Male sand lizard, breeding colouration Chris Packham / naturepl.com

Counting down the hours to go now, have just skipped visiting one of my best friends today (boy, did i get in trouble for that) as will have to get up at 7am on Sunday in order to make the long trek North to Salford.

This morning I thought I should do a bit more research on my creature, to avoid looking totally stupid tomorrow and when people ask me in general about the Sand Lizard.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the sand lizard lives mainly in SE England including Hampshire, Dorset, Sussex and Surrey and was recently re-introduced in other parts of the country. I am planning to try and see them in the wild now at one of my favourite places The New Forest. They live in heathland and sand dunes, so there is a tenuous connection with the sea. The threat to their survival appears to be linked to habitat destruction.

Next report: from the tattooing, before and after photos to follow!

PS Really chuffed with raising £260 so far for the Marine Conservation Society, over half-way towards my target. Everyone has been soooooo kind and generous ^_^

Day started with catching up with paperwork and some big updates from the Thanks for Life project which is now gathering a head of steam.

Then off to Sherborne via Holcombe and driven by Steve Tanner. Linda was invited by President Michael and we received a very warm welcome from this excellent club.

Michael gave a short presentation about the club and then each Service Chairman and the Foundation Chairman updated me on the club’s activities and plans. Terry Sherwood also outlined the clubs work with a JustGiving Site too. Well planned as we have come to expect from Michael and his club.Presented Michael with the John Kenny Banner.

Great banter and spirit in the meeting.

I was handed a cheque for £500 for the ~Schools for Africa campaign which I will pass to Treasurer Bob on Thursday in view of the postal delays.

Rain or shine, work day or weekend, the first thing I do every morning is turn on my laptop and check my Facebook. Today was no exception.

Whilst browsing my messages, I saw that a friend of mine had added a fundraising page to their profile. I wasn’t familiar with this application so I clicked on through.

The application was an online sponsorship form generated in conjunction with JustGiving and Cancer Research UK.

I must say, I was hit by the sheer brilliance of the page setup.

All the information was there and clear to see; how much has been donated so far, the donation target, how close they’re too reaching it, the charity they’re fundraising for, what work it does, how much gift aid has been supplemented, who’s donated and how much, etc.

The graph at the bottom of the page details who gave what, complete with a section for encouraging comments, is particularly effective as it not only creates a positive sense of community but it virtually shames people out of giving too little.

The central section with the picture of the fundraiser and their individual message also adds a personal touch – you find yourself really rooting for them to do well.

Seeing the page took me back to my old days of sponsored fundraising, when things weren’t half so efficient.

I have painful memories of having to go traipsing all round my neighbourhood, knocking on doors and noting figures in a scruffy little notebook.

After I had completed my 5k run or sponsored cookie bake, I had the arduous task of knocking round all the houses again and persuading people that, “actually, you did say you would sponsor me £5.”

I was a shy thing when I was younger and I never did as much sponsored fundraising as I’d have like to due to the kerfuffle of wondering the streets to seek out my sponsors and my intense fear of a door being slammed in my face.

Using this application not only takes away all that hassle, but you can reach out to so many more people – people who live away from you, perhaps even people you’ve never even met – with just a click of your mouse.

The JustGiving sponsor method is also so much more efficient; people can simply make a payment online straight away.

More people can be accessed, they can sponsor the fundraiser faster and easier, sponsorships can be advertised far more effectively, the figures can be stored and processed more easily and there’s no opportunity for anyone to slam a door in your face.

I’m almost tempted to get my baking gloves on again…

This one isn’t about running. It’s about why we’re running. Three years ago today, Zoe and I lived through the hardest day of our life; our father’s funeral. He was only 55 years old, and looked ten years younger. He was dynamic, funny, stubborn, loyal, kind and thoughtful. He lived in a tiny village in Lincolnshire which he happily referred to as ‘the arsehole of nowhere’, having escaped London ten years before. The last thing he did was typical of him: he’d just taken on some new employees and he took them out for a meal, because he was worried they’d be lonely and bored, having just moved to the area. That night he went home, felt ill, and died of a heart attack before the ambulance arrived.

