Posts Tagged ‘charity’

Blurt It Out

Monday, June 11th, 2012

I’ve said many times before how running has brought some amazing people into my life. One of those people is Jane Hardy. Jane (pictured second from right) was on my second Team Bangs on the Run team and was an absolute beacon of friendship, strength and support throughout.

Jane was very open and honest about her struggles with depression and I couldn’t be happier to see her channel her own experience into wanting to help others. To do so, she has set up a charity, Blurt, to help fellow depression sufferers get the help they need. The philosophy is to ‘Blurt it Out‘ – tell someone about how you’re feeling. Blurt hopes this will go a way towards stamping out the stigma of mental illness, but will also help resolve problems through support, friendship and mentoring.

The charity has been going for almost a year and I’ve seen Jayne pour her heart and soul into it. Her passion for helping people is infectious and Blurt has helped over 500 people so far, with that figure rising daily.

In order for the charity to keep doing the amazing work they do, it obviously takes money. So, if you fancy raising some moolah and doing a bit of running, Blurt has 30 places in the Oxford Half Marathon in October. If you’d like a challenge and to raise money for Blurt, get in touch with them via their website or Twitter (@BlurtAlerts).

If you or anyone you know is going through a hard time, don’t forget to Blurt It Out.

For more information, go to www.blurtitout.org

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Help a Heart: The Final Week!

Monday, February 7th, 2011

It’s the last week of Works with Water Nutraceuticals’ Help: a Heart, Nominate your Hero campaign, so make sure you get your entries in! And since the final winner of the campaign will be announced on Valentine’s Day, why not nominate your own Valentine as your hero, and they could receive an exclusive hamper direct to their doorstep – breakfast in bed, anyone?

In keeping with the Valentine’s theme, last week’s winner was Natalie Fairbank who nominated her boyfriend, Kaal. Here’s what she said about him:

“As a member of the armed forces I have a tendency to feel that the term ‘hero’ does not even come close to what he[Kaal] is and what he does for a living. But in addition to his work life, he is my hero because of how he makes my life better in every single way. I work a very long way from home and as a result am out of the house for large proportions of the day, which doesn’t leave me lots of time. From picking me up from the station, to surprising me with flowers while he is away on operational tour (and probably has more important things to worry about!) and even making sure all the washing is done, he is one person who always puts my needs first, no matter how stressful and demanding his own life is. If anyone deserves recognition for everything that he does, professionally and personally I believe he does.”

Heart melter! Sounds like Kaal is a lovely chap and well deserving of a bit of pampering.

The Works with Water Nutraceuticals judging panel chose Natalie’s hero to receive the prize of a Healthy Heart Warming Hamper, as they felt that Kaal is not only a hero for serving his country in the armed forces, but he also still finds the time to value the important people in his life.

Nominate your hero and you could win them an exclusive Healthy Heart Warming Hamper.
The most compelling entry each week will win an exclusive Healthy Heart Warming Hamper, which will be delivered to the person they have nominated as their hero with a personalized note saying ‘you’re my hero’.
Nominate your hero (Stating who your hero is, their relationship to you and why they are your hero):
•    Leave a comment on our dedicated campaign blog at www.workswithwater.co.uk/HelpaHeart
•    Email us at HelpaHeart@workswithwater.co.uk
•    Tweet to us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/HelpaHeart, using the hash tag #HelpaHeart in your tweet
•    Write on our Facebook wall at www.facebook.com/HelpaHeart

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Help a Heart – Week 3!

Monday, January 31st, 2011

We’re on to week three of the Help a Heart campaign already. I love the message behind it and it’s helping me to show my appreciation for people around me who I don’t tell often enough. A kind word goes a long way. Anything that helps to spread the niceness – I’m all for it!

Last week’s winner was Nicolla Bishop who nominated her friend and work colleague. Here’s what she said in her nomination statemetn:

“I nominate my friend and work colleague Nicki. We work with people with dementia and absolutely love it despite its challenges. Nicki is someone that always goes above and beyond. She spends a lot of her own time taking people with dementia out and running fabulous activities for them-like baking classes. She’s a single mum and has a lot of problems in her personal life but never fails to make everyone else happy.”

Sounds like Nicki is a real treasure who deserves to be pampered a bit.

So, now it’s your turn. Nominate your hero and you could win them an exclusive Healthy Heart Warming Hamper. Nominate your own everyday hero in your life – the person that regularly performs acts of kindness that perhaps get taken for granted – and give your reasons why that person is special.

