes
8. Must Haves - first aid cover (speak to your local SJA) risk assessment (get form from your AVM)
9. Optional - t-shirts, stalls, raffle, medals, extra volunteers
10. On the day - set up the course, put your volunteers and participants in place and have fun!!

These photos are from the events held in Walton-On-Thames in Surrey - in 3 years, our LLFL events have raised over £50k!!

For more information email LLFL@hotmail.co.uk
follow @Littlelegs4life on twitter
join the LLFL Community facebook group

#CRUKchatter

Hi all


#CRUKchatter will debut on Tuesday 6th March at 8:30 pm and will be a weekly chat for anyone supporting @CR_UK on twitter - this can be anyone: community based committees; fundraising teams/individuals; campaigns ambassadors; staff or volunteers! Even if you're just considering supporting CR-UK, you're welcome to join in too :-)

The idea behind #CRUKchatter is to try to get some conversation going around what people are doing to support CR-UK.  This could be sharing ideas/experiences or what your next project is!

How it will work

From 8:30pm each tuesday, I'll start off the chat with a couple of questions - and hopefully get some responses!! 
So from 8:30pm, either look out for my tweets, or do a search on the #CRUKchatter hashtag - probably doing a search is the best as you'll see everyone's responses and hopefully make some new friends :-)

For example
@CRUKWalton
Q1. how do you currently support @CR_UK #crukchatter
then people tweet a reply....either directly to me, or just an open tweet, but don't forget to include #crukchatter!
@otheruser @crukwalton I'm a campaigns ambassador and meet with my MP to make sure they're aware of CR_UK's latest campaigns #crukchatter
@otheruser2
I have been part of a community fundraising group for 2 years and also take part in sponsored events like #raceforlife. #crukchatter

I hope all that makes sense!
Just to repeat from my previous post....it's just half an hour and not everyone needs to take part every week!  @CR_UK are happy with this idea and may join in occasionally but it will be very much a supporter 'thing'!

thanks
Nancy

Calling all CR-UK Supporters!

Hi all

This post is for anyone supporting @CR_UK on twitter - this can be anyone: community based committees; fundraising teams/individuals; campaigns ambassadors; staff  or volunteers!  Even if you're just considering supporting CR-UK, you're welcome to join in too :-)

After seeing the success of other twitter interest-based conversation hashtags, such as #thebreakfastclub (6:45am-8am weekdays) and #TTOT (Travel talk on twitter, Tuesdays 9pm), I thought it could be useful to set a day and time (prob Tues at 8:30pm) and try to get some conversation going around what people are doing to support CR-UK.

Probably the best way to run this is for me to tweet out a couple of questions (suggestions welcome!) each week eg:
Q1. What prompted you to support @CR_UK #hashtag
then people tweet a reply....
A1. blah blah blah #hashtag
this is how #TTOT operates and I think there's a different theme/host each week.

I can also look into using Storify so that the conversations aren't lost and we can refer back to them later.

So, firstly, what does everyone think of the idea - it's just half an hour and not everyone needs to take part every week!  And secondly, we need to decide on a suitable #hashtag that sounds informal and not official - @CR_UK are happy with this idea and may join in occasionally but it will be very much a supporter 'thing'!

The ideas for the # (suggested by the lovely and creative @chessycr_uk) are:
#CRUKchitchat
#CRUKtalk
#CRUKconfab
#CRUKbuzz
#CRUKfriends
#CRUKcircle
#CRUKcrew
#CRUKhangout
and some suggestions from @CR_UK
#CRUKchatter
#CRUKnatter
they have asked us not to use #CRUKchat as it sounds more formal and perhaps official!

So, please feel free to comment on this post....which I know can be painful....or tweet/DM me with your thoughts :-)

thanks for reading and I look forward to your feedback :-)
Nancy (@CRUKWalton)

A life changed in an instant.....

There are many people raising awareness and money for good causes, both on and offline.....usually the most passionate charity ambassadors are those who have been affected by a particular illness or experience, whether it be personally or a close family member.  I became involved in fundraising for Cancer Research UK, after the loss of my friend to cancer in 2008....but since joining twitter in 2009 I have had my eyes opened to the world of charity and the vast numbers of good causes out there, working hard to raise awareness and much needed funds.

