Fundraising

My Virgin Money Giving page

I've raised funds once in my life. I was eight, my brother seven, and my childhood best friend, Andrea, was nine. When Andrea wasn't digging up dead birds and putting them through a mangle and my brother wasn't mixing slugs with salt, we were ardent animal lovers. So much so that we decided to raise money for our nearest zoo, in Chester. We had many events planned, the first being a sponsored bike relay around our estate. I went, my brother went, Andrea went. A total of about one mile. We repeated this...once more. Nobody came to watch. I think Mum poured us each a glass of cordial afterwards (probably not related). Despite the less than arduous nature of our challenge we raised the princely sum (to those still in single digits of life) of sixteen pounds.

This promptly went behind a picture in Mum's bedroom, safe and sound, until we had completed future events and could present the money to Chester Zoo in some kind of grand ceremony. It was promptly forgotten, we moved on to building a tree house, and the money, Frank Abagnale style, never found its way to Chester Zoo.

Since that day I have never undertaken a challenge that I feel is worthy of raising funds with. I feel that the challenge you set for yourself, when asking for sponsorship, should be something you are not sure you can do. Something that you will need to work for and something that isn't a given.

For me, my running goals for this year reflect just such a challenge. I've bored you with details previously (see: Welcome to my blog), but running 5km in under twenty minutes, 10km in under forty minutes, and a half-marathon in under an hour and a half represent targets I may not achieve.

Any doubts that I had, and I had many, were magnified after the Canberra half marathon earlier this month. I had trained fairly hard prior to the race, lost a lot of weight and pushed hard, but was still more than ten minutes off my goal. A very significant time difference to make up in six-nine months. This is of course the moment my old friend, Gavin Edwards, chose to get in touch with me about a fundraising offer I'd made back in early March.

Gavin's daughter, Georgie, was born with Rett Syndrome, a devastating disease that robs young girls of their futures. It presents, typically, between the ages of six and eighteen months as, initially, subtle deviations from normal development before entering a period of developmental stagnation and regression. It affects approximately 1:10,000 children, predominantly girls, across all races and ethnicities. Children who suffer with Rett Syndrome become progressively more disabled and require 24 hour care and multiple therapies that can be painful and traumatic. It is not curable.

Despite this I have yet to see a picture of Georgie that doesn't show her lighting up every room with the most beautiful smile. This is only possible because of the amazing work her parents, Gavin and Katie, do with the support of local and regional services.

It is for this cause I will be trying to raise some money. The first charity is Reverse Rett, an organisation that is helping to fund work searching for a cure for Rett Syndrome and to improve treatments and enable earlier diagnosis of the condition. Their priorities are to:

• fund research into the basic science, clinical treatments and clinical trials.
• facilitate the development of clinical treatment centres which would be capable of running clinical trials.

The second charity is Hope House Children's Hospices. They run two hospices and provide support for life-limited children, young people, and their families in Shropshire, Cheshire, Mid and North Wales. They provide their service 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. They rely heavily on donations and fundraising.

Both charities do amazing work and provide an essential service for children and young people who have to overcome significant adversity. It will be a privilege to help support both organisations.

And don't worry, the money won't end up behind a picture in my Mum's room.

Georgie Pie's Brighter Future
Reverse Rett
Hope House Children's Hospices