It was impossible for anyone to believe – my dad was tall, strong, fit enough to beat the younger men at work in their occasional after-work sprint, played the odd game of football, ate a reasonably healthy diet, very rarely drank alcohol and had never smoked in his life. Everyone agreed that yes, he was a couple of stone overweight, but ‘he carried it well’, so it didn’t matter. Only of course, it does matter. His diet wasn’t really perfect (too many stops at service stations for a Ginsters pasty and a Mars bar in lieu of lunch on the way to see his beloved Falkirk FC) and in reality he was probably four stone overweight, but at 6′3″ nobody really noticed.

Heart Research work in the community to encourage lifestyle choices for a healthier heart. In other words, they get out there and tell people what they should and shouldn’t be doing. They help perfectionists like me, who would rather do nothing than not give it 100%, to realise that every positive step helps. Because I’m overweight, because I’m in a high risk category, because of my family history, because my cholesterol levels were raised at my last blood test – their amazing work makes me realise that even my pathetic attempts at training for the marathon are helping to make my heart strong. And when the time comes and I start begging you all for sponsorship (don’t worry, I’m not hinting…yet!) remember it’s not for me, it’s for the amazing work that they do and for the lives they save.

I’ve made a justgiving page so that I can start the fundraising.
www.justgiving.com/ashley-mann

How’s it going for everyone this Monday? I am enjoying this exercising lark! Though it isn’t doing anything for my weight loss! I am getting heavier – but I’m assured this is all part of the process and that the body needs time to adjust to a new regime. So what are your plans this week? This week, I plan to increase the number of times I exercise.

Last week I swam half a mile and ran two lots of 5k on the treadmill. The incline was only 0.5, but I was pleased to complete in 45 minutes; so I have taken the plunge and booked on some fun runs. I’ve started a justgiving page to raise funds for Macmillan in memory of my Mum, Rita, who lost her life to cancer. If you can spare a few pounds or any lose change, I’d be most grateful. 

Remember the philosophy of Move-It Monday - you don’t have to give a lot of time or join a gym or spend lots of money to become fit. As little as 10 minutes a day of walking, dancing, gardening, swimming or cycling can make a significant difference to your overall fitness levels, dramatically reduce your stress and make you feel more energetic, healthier and happier.

Choose exercise that can easily be incorporated into your daily life such as walking or cycling to work if you can; walking up stairs instead of taking lifts and escalators; getting off the bus a few stops earlier to walk the remaining distance; walks in the park; putting music on in the evening and having a dance!

Cycling is a great way to get plenty of fresh air and improve your cardiovascular fitness.

Tip for this week is to buy a large fruit bowl and keep it well stocked with plenty of fresh, appetising fruit. Next time you want a snack, avoid the biscuit tin and head for the fruit bowl instead. Drink plenty of water too. It does so much good, cleans out your system and helps with digestion.

Enjoy your week and keep me posted on your progress!

For lots more ideas see previous Move It Mondays below:

Move More

Your workout

Obsesity

Bikini Body

Move your booty

Have Fun

Magic Number

Charts

Exotic Fruit

Complementary Medicine

10 Tips

Lifestyle

5k

Visit Your Park

Yoga

Eat your way to health

Punktastic Un-Scene is back and better than ever! Walnut Tree Records and Punktastic.com have teamed up to bring you some of the best up and coming bands from the UK and beyond.

For the fifth installment we are supporting the work of Everyman cancer campaign who aim to stamp out prostate and testicular cancer. While this release is free to download for all, we would love it if you could visit our Just Giving page and contribute towards our fundraising for this worthy cause. More than 34,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer every year in the UK, and more than one person an hour will die from the disease. Add this to the fact that testicular cancer is the most common form of cancer among young men – and you’ll see where we’re going with this one.

Thank you to every single band who have donated their music to this release, to Pete Duffield for his awesome artwork, to Neil at The Ranch Production House for tidying up the audio and to Paul McManus for the awesome website. Please email any comments to punktastic@walnuttreerecords.co.uk – we’d love to hear your opinions on the releases.

Most importantly, head on over to http://www.walnuttreerecords.co.uk/ to grab your free 40-track download!

Woohoo!

A friend of mine who is a fellow geocacher known to us in the secret world of geocaching as Happileigh, is my most recent sponsor and as such, has pushed the total amount I have raised up to £500 – which was my goal! I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who has generously sponsored and pledged both online and offline and a special thank you to Happileigh for bringing my total to £500 (and for the free advertising on her caching page!)