Now as well as being a fundraiser for CRUK, I am a mum - thankfully to 3 very healthy children!  If twitter has taught me one thing, it's that me and my family are very lucky - I see tweets every day from charities, fundraisers and other mums about children living in poverty, disabled children, children living with life-threatening illnesses, and sadly children who have lost their battles too....I consider myself very fortunate that I haven't had to learn to cope with any of these issues, and my heart goes out to every parent who does.


In 2010, when I saw a tweet from The Children's Trust about their Sleepwalk event (a 10 mile walk at 10pm!) I decided immediately to sign up - I had followed their work closely on FB and twitter, and had read (and cried at!) their stories of brain-injured children who had been rehabilitated there.  I put a post on my facebook page asking if anyone wanted to take part with me - pleading with my friends, as mums, to put themselves in the shoes of a parent whose life is changed forever when their child suffers a brain injury.  I managed to persuade one other local mum, but was a little disappointed I couldn't round up more support for such a fabulous cause!  The event was great and despite the fact that I'm always fundraising for something or other, I did manage to raise around £150!

So, the whole point of the story comes to this.....

My husband's 16 year old cousin (yes, huge age gap, his mum had him 'later in life'!) was 2 days away from starting his first year in sixth form when he felt a bit odd.  He phoned his mum at work, but she was an hour away....when he started to feel numb on the left side of his body, thankfully he had the sense to call himself an ambulance - when he described his symptoms, 3 ambulances turned up!  Scans, tests and emergency brain surgery.....the lives of a whole family were turned upside down in a matter of hours - the doctors even recommended his father fly out from South Africa, things were that in the balance!  After 2 months in hospital, I'm now pleased to say he is undergoing rehabilitation and every therapy you can name...... at The Children's Trust :-)  He is making fantastic progress and after visiting him there am confident he is in the very best hands possible.

My point, I guess, is this....don't wait for something to affect you directly.  When you hear about a good cause, try to put yourself in the shoes of those they are helping...no one has the time or money to help every cause out there, but every £1 helps, and so does every FB share and twitter retweet.

Thanks for reading :-)
Nx

“Nobody makes a greater mistake than he who does nothing because he could only do a little” Edmund Burke

A shining star....

I'm certain that most people on twitter have by now heard about the sad loss of young Harry Moseley on Saturday night.... I woke to the news on Sunday morning, Harry's mum tweeted

"My brave inspirational boy fell asleep in my arms at 11:10pm.  Suddenly our world is a very dark and cruel place"

I'm a mum, to three kids who most days drive me crazy.... but you ask any parent their worst fear and it would be to lose a child.  It's unimaginable to me, and yesterday I felt very lucky indeed to have my children close to me.

Harry's tweets always made me smile, he was such a positive and happy boy, despite his illness.  His tweets were always full of smiles :-) and crazy hashtags like #wowzerwednesday and never did I see a negative word or a hint of feeling sorry for himself - in fact, many adults could learn a lot from Harry's attitude!

As someone who spends a lot of time fundraising, I sometimes suffer a "what's the point" moment, when someone special loses their battle with cancer....but it doesn't take me long to remember all the people around me who have benefited from treatment, and who wouldn't be with us today if it weren't for the research funded by charities like Cancer Research UK.

Harry was determined to raise as much awareness of brain cancer as possible, and his campaign 'Help Harry Help Others' was, and will remain, truly remarkable.  If you do one thing today, please follow the link to his website and read his amazing story, watch his video blogs, and learn a bit about what a special boy he really was.

My heart goes out to Harry's family at what must be such a difficult time.... but they must know he was one of the very best, and will live in many hearts for a long time to come.

Sleep well Harry
N xx

London Shine - Hints, tips and a tweetup!

Shine in London is now less than 2 weeks away!!  A huge thanks to all those tweeters whose arms I managed to twist to join me at this event ;-)

As I took part in Shine in Manchester last year, I decided to put some thoughts down about the event, what I perhaps did wrong and what I might do differently.... and also some general advice for those who have never taken part in a mass participation charity event before!

Firstly, I have a twitter list of people taking part in the London event, so if you're reading this and taking part why not follow the list so you can get to know the others!!  If you're not on the list, please tweet me and I'll add you :-)

For me, the most important thing to remember is that when you're asking your body to carry you 26.2 miles, particularly through the night, you need to provide it with plenty of fuel!!  Don't underestimate how much your energy will drop as the night wears on - 16 miles in when it's getting cold and you're supposed to be sleeping, you'll need some food to keep you going!  Now, I stupidly thought that I could survive on Tutti Fruttis - this is not the case....sweets are great for an instant pick-me-up, but the thing that saved me, just when I thought I was going to curl up on the side of the road, was banana bread (generously handed to me by a friend who was volunteering on the night!).  So, make sure you pack a sandwich or cake or cereal bars, or anything to keep you going.  Water is provided at the pit-stops but you should carry something with you for in between stops.