The most compelling entry each week will win an exclusive Healthy Heart Warming Hamper, which will be delivered to the person they have nominated as their hero with a personalized note saying ‘you’re my hero’.

Nominate your hero (Stating who your hero is, their relationship to you and why they are your hero):

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Help a Heart: Week 2

Monday, January 24th, 2011

The launch of the Help a Heart: Nominate Your Hero campaign last week got off to a great start. Fantastic to see that so many people nominated people around them who they feel are under appreciated. It’s such a nice way to spread some goodness around!

The first winner was nominated by Twitter user @soopersandy who said:

“My 86 year old WW2 veteran neighbour [is my hero].  He bought a wheelchair to take his ‘old boy’ pals (the 90 year olds!) to Burma Star events! Can’t relate how fab my hero is in one tweet, he’s amazing; he gardens the no-man’s-land in our road and bought a bike last year!”

The Works with Water Nutraceuticals judging panel chose SooperSandy’s hero to receive the prize of a Healthy Heart Warming Hamper, as they admired the 86 year old’s spirit and kind nature in looking after his fellow neighbours and war veterans, which in essence, captures what the campaign is all about.

So, why not nominate an everyday hero in your life? Someone who performs every day acts of kindness that perhaps get taken for granted. They could win a lovely hamper to let them know just how special they are. Here’s how you can nominate:

Now, get nominating and make someone’s day!

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Support Team Bangs on the Run!

Monday, January 3rd, 2011

This kid is from Brooklyn (the lovely @F_Uitlist’s son) and he shakes his angry fist at you, so when he tells you to do something, you better do it and right now, he’s telling you to support Team Bangs on the Run, 20 ladies running the Paris Half Marathon in aid of Refuge (helping women and children escape domestic violence).

To donate, go to www.justgiving.com/teambangsontherun – we appreciate every single penny and message of support.

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Give and Makeup

Wednesday, October 6th, 2010

I love the interweb, for all kinds of reasons, but especially when it brings people together to rally behind something that matters. With that in mind, I’d like to draw your attention to an initiative the lovely Caroline Hirons has just started.

After doing a little research and coming across the Refuge website (a charity for women and children against domestic violence), Caroline read that after passports and vital documentation, toiletries are what they advise you to take with you when leaving a violent situation. It’s often the littlest things that a shelter may not have when you show up. After leaving a violent and traumatic situation, having the simple luxuries of shampoo, face wash and a toothbrush can make them feel better.

So, how can we get involved? We can donate our toiletries of course! You can’t tell me you don’t have an extra deodorant, body lotion or shampoo sitting around. Or some make up or a spare hair dryer. These are the simplest of things that can make the biggest difference to someone in this situation. With the festive season round the corner, it would be nice if we can make these women feel extra special.

To find out more about how you can get involved and what you can donate, visit the blog www.giveandmakeup.blogspot.com, follow @giveandmakeup on Twitter and for any further questions, pop Caroline an email at chirons@me.com

The forces of the interweb coming together for good – I love it!

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It’s For Charity

Monday, March 29th, 2010

There’s a new trend recently with charities. It usually runs along the lines of someone saying they’re gonna climb [insert foreign mammoth mountain range of choice here] and are going to raise all this money to help [insert tug-n-heartstrings-charity of your choice here]. Sounds good, right? WRONG!

Dig a little deeper and you’ll see that usually about half the money they raise goes to pay for their airfare and expenses to get there in the first place. And frankly, I think that’s a bit of a piss take. Basically, you’re asking people to pay for your holiday.

The same thing annoys me about these charities like Comic Relief. They waste all these thousands of pounds sending celebrities and camera crews over to third world countries to show us how bad the situation is. Firstly, I’m not an idiot, I can tell the random celeb du jour doesn’t give two craps about the charity and is just waiting for their pay cheque. Secondly, wouldn’t it make more sense to donate the money it cost to get that huge team out there, directly to the charity?

These people asking you to sponsor them to go wander the wilds of Africa or whatever have forgotten what charity’s all about. The main point of charity is that it’s not about you! Let’s face it, sure these people may be doing something physically exerting to get that sponsor money, but I’d like to bet they’re living it up on their downtime while they’re on the mission. Odds are, if you question them, the place they’re doing their sponsored climb just happens to be somewhere they’ve always wanted to go. Well, how convenient that they got to use the rouse of ‘doing it for a good cause’ to get them out there.

