Martin House Children’s Hospice has always been dear to my heart and I am really in awe of the help and support they provide to children and their families during such difficult circumstances. Having spent most of my teenage years and early twenties looking after my terminally ill mum until she eventually passed away aged just 41, I do have some understanding of the level of support provided.
I have done a number of fund raising activities for Martin House over the years; abseiling down the side of the Royal Armouries and the Great North Run being my most memorable. After completing the GNR and raising nearly £1,000, one of my colleagues asked whether I fancied doing something really crazy, “The London Marathon”…. having just run the GNR, I quickly declined!
Several weeks later though, the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea; it seemed outrageous, could an ageing smoker like me complete such a challenge?
Unfortunately, the hospice were only allocated three places so I was extremely grateful to have been chosen out of the 60 + applications for a place….. There’s no way I was going to let them down.
Now, the fundraising and training begins……
To start, I emailed friends and work colleagues to let them know I’d been successful and that I’d set up a fundraising page via justgiving. The target was £5000 and if I’m honest, I thought that was asking a lot, but nonetheless, I left the target up. Not long into training (5 months before the actual run), I emailed a number of my key accounts and suppliers. Within 5 minutes, one of my customers P+L Systems had very generously sponsored me £500; this was fantastic!!! Maybe £5,000 is achievable after all I thought.
During the next 5 months, I regularly emailed staff, customers and suppliers with updates, noting who’d sponsored, who’d promised sponsorship and who had not sponsored. I also updated facebook and asked my friends to share the page on their walls. This paid dividends and in addition to the many personal donations, several other local businesses contributed donations between £250 - £500 (Deans Computer Services, Leckhampton Computers, Britsafe Security, Broadgate Infonet and The George A Moore Foundation).
After completing the run I had raised just over £4,750; this was superb, but I was so close to the £5,000 target and that niggled at me. I had quit smoking; I completed the 5 months of preparation and had finished the run – just one box left to tick. Back on facebook, back on the mailers giving people an update and even setting up a “spare £2 today” challenge on facebook two weeks after the run….. What an amazing response!!!
I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone again for their help and kind donations; having helped me raise £5092.18 (including Gift Aid), brilliant!
I have been asked if I would do this again….. Well, guess what….? I have already registered for next year’s ballot, so fingers crossed!
To anyone reading this who is considering taking on a Marathon challenge, let me tell you that I have never before felt such a sense of personal achievement and euphoria doing it and I would highly recommend you give it a go and raise some much needed donations for such a worthy cause in Martin House Children’s Hospice.