Now, this may be too much information for some, but after having 3 children I do have this fear of not being near a toilet when I need one!  So, again stupidly, I stopped at the first pit-stop which was only 4 miles in - I didn't really need to go, but hey, I was there....and was still there about 20 minutes later waiting in a queue.  Remember that every time you stop, you cool down and it can be difficult to get your momentum back - my advice, stop only when you absolutely have to!

Last year, I had hoped to meet up with a few tweeters before the event, but having not pre-arranged a tweetup place it was impossible - there were over 5000 people, it just wasn't going to happen ;-) So, this year, I have planned in advance!  Firstly, we are going to meet up in Frankie and Benny's in the O2 sometime between 5:30 and 6pm - absolutely anyone wishing to join us will be very welcome.  If you miss that, I've been advised by CR-UK that a good meeting point would be at the Donation Station which will be situated just outside the main participant collection area.   The general hashtag for the event is #shine2011 and I'll be tweeting on the night using #twittershineteam, so follow that tag if you want to find out where we are :-)

If you've never taken part in a big event like this, be prepared for the sheer numbers of people at the start and that you may find the first couple of miles quite frustrating in terms of walking speed!  If your aim is to put your head down and finish as quickly as possible, definitely head to the front of the crowd before the start.  For those who I persuaded/coerced into this, we're in this as a team and I'd love for us all to be able to walk together - hopefully we can all manage to not lose each other!

So, see you on the night!  Any questions, please tweet me @crukwalton - if I don't know the answer, I can try to find out :-)

Nancy xx

Little Legs for Life - Auction!

Well, they do say that "the one thing you can't plan is the weather"..... and after months of planning our Little Legs for Life event, it pretty much poured with rain from 8:30am setup til 2pm packup....

BUT, did that dampen the enthusiasm of the 250 pairs of little legs running round our impecably planned race track?  Of course not ;-)

This is a pic of my middle baby, who managed 18 laps of the 400m course :-)

We had planned to hold a live auction at the event, but people were taking their soggy kids home as soon as they'd finished running, so we've extended our auction until 12pm on Wednesday 15th June.

You can bid by emailing littlelegsforlife@hotmail.co.uk or by sending a twitter DM http://twitter.com/crukwalton

Two of the items are very local so probably only of interest if you're in Elmbridge, but certainly the Glee Show tickets and Chelsea Football School courses may appeal to more people!

SPA DAY GUEST PASS for 2 people at FOXHILLS (Approx value £ 90)
Use of the Country Club facilities including use of the 12 Tennis Courts, The Manor Golf Course, Running Trails, daily Class timetable and full use of the Health Spa, Spa Garden and fitness area.
Treatments and lunch are not included.  Guest pass valid until 14 April 2012

2 Tickets to the GLEE SHOW at the O2 (Approx £ 100 each ticket)

2 Tickets to see the fabulous Glee Show at London’s O2 Arena on Sunday 26 June at 12:30 hours.
To add to the value the seats are in the NEC VIP BOX !!!!
Tickets only valid on Sunday 26 June at 12:30 hours and are non transferable

Places for 2 children on a CHELSEA FC FOUNDATION SCOCCER SCHOOL (Approx £ 68 per child)

This voucher entitles you to 2 spaces on a Chelsea FC Foundation Soccer School.
Chelsea’s Soccer Schools are a fantastic introduction to the game, the club and their unique coaching philosophies. The CRB checked FA qualified coaches are always on hand to inspire, encourage and share their passion for the beautiful game.
The courses are held during the school holidays and are available to boys and girls from 3 – 15 years and are held in Surrey, Sussex, London, Hants and Middlesex.

18 HOLES for 4 players at HAZELWOOD GOLF CLUB (Approx value £80)

18 Holes of golf for 4 players at the Hazelwood Golf Club, Sunbury on Thames
Voucher valid until 31 December 2011

And remember, all funds raised from this auction will go to Cancer Research UK!

thanks
Nancy x

Ben Nevis....the highs and lows

If someone had told me a year ago, that I would start my 40's by climbing a mountain with a group of total strangers, I would have never believed it.....and yet here I am with aching legs and photos to prove I did it!

