14th December 2010

I can see by the countdown clock in the corner of my Blog that I will be going to Everest Base Camp in 100 days (and 12 hours) how scary is that?

It hasn't been easy over the last month or so trying to remain focused on what I am trying to achieve. Trying to run a business, run a home and yet raise this enormous amount of money for something that is going to happen at some point next year. Priorities are a nightmare. Christmas is happening very soon, VAT returns are due this month, bills need to be paid ASAP and my daughter needs a new coat, has to have her college bus pass updated and also needs to arrange a sleepover for 8 friends by yesterday!

And yet this morning I received a story from a lady who was entering the Personal Challenges Competition. I knew why I had started the competition, I knew what I was trying to achieve, but everyday everything else has taken precedence. I stopped, I printed out her email and then I cried (am a bit of an emotional mess at the moment, you will have to excuse me).

I won't ruin it for you, but this lady has been through so much, has lost friends and family along the way and yes this lady is an inspirational woman.

This is the reason I am climbing to Everest Base Camp, the reason why I am running in the rain, snow, wind and ice, the reason why I am standing freezing on a street corner wearing, lets be honest, a rather unbecoming green fleece and shaking a Macmillan tin, this lady and everyone like her - this is why I am taking on this Challenge.

Thank you Teresa, you have made me stop and think and you have made me renew my enthusiasm for what I am trying to achieve.

13th December 2010

Well what a freezing cold night Friday was. Between 5 and 8 Sarah and I stood outside Country Wise shaking our collecting tins and giving away balloons. We haven't counted our pennies yet as we are going to be back on Friday 17th to do it all over again. That is if the weather is kind - having just checked on the Met Office website it looks as though we could be in for 10 - 20cm of snow, from Thursday onwards.

Things are coming together now for the Christmas Fair. I will be out and about this week putting up posters advertising it. If you would like one of our posters just send me an email and I will either send you a pdf version or print send out and send them to you.

We have a full quota of stalls now. A big thank you to everyone for their support and I am sorry to those whom we don't have room for. I will keep your details and let you know about our Valentines event at The Metropole next February.

My Training Programme has pretty much ground to a halt. Several reasons for this include working 24/7 (I run my own business with my husband, who has been in America on and off for the last 2 months), persistent stomach problems, charity work overload to raise the funds, a car accident (I would particularly like to thank the driver who pulled out in front of me, forced me off the road thus crashing my car and then driving off without stopping, thankfully apart from some damage to my car I was OK, pretty shaken up but all fine in the end), and now this week I have managed to catch my daughters cold.

I am hoping to get out nearer the end of the week. I am trying to focus on completing a 10km run by the end of the year, and with everything that is going on I think that this is probably achievable. I am walking the dogs daily, as well as running around like a lunatic so my fitness is still pretty good. I am also hoping to meet up with Petra again in the next week to give me a bit of her usual inspiration and "get up and go."

I met up with author Anne Watts and her sister Joan last week. Anne has kindly agreed to open the Christmas Fair for me - she has been a huge amount of support over the last month or so.

My mum is selling mulled wine on the run up to Christmas at her place of work, non alcoholic I think but you never know - her sherry trifle is pretty lethal.

We had more names for the Yeti on Friday evening and also I have been receiving lots of Personal Challenge entries for inspirational Stories Competition. Please keep them coming in - I won't publish them unless you give me your permission, but will be publishing a selection that are happy for me to do so.

And that is about it. I will be wrapping presents for the lucky dip, making mince pies, organising a Table Plan, publicising the Fair, collecting in Wadebridge on Friday evening and maybe, just maybe, organising a family Christmas.

Take care everyone and I will be back with more news very soon.

10th December 2010

It has been a while since my last Post, - a lot has happened and I will update you all as soon as possible.

In the meantime this is just to let you all know that the fabulous people at Country Wise in Wadebridge have given us permission to collect outside their shop at this evenings late night shopping event.

I will be there, resplendent in green, as will my daughter Sarah May.

I will also have the Yeti with me for the Name the Yeti Competion!!!! He doesn't get out much and so he is very excited.

Hope to see some of you there, and enjoy the fireworks afterwards xx

30th November 2010

Good grief, it's cold out there, and I should know, running in -3 with a -7 wind chill going on is not a fun experience. Read about my latest run on my Training Page. But just to let you now I think I must be in plus calorie mode, I run for 3 miles and burn off about 350 calories, I come home, build a fire and have a hot chocolate with chocolate sprinkles, a chocolate flake and a bit more chocolate - 500 calories, I think so. So all that effort, freezing my decreasing bottom off just to add to it again (please don't tell my personal trainer).

I have been busy emailing out to various companies about my Blog, trying to gain some interest and so far it has been working. My daughter thinks I am being just a little bit too geeky when I ring her just to tell her my hit stats - she thinks I am becoming a little obsessed - well yes maybe I am, but when you have 9 hits at the start of your Blog and then 40 a day after about a month then that is very exciting, to me anyway.

I now feature on the following websites for my Personal Challenges Competition:

www.writersreign.co.uk

www.oneofus.co.uk

www.theprizefinder.co.uk

Progress indeed!

I am starting to get some kit together for the Expedition. A quick trip to Nevi Sport on Saturday resulted in a North Face t shirt (base layer!) and a North Face technical long sleeved layer. I did try on various hats but unfortunately I am not a hat person, too much Marge Simpson style hair - what am I going to do?

I have also just purchased a fantastic book - Trekking in the Everest Region by Jamie McGuiness, a fantastic read full of sensible advice for the journey.