If I’m honest I never thought I’d be able to reach my target of £500 when I started out on this venture, but I am once again humbled by the generosity and kindness of so many people. Most people who know me well are all too aware of my cynicism of the human race, but I have to admit that I stand corrected; most people are inherently good.

Thank you all – I won’t let you down; as you can see by my blog I have been training hard and will continue to do so until the event. I will give my all in the event!

I know I always seem to be writing about flowers but here's an act of kindness by The Parks Trust, who've planted the road verges with the most amazing display of wildflower colour

I’ve been a bit of a stranger to this blog since agreeing a date to hand the manuscript of my new book to the publisher. Nothing focuses the mind like a fast-approaching deadline. Perhaps I can argue that the fact that the book has lots of suggestions for acts of kindness means I haven’t entirely lost focus.

Still, I’m reminded of one of the things I’ve discussed in a few of the posts, about how, perversely, it’s often easier to spend a few quid on justgiving.com, than to spend time.  Are we less kind these days partly because we’re all too busy rushing around, over-committed and over-stressed?

Or is it simply that we don’t notice the kindnesses – any more than we notice the way our food tastes, the smell of jasmine in the hedgerows or that someone we care about needs us to stop still for a minute and just hear them or hold them?

my weekly kindness audit

I have been kind this week, sending supportive emails to friends, going to view a house I thought my mum might be interested in, running teenagers to more parties than I’ve got friends, loaning my car out for two days, getting up at 5.30am to feed the cats so their scratching won’t wake the post-party teenagers, driving 90 minutes to watch a friend’s first outing as an actor (wonderful!), reading board papers so I can make a useful contribution to the charity where I volunteer, listening to my lonely uncle on the phone for an hour because he has no-one else, recycling newspapers, baking butterfly cakes (because one day I want the children to remember coming home to the smell), tweeting the important, the useful and the frivolous to my network on Twitter, and talking to shop assistants and tradesmen.

The things is, I just did that stuff as part of a week in the life. Nothing conscious or deliberate about it, and therefore nothing in it that has shifted, expanded or even noticeably fulfilled me in any way. No change in other words.

That doesn’t mean that those things don’t matter.

But it does rather show that any time we operate on automatic pilot we’re short-changing ourselves.

What does your average weekly niceness list look like? And how many of those things are you doing to be kind – as opposed to: feeling you should/feeling guilty/because you always have done them/because it would be harder to say no – which may be we end up doing them on automatic. Just a thought.

links

This story on justgiving is a good illustration of what I’m on about,  how fundraiser Phil Packer has also benefitted from raising £1million for Help for Heroes http://blog.justgiving.com/2009/05/27/inspiration-for-fundraisers/phil-packer-hits-his-1-million-target/

And here’s those wildflower bandits, The Parks Trust in Milton Keynes http://www.theparkstrust.com/parks-trust/

Fortunately, you don’t have to. On August 26, photographer John Offenbach and his fellow members of the Belly Flops are going to do it for you—and for all of us who are eager to support researchers working to find a cure for this terrible disease. All they’re asking for is a donation. Money raised by the Belly Flops will benefit the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, whose mission John is personally invested in.

“In January this year Joe, my youngest son was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes,” John explains. “A virus has effectively killed off his pancreas. The cells inside which normally produce insulin no longer do, and Joe, who is 4 years old, has to inject insulin three times a day, and prick his finger to take a blood test four or more times a day. As it stands he’ll have to do this for the rest of his life.”

Last year, John participated in the Annual Hellespont Swimming Race, swimming from Europe to Asia as a member of Team RNIB. The U.K.’s leading charity, RNIB supports blind and partially sighted people. As John notes, the Mediterranean was relatively warm at 30 degrees centigrade. But the English Channel is a much frostier proposition; the Belly Flops will be braving temperatures of around 15 degrees centigrade. “No wetsuits allowed,” explains John. “Just a liberal dousing of chip fat, or something like it!”