I'll keep this brief, as if I try to tell the whole story I'll be here all day and also I know most people reading it can't cope with much more than 140 characters at a time ;-)

Deciding to take this trip at all was a huge step for me....I hadn't travelled alone for 15 years, and I did find myself at the airport on Friday morning wondering what on earth I was doing!  Anyway, after arriving in Glasgow, I took the bus to Fort William....a 3 hour journey made much easier by the fabulous views along the way.  Once in Fort William, I met up with my fellow adventurerers @Scublakhan @elaine0007 @clairehammond @mos_71 and their friends Stevie and Fiona - I was instantly put at ease and that was my first major hurdle done, phew!

So, on Saturday morning, we set off with the goal of reaching the summit of Ben Nevis....there's not much to tell really except that it was a long, uphill walk with stunning views - we were so incredibly lucky with the weather all day! 

We had to walk through just one small patch of slushy snow and ten minutes later we were standing at the top!  Unfortunately there wasn't much of a view as the cloud was sitting just below the summit, but after horror stories of thick fog at the top, we were happy with that!



After a well earned rest, food, and lots of photos, it was time to think about the way down.  For me, this was definitely much more difficult - although a lot quicker, it was very tough on my old knees and in many places took a lot of concentration on loose stones. 

What a fabulous experience, one I'll not forget in a hurry....a great achievement in wonderful company :-)

Of course, everything I do is in memory of my two friends who lost their lives too young to cancer.....this year I am specifically fundraising to improve treatment for pancreatic cancer patients and if you would like to support my cause, please follow this link: http://myprojects.cancerresearchuk.org/fundraising-pages/nancoise/

thanks for reading
Nancy x

 

 

Everybody is somebody.....

A tweet in my timeline this morning prompted this post:

@CharityIdeas: I said "Somebody should do something about that." Then I realized I am somebody. ~Lily Tomlin #quote

Too often we rely on 'somebody'..... votes go wasted, opportunities are missed, causes go unsupported because people can't be bothered and are banking on 'somebody' else to vote/donate/speak up/sign that petition.  What is it that makes people afraid to step up to the plate and make a difference?  I think people as individuals often feel they can't make a difference..... 'how will my vote change anything?' - but how sad and how wrong!  Everybody is somebody and your opinion/vote/passion will make that change, if only you exercise your right to be heard.....

So, my 'I am somebody' moment:

In early 2009, when the Race for Life had just opened, a friend and I were talking outside our children's classroom about the event and how disappointed my friend's son was that he couldn't take part.  My friend said "What a pity they don't do a kids Race for Life".... I took that thought away and 2 years on we are into planning our third Little Legs for Life event, in aid of Cancer Research UK!

Our first event saw 250 pairs of little legs walk or run as far as they could, and raised £15 000 - an amount way beyond our expectations.....then in 2010 the event increased to 450 children and we raised a whopping £23 000. 

Little Legs for Life makes me incredibly proud, not only because of the fundraising and bringing the community together, but because other fundraising groups around the country have loved the idea and created their own events!

So don't sit back and wait for 'somebody' to do whatever it is you've been moaning about or contemplating.... be that somebody!

N xx

Escape to the country.....well almost....

This post definitely falls under the 'stuff' category, rather than fundraising.... a little insight into life away from the laptop ;-)

In a previous life, a long time ago now, I was a proper computer geek, and did programming for a living.  I had quite a cushy job as a contractor....great pay, flexible hours and what's more is that when I had my first child they gave me a fabulous part-time contract with a laptop to work from home if I needed to, and life was good!  I really had the best of both worlds.....

Years later I'm now a full-time mum to 3 kids and part of me yearns to have that balance back.  I think people assume being at home with the kids all the time is easy, but actually it can be frustrating, lonely and at times pretty soul-destroying.....which is why I got involved in the fundraising I do, I'd have gone over the edge long ago without that focus!!

Anyway, all that is just at intro really to my recently re-discovered love of being outdoors and having some me-time.  Where I live is fairly towny, full of mums in people carriers, skip lorries and all the other things that can drive you crazy.... but a car journey of less than 10 minutes and pooch and I can be in a place which seems a milion miles away :-)

I either enjoy a long walk along the Thames tow-path or head to the local woods which has it all - hills, open space and a river....and even if I escape just once or twice a week, it's great to have a long walk and clear my head, ready for the afternoon school run and demanding kids!