If these people truly gave a crap about saving the children/the whales/the homeless or whatever their charity of choice is, they’d do a sponsored walk around their local park, not get caught up in their phoney grand gestures when really all it serves to do is make their dream come true first and eventually filter a little money down to the charity.

But hey, if that’s the way things are going, I’d like to inform you all that I will be doing a highly intensive and strenuous sponsored walk around Milan. Along the way, I will be buying multiple pairs of shoes. All the proceeds from your kind donations will go to the Bangs Shoe Fund, a very worthy cause. You can rest assured that all the proceeds raised from this gruelling walk around one of the world’s most beautiful cities, will keep my feet in designer shoes hopefully until at least 2012, at which time, I will undertake another sponsored walk, around Paris.

I’m accepting donations in the form of cash, cheques, credit cards, hell, you can even just give me shoes so I don’t even have to do the walk. Remember, it’s all for charity!

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Please Give Generously

Wednesday, July 9th, 2008


As any regular reader of this blog knows, there is a laundry list of things that annoy me. Yesterday, I was reminded of something that really gets my goat (sidebar: I have no idea what that phrase even means – I don’t have a goat. Or any other farm animals for that matter. Let’s move on.)

 

When someone stops me on the street with a clipboard and attempts to get me to donate money to a random charity, I really just want to donate my fist to their mouth.

 

I understand that everyone needs to earn a buck, but there must be better ways to eek out a living than that.

 

Yesterday, on my lunch break, I was bombarded by people with clipboards asking me if I ‘have time for sick kids’. Then when you say no, you sound like an asshole. I’m not an asshole – I’m just lucky if I get 15 minutes to eat lunch, so I’d like to make it to the food court without someone’s cloud of judgement hanging over me because I don’t have time for some anonymous sick kids.

 

Where I lived in London (Hammersmith), I’m not sure if it was an area known for the giving nature of it’s residents, but you could not escape the clipboard mafia. Between my house and the train station, I would be asked to save the whales, donate to AIDS research, contribute to finding a cure for cancer, adopt an African child for just £2 a month, preserve the rain forest, save some more sick kids and feed the homeless.

 

Do I look like Donald Trump? Exactly how much money do these people think I earn? It felt like all these charities were in competition and came out in force to prove a point. It was literally like running a gamut. The only way to get through it was to throw on some armor, keep your head down and charge through it. Do not look up. Do not make eye contact. Leave them with no doubt that there’s a big black hole where your heart used to be and a big hole in your pocket where your change used to be and just pray those bitches leave you alone.

 

When I’m in a position to donate some of my measly income to something I believe in, I will, but damn, can I breathe? Must I be accosted on the street, on a daily basis, by people who wish to part me from my moolah?

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Roof Over Head, Heels Under Foot

Monday, February 18th, 2008


So there’s this website, myfreeimplants.com, where chestily-challenged women raise money for implants by getting sad bastards, excuse me, kind gentlemen, to donate to the cause in exchange for pics, videos and a bit of online chit chat.

 

The philanthropy of some men knows no bounds. ‘Should I donate to AIDS research? Katrina victims? A homeless shelter? Hell no, there’s a girl in Modesto, California in need of tits!’

 

So all this got me thinking. I don’t need any boobs, I’ve got some. Sure, they’re no Arethas, but they’ll do. Though, there are other areas of my life where I could use a little assistance. My rent payment, for example, is kind of a pain in the ass. As a result, my shoe fund takes a kicking each month and that just ain’t right.

 

Maybe I could find some sad bastards, excuse me, kind gentlemen, to donate to my ‘Roof Over Head, Heels Under Foot’ foundation?

 

There will be no nude pics, videos or online chit chats in exchange for this. You’ll just have that warm, fuzzy feeling of selfless giving; making someone’s life/shoe collection better. And isn’t that what giving’s all about?

 

I’ve seen plenty of ads on Craigslist by sugar daddies looking to unload a truck load of their wealth on some fine young filly. And I’ve seen young girls advertising for someone to pay their rent. Obviously, none of this is taking place without sex involved in the equation somewhere. Or is it?

 

Ahh, sometimes I really wish I had it in me to be a gold digger, but I just don’t. I’ve got these crazy things called ‘morals’ and they’re always getting in the way.

 

But on the off chance that there’s someone out there who appreciates the ideology of ‘Roof Over Head, Heels Under Foot’ and would like to participate, on the understanding that there will be no sexual favors, ever, under any circumstances, as long as you live, then…HOLLA!

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