Phill’s Week 0 Update – Getting Started
Oh dear. It’s Friday afternoon on January 1st and I woke up this morning with a little bit of a hangover. The hangover is the least of my worries. At around 4pm on December 31st I decided and rather publicly declared that I would spend a year trying raise £10,000 for charity. It seemed like such a good idea at the time. I’d like to add that I came to this decision before any alcohol was consumed. I commit to far dafter things when sober than I do when drunk.
I’ve now got to rapidly work out what I can do to raise the money over the next year. I’ve got some fairly standard ideas so far – organise a charity gig, produce some kind of book to sell, do some stupid running challenge, set myself on fire, you know, the usual stuff. I’m not entirely sure I know how I’m going to do all of these activities, but I’ve never let my ignorance get in my way before, so why start now.
I’ve decided that the money should be split between three charities. I decided that one of them should be a local charity, somewhere that makes a difference in the immediate community around Cambridge, that one charity should be UK focused and that one should be looking to make a worldwide difference. I’ve still not decided on a local charity. It seems far more difficult than choosing the other two. The other two were easy: Macmillan Cancer Support and Unicef.
I’ve raised money for Unicef before and I carry a Unicef teddy with me whenever I go hiking. Continuing to support them makes sense to me. Unicef believe that every child should have access to clean water, food, healthcare, education and a safe environment. I find it difficult to believe there are people who believe that children shouldn’t have access to those things. So, if we can raise a bit of money to help make it happen then why not?
Macmillan was also an easy choice. People who I’ve spoken to about Macmillan have always had positive things to say about the Macmillan nurses. And whereas cancer research and the search for a magic bullet seems a nebulous pipe-dream, the care, information and support that Macmillan provides produces tangible results now. On a more personal note, I’ve known people who have died of cancer and I know people who currently have cancer, and so I wanted to choose a cancer charity to show my support.
I’ve found two of three charities, I’ve now got start getting started and work out what the third is and start really planning how I’m going to raise this money. I think that raising £10,000 is achievable. I just need to do things that one thousand people believe would be worth ten pounds. I just need to find those one thousand people.
You can donate to any of my chosen charities by visiting my JustGiving page.
