And here is another one...

Because the last picture was of no relevance whatsoever.

  

You have probably guessed that this is meant to be me doing general fund-raising type things!

Love Cathy x

There are not enough pictures in this blog...

....So here's one:

There are no photos of me doing stupid things yet, so I drew a picture on paint. It's a Llama!

Also, I will try to rectify this gross inbalance in future posts.

This is the same Llama breathing fire. Why? Because that makes everything more fun and exciting!  

The Big Ten!!!

The idea is to complete a set of challenges once sufficient sponsorship has been raised (a set amount for each one). I am asking people to choose an individual challenge when they sponsor me and as soon as a target is reached, the challenge will be completed in a most likely hilarious fashion! The results and photos will then be posted on here!

This is the initial list of the challenges, but I am completely open to other suggestions. If at the end of fundraising some of the challenges haven't reached their target, I will either do the challenge anyway if there is nearly enough sponsorship, or will split the money evenly between the more popular challenges until all remaining targets are reached. This means that every pound donated will definitely contribute towards some form of public humiliation on my part, so will clearly be a good investment!!

Anyway, here is the initial list and sponsorship targets:

1. Dye my hair a crazy colour. There will be a poll nearer to the time so that it is YOU GUYS who decide which colour to go for! My hair will remain in this condition for a significant amount of time before I will eventually dye it back to its original/ more sane colour. Unless of course I love it - then this will be a longer term change - but my guess is that it will look ridiculous and will not suit me at all! £100
2. Wear pyjamas for EVERYTHING- this means shopping, lectures, nights out etc. If the timing works out that the sponsorship target is raised just before a formal event or something, I will even rock up for that wearing pyjamas too! The more money raised, the longer I will do this for! So £25 for one day, £50 for two days, £75 for three days... £150 for an entire week (you'll get the last day for free on this one!!).
3. Live for seven days on £5 (excluding rent obviously, but everything else) and also donate the money saved to charity. £75
4. A day long sponsored silence- this will be a tough one for me, especially if this day involves a night out too! Laughter will also be included in this to make it even more challenging! £50
5. A 10K run in fancy dress! The attire is yet to be decided, but as the distance is not particularly far, the fancy dress will be all the more ludicrous and difficult to run in! £75
6. Long Distance Challenge. Either Coast to Coast Cycle (140 miles) or walk the length of Hadrian's Wall (84 miles). £300
7. Dress up and act as a fictional character (to be nominated) for a day. £50

Yes, this list stops at seven and yes, I am also still completing ten challenges. I just think that it will be much more fun to get some input from you lovely people on the final three!

8. ??
9. ??
10. ??

That's right, the last three are up to you to decide!!

So despite the fact that I do have ideas for the final three, I am putting it out there for you to come up with some imaginative, difficult or outrageous ideas. So use your inventiveness, comment on this post and make me regret this decision (and I'm almost positive that some of you will!!). 

Cheers, and looking forward to hearing some ideas!

The fundraising begins - challenge accepted!!

So I have convinced myself that it would be a good idea to sign up for a three week sponsored trek to Everest Base Camp next summer. This is in aid of Practical Action, a development charity who work with communities worldwide - a very good cause!

The fundraising target is £2,100, but I would like to raise much more than this if possible and will do my best to make sure that it is! The start date of the trek is about a year away, so I figured that this would be the best time to seriously begin the epic challenge of raising as much money as I can!

This blog is an opportunity for you all to laugh at my fundraising attempts: the embarrassing fancy dress antics; the unmissable challenges; the ridiculous things that I am willing to do to reach the fundraising target. Hopefully this will also encourage a few extra pounds out of you guys for the huge amount of effort that will be going into this!

There will be plenty of photos and updates on what's going on, so at the very least this will be a source of entertainment and I will also post information about upcoming events for those of you in Newcastle, where most of these events will take place. There are no definite plans yet, but I can promise that there will be a wide variety of fun/ unusual and crazy events to suit everyone and a good time for a very small donation!

This blog will be the first place to hear what's going on and where!

I'll post a little initial information about Practical Action, as it's important to know where the valuable donations are going and how this money will be used.

The charities aim is straight forward: changing lives with simple solutions to poverty. Examples of their projects include solar photovoltaic water pumps, compost toilets, spurs and dykes for flood prevention and smoke hoods or flues on stoves to prevent indoor air pollution, which kills more than 1.5 million people a year, primarily children under five.

What's great is that only 1% of the money donated is spent on administration, unlike many charities, meaning that almost all of the money goes directly to the people who they are helping.

I'm not going to write more than this right now, as this in itself isn't about selling the charity and there is way too much to say in such a short space! I will however post updates on the charity and their latest projects along the process of fundraising and will also be giving more than enough information to anyone who asks - and probably those who don't! In fact, I doubt you'll be able to get me to shut up about it once I start the fundraising!

For anyone wants to find out more now, here is the website - http://www.practicalaction.org.

It's definitely worth a look, as there is plenty of information on the latest projects and previous achievments.

Thanks for reading guys - and PLEASE subscribe, I'm sure you won't regret it!!