The Belly Flops (that's John at bottom right)

“It’s a long way, too,” John adds. “France is 35 km away. It should take around 15 hours to swim there, dodging the ferries, the container ships, and some generally unpleasant debris. I am one in a team of four. The Belly Flops are a relay team, recognized by the Channel Swimming Association, which means that according to the rules, we swim in rotation hourly, until we reach Cap Gris Nez in France.”

There’s an excellent website that makes it fast and easy to donate to the team: http://www.justgiving.com/bellyflops/ “The future is promising,” says John. “With funding, research being carried out right now may actually find a cure for diabetes within the next 10 years. So please, donate as generously as you can. We all really appreciate it.” (Just make sure you do it before August 26!)

After you make your contribution, you’ll already be feeling plenty great, but go ahead and treat yourself to a laugh at the Belly Flops’ expense and watch this clip of them training.

In November, myself and a good buddy of mine will be going on a ‘bit of a bike ride’.  Starting on the Franco/Swiss border we will cycle north following as closely as we can the Western Front Trench System from WW1 until we arrive at the Beglian coastal town of Nieuport, (hopefully on Rememberence Day) some 550 miles away from our starting point.

Cycling the WW1 Western Front in aid of the Royal British Legion

The aim is to raise £10,000 pounds for the Royal British Legion – a wonderful charity that looks after current and ex-service men and women. Anyone can donate at www.justgiving.com/cyclingtheline

I will be taking my pc with me and the idea is to update the blog every day with details of our adventure, I am even toying with the idea of getting a little video camera mounted on our cycle helmets so we can post video footage of us being run off the road by French lorries…

The plan is to average about 50 miles per day for 10 days (with a couple of rest days in between). I am in training already, although the north Hampshire countryside is not quite the same terrain as the Vosges Mountains!

If you would like to help us in our fundraising efforts, pls visit our secure justgiving web page at www.justgiving.com/cyclingtheline

Thanks!

Scott

Discover how you can join an online poker league that is supporting a worthwile charity that makes a  massive difference to many families with sick children in hospital.

Head over to our justgiving website and place a donation of £5. This acts as your league entrance fee and indicates to us you are interested in playing in our online poker league. You may of course donate more than £5 if you wish

Once you have donated, come back and follow step 2

Step Two

Download the poker software from Betfair and create a poker account.

See why we chose Betfair here…mcdpoker poker software

IMPORTANT!!!!!

When you create your poker alias for your poker account, try to ensure you create one with YOUR name or as close to it as possible.

Example: If your name is John Smith try to make your poker alias be something like these below:
John_Smith
johnSmith
johnsmith

If your name is already taken by someone else try putting your restaurant store number or date of birth after it so it will look something like John_smith131. That will prob do the trick.

Hopefully you get the idea! This is to ensure we can correctly track your league points and award them to the correct person. it’s no point using an alias such as Loosecannon or mcfcmad etc as we will not know who this person is and No points will be allocated. Once you have completed your sign up come back here to complete step 3.

Step Three – Join us on facebook and spread the word!

Tell your friends and family about McDpoker. Extra bonus league points will be on offer to anyone helping promote McDpoker once we launch. Check points system for details!

If you want to know more about mcdpoker you can check it out by clicking the link below;

http://www.mcdpoker.com

Hi all, been a crazy week at the new job. Loving every second but its ridiculously busy. Great buzz though.

Going to give a short little blog post on the new justgiving website.

They have been working on it for some 9 months I am told and finally have a new site, I guess the first thing that came

to mind was that it is very clean and white. I can understand why they have done that – I suppose this facility should be seemless and it does seem that from the outlook.

I have to say I am not too happy with the icon in the top right corner – with the money of that event. But for me, it looks very clipArt.

I have to say that this is only the big launch and that there will be some developments, but I do feel underwhelmed by it, but as I said before I do understand that this should be a quick and uncluttered site.

The search is good and very quick, from searching charities to people, so that is definitely useful.

The logo is nice, and clean and fits in with the rest of the site but it is a bit clipart-y? No? But I do like it better than the

old logo – I think it was just words with green and blue colour.

I have to say I think it is a great user experience and that obviously takes precedence over flash design. I could argue that it is too simple a look but with increasing products coming in I think that it will improve.