Anyway, back to fundraising stories next time ;-)

Nancy xx

The Year Ahead.....

As you probably already know, I spend most of my free time raising money for Cancer Research UK.... whether it's organising fundraising events, or tweeting, fundraising is always foremost in my mind whatever I'm doing.  My very first blog post goes into the history of why I started and why I continue, so I won't go into all that again....suffice to say it's a cause very close to my heart.

In 2010, our committee raised over £25 000 for the charity, and on a personal level I took part in Shine (CR UK's first night time walking marathon) and 2 Race for Life events, raising just over £1 000 :-)

The Race for Life is one of my loves in life....I love everything about it: the hype when advertising starts, signing up, encouraging others to take part, and of course, being there on the day.  There are people who criticise the Race for Life, and the fact that it's a women's only event - personally, I wouldn't want it any other way.  There's nothing us girls love more than some girly time, being able to have fun, be a bit silly and have a natter - and all for a great cause!!

As much as I love the event, I am finding traditional fundraising (ie begging friends and family to sponsor me!) increasingly difficult.....so this year I decided to change my challenge slightly! 

I have found 3 lovely ladies (and am on the lookout for 2 more!!), who want to take part in Race for Life this year for the very first time (I won't name and shame them just yet!) - I will take part in a Race for Life event for each of these lovely ladies, in some cases, we can take part together where geography allows, where it doesn't, I'll do an additional event local to me, on or around the same date as theirs. I will still try to raise some money for my RFL events, but am hoping that I can make up for possible lack of funds, firstly by encouraging my lovely ladies in their own fundraising and training and secondly by tweeting and blogging about the 5 events and helping to raise awareness of Race for Life in general.

I will also be taking part in Shine again, this time in London - this takes part at the beginning of October, so watch this space :-)

For more information on the Race for Life series of events, please visit http://www.raceforlife.org/ - registration will be opening soon!  For more information on Shine events in London, Manchester and Glasgow, see here http://shine.cancerresearchuk.org/

Thanks for reading.....Together we will beat cancer....

Nancy x

The Pink Party

Friday 10th December was the night of our 3rd Pink Party!!  Many of my twitter friends, will have seen lots of tweets about the Pink Party - excited tweets when the tickets went on sale, moaning tweets when we realised our raffle donation requests weren't getting much response, more moaning about slow ticket sales, even more moaning tweets when we thought we might have to postpone it, then slightly more upbeat tweets again when we decided to just 'go for it'!

On the night, we had 96 paying guests, about 40 down on last year's party, but I can honestly say it was the best Pink Party yet!  From a fundraising point of view, another table of sold tickets would have been great, but tremendous fun was had by all :-)

When we say Pink Party, we mean 'PINK' - everything from the welcome drinks (Cava and pomegranate juice) to napkins, table cloths, balloons, and of course the outfits, were pink!

The evening kicked off with a fun table game, and I recommend this as an ice-breaker at any party - all you need is: jelly babies, spaghetti and a steady hand ;-)

 We were so lucky to have the support of some great entertainers!  Firstly, Little Britain tribute act, Littler Britain (www.littlerbritain.com) did the rounds between the tables as Andy and Lou - they had everyone in stitches, loved it!  The band, No Secret (www.nosecret.org), were also amazing and had everyone up on the dance floor.

Littler Britain returned to run the the most entertaining raffle I've ever seen!! We had some great raffle prizes from Wagamama, P&G, Waitrose, Nando's and more - and Nando's also supported us by donating chicken wings for the tables, plus a fab hamper which was auctioned for £120!  This is me with 'Vicky' and 'Emily' :-)

Our silent auction, including a pink Fitbug (kindly donated by @Fitbug_ltd), tickets to The Dungeons, and a Daytona prokarting session for 2, raised an additional £150!

The pennies are still being counted, but we raised around £1300 for Cancer Research UK and after all the dramas over ticket sale, we are delighted with the amount raised!  We're looking forward to The Pink Party 2011!

For more information on our fundraising, please visit our website www.crukwalton.org our facebook page www.facebook.com/crukwalton or follow us on twitter http://twitter.com/crukwalton

#kickcancer ;-)

N x