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

Good grief....

Yesterday, I logged into Facebook to write a Happy Birthday message on my late friend's husband's wall....I guess I can refer to him also as a friend now.... What prompted me to write this post, was something I saw on his profile and my reaction to it.  Under his relationship status, where you might expect to see married, single, or even "it's complicated" was the word 'widowed' and that word hit me like a kick to the stomach....

Of course I know he's a widow, she was my best friend, I was at her bedside many times in the lead up to her passing away, and I spoke at her funeral..... So why then, when I saw that single word on his facebook profile did I bury my face in my hands and cry? 

I've read two great posts on twitter this week about grief.... the first by the very talented blog writer @Rohan_Kalli entitled There are no rules in grief and the second by someone I'm new to following @HappyProjectLDN entitled On grief.  Everyone deals with grief differently, in their own time, and sometimes sharing in other people's experiences can be a part of the healing process....so you know you're not alone in those feelings of anger, regret, guilt, sadness...

I guess you could say the first stage of my grief came before Sarah even died....that stage was denial.  She knew she was going to die and had a certain amount of time to prepare her friends and family for this fact....but I just couldn't accept it as readily as she did.  I had faith in the doctors and the research and failing that I'd decided we would try every powerfood growing on earth.  One day we were planning a coffee morning, less than a week later one of her old nursing friends phoned me to say she was out of hospital and had been made as comfortable as possible at home.... that was the day the denial ended.

I visited her at home 4 times in the week before she finally passed away... the evening I got the phone call to say she was gone, came the relief stage.  It sounds awful to say that I was relieved she had died, but anyone who has watched someone they love waste away in front of their eyes, will understand.  That evening my close friends and I got together and flattened more than a couple of bottles of wine - a celebration of her life, and the fact that she was no longer suffering.

The weeks that followed were the 'getting on with it' stage - helping to contact friends re funeral arrangements, collecting her girls from school if needed and generally trying to be useful.  The trouble is, when you're a friend, rather than the child/mother/lover of someone who's died, people expect your grief to be less in some way... it's different, yes, but I don't think it's any less... even more than 2 years on there is a huge hole in my life.  I am fortunate though, that I see bits of her through her 3 daughters (now 9, and twins of 12).

The guilt/regret stage seems to be the longest standing with me....guilt that I went through the denial stage, instead of being able to talk to her about what she wanted for her daughters' futures....regret that I didn't hug her more, because I didn't want to get upset....more guilt that I couldn't spend more time with her when she was very sick because I had a baby at home....guilt that I had that baby when I knew she had desperately wanted another but couldn't....the list goes on.  All of these things are more than likely in my head, I don't think Sarah ever held any of these things against me.

There has been anger too....anger that a 36 year old, fit and healthy mother, should die of cancer.  And there are just simple moments of sadness, like yesterday, at the realisation that a man is trying his best to bring up 3 girls without their mum, and moments when I just miss her being around.

I guess the 'good' part about my grief comes from what my friends and I have continued and achieved in Sarah's memory.  She was an avid Race for Life supporter, and since her death we have raised over £40 000 for Cancer Research UK through our Little Legs for Life and other fundraising events.  Raising money for charity of course in no way makes up for the loss, but perhaps makes me feel as though I have contributed something positive as a result of it. 

One thing is for certain, as long as we have memories, there will never be a 'healed' stage - we move on, but never forget.

#kickcancer
N x