They tick all the boxes for social networks and simple ease of use. Accessibility wise again another tick, though I have

to say it probably needs testing further than I could. I like the use of vimeo video, would have been nice to have the blogs higher (maybe I didnt look hard enough). Also – on my computer the “help and resources” link was broken as was the Justgiving blog…but that does happen with any big site. Trust me I know. Nice use of Facebook login to see their blog too – means people can become a fan on FB very quickly.

All in all a good improvement. Clean, SUPER clean, easy to use and seemless so far. Well done, it isn’t easy to redo a huge website so hats off. I wonder the cost of the site all in all? I always use NHS choices as a benchmark – as it is such a fantastic resource and so expensive (£80Million) so that would be interesting to know.

One last touch I thought was nice was the preview emails sent around yesterday, simple and good email to those who may not have been aware. Nice to see a circle of communication.

Let me know what you think. Thanks! Til next time I am going to be playing with my new iPhone 3G S

Bit of an unusual post from me now…  so do bear with me, it’s all for a good cause, honest!

Last night I was approached by an acquaintance on facebook and asked if I would mind supporting his participation in a Mt. Kilimanjaro climb in aid of Scope, a UK charity aimed at helping those with Cerebral Palsey and helping society to integrate better with those with the condition.

Of course, how could I refuse?!

I would do the climb only if I was allowed to ride a giraffe to the top (thus doing it in style... none of this sweating and panting for me heh!)

The team are aiming for a rather ambitious £7K, and need to have sponsorship in place by November 09. The climb itself is at the end of January 2010.

I’m sure that we all saw the Comic Relief climb done by the celebs and marvelled at just how gruelling that was, and so anybody prepared to put in that much training, comittment and ’suffering’ deserves (at least!) £7K of sponsorship in my opinion!

There is plenty of information available on the team’s ‘Justgiving‘ page, and I’m certain that Rob won’t mind you contacting him via facebook or via his Kilimanjaro 2010 blog if you’d like any further information!

It doesn’t necessarily need to be a huge amount, I’m sure that even £1 would help and be gratefully appreciated by Rob and Scope (as would the £50-s, I’m sure heh!)!

Don’t forget that if you’re a UK tax-payer, you should ‘Gift Aid’ your donation (at no extra cost to yourself) and the charity gets additional funds presented to them from the Government!

Hopefully Rob will keep in contact with his progress when it comes time for the big climb and we’ll all be able to see how he’s done!

Perhaps the only English worded song in the World with Kilimanjaro in it’s lyric!

Please help support The Pilion Trust with donations; you can donate through Justgiving; they will collect the gift aid on our behalf which means for every £1 you donate with added gift aid of £0:25p and a further £0.03p from the government you actually donate £1.28p to the charity.

We are asking for a min £2 donation a month to help us carry out our work supporting vulnerable; disavantaged and discriminated against people many presenting with severe multiple complex on their journey to indendence.

 Link below.

http://www.justgiving.com/piliontrust/donate

On Wednesday 13 May, a large group of people gathered for the launch of the Norman Moy Trio’s debut album ‘Close Connection’, at St Martin’s within Ludgate Church in central London.

Formed 5 years ago, the Trio is made up by Norman Moy on tenor saxophone and piano, Adam Moy on electric guitar, and Community Links’ very own Matthew Smerdon on double bass.  They were also joined by established jazz musician Seb Rochford on drums.  

“The group is very aware of the benefits that music, particulary jazz with its blend of rhythms and improvisation, can bring to the wider community”

The audience at the launch event were treated to a selection of music from the new album, and were able to purchase copies of the album which contains seven tracks – including familiar Jazz standards played with style and skill.

The album is available listen and download at the band’s MySpace page  and a JustGiving site has been set up to accept online donations for Community Links

Each year, in honor of World AIDS Day, Women of Vision from across the country participate in World Vision’s AIDS Walk for Orphans. Each woman takes 6,000 steps to raise awareness and funds for the 6,000 children orphaned each day by AIDS. Many chapters use Firstgiving, an online fundraising site, to help raise awareness and funds for the AIDS Walk.

Britain’s Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce awarded the 2009 Albert Medal to the founder and CEO of Justgiving (Firstgiving’s parent company), Zarine Kharas. Kharas was recognized for democratizing fundraising and technology for nonprofits.

View Women of Vision’s 2009 AIDS Walk website in preparation for this year’s World AIDS Day Walk.