First Steps

Having now confirmed my place on the team, the realisation of what lies ahead is finally starting to dawn on me.

The more I read in books, blogs and websites, the more I'm not only excited by the challenge, but filled with anxiety about the endurance.

I haven't started training yet, but know that I must, soon.
Apart from getting fit, I've got to raise a substantial amount of money.
So far, I've raised a third of my minimum, which I suppose is not bad going in a week, but I've realised that getting people to part with money (any money) is much much harder than I would have imagined.

The thing is, ANY amount will do, and would be much appreciated. Maybe that's what puts people off? The notion that they have to donate a large amount.
I'm not really sure. But if all the people that follow me on Twitter for example (@jpgdesign) were to give me just £1, then I'd have another £1000 or so in donations.

So maybe I should be hunting down the micro payments.

Anyway, this is my first post, in what looks like being a monumental once in a lifetime opportunity.

On September 16th 2011, as part of the Marie Curie Cancer Care, I shall be attempting to climb Mt Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Africa's highest mountain, at 19,341 feet or 5,895 metres.
I shall be climbing with 5 others as part of the Serious Fox Team (which will be part of the bigger Marie Curie Trek), attempting to reach Uhuru Peak summit, and attempting between us, to raise £50,000

It's an epic amount of money, on what will be an epic trek, which will test our mental and physical limits.

So with that in mind, please please click the link on the right and donate to Just Giving. Any amount will do. Every pound helps the cause.

MARIE CURIE:

• There are more than 2,000 Marie Curie Nurses in the UK. In partnership with other healthcare professionals they care for half of all cancer patients who die at home - but we want to reach more.
• In 2008/9 we cared for more than 29,000 terminally ill patients in the community and in our nine hospices.
• It costs us £20 an hour to provide a Marie Curie Nurse.
• All our services are always free to patients and their families.
• We care for approximately 7,000 patients in our hospices each year – including 4,000 in-patients - and we are the largest hospice provider after the NHS.
• We conduct palliative care research to find better ways of caring for terminally ill people. We also fund seven scientific teams at UK universities investigating the causes and treatments of cancer.
• We need to raise £9,212 every hour of every day to carry on our work.
• Each year we spend £40.5 million on nursing, £35.2 million on our hospices and £5 million on our research and development work.
• Every hour of every day, the charity is making a real difference to the lives of people with cancer and their families across the UK.
• Marie Curie Cancer Care spends more than £80 million a year on its care and research activities.
• Around one in three people now think of our charity when asked to name an organisation that helps people with cancer.
• Marie Curie Cancer Care was founded in 1948, the same year as the NHS.
• Our charity is named after the scientist Marie Curie who was born in 1867 in Poland. She discovered radium – which was for many years the main element in radiotherapy treatment. Marie Curie was twice awarded the Nobel Prize: for Physics in 1903 and Chemistry in 1911. She died in 1934.
• Marie Curie Cancer Care adopted the daffodil emblem in 1986. The daffodil is also the emblem of leading cancer charities in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the Irish Republic. The flower is widely recognised as a symbol of renewal and optimism – symbolising the promise of spring after the long dark days of winter. Many people liken the flower to our Marie Curie Nurses who offer care and support to people at what can be a very stressful and difficult time in their lives.
• 30 per cent of adults know (with no prompting) that the daffodil is the charity’s emblem.
• We have a nationwide army of volunteers –more than 5,000 people volunteer for us on a regular basis and an amazing 164,000 others volunteer once a year.
• We’ve been helping cancer patients and carers for 60 years. We also help people with other life-limiting illnesses such as Motor Neurone Disease, Multiple Sclerosis and end stage heart failure.
• Only a quarter of all terminally ill cancer patients in the UK currently die at home. Our Marie Curie Nurses care for half of them - but we want to reach more.
• In 2008/9 Marie Curie Nurses cared for 22,370 cancer patients in their own homes, providing almost 1.3 million hours of practical nursing care.
• We care for more cancer patients in our hospices than any other UK charity.
• Around 40 per cent of people will develop cancer at some time in their lives and one in four people will die from the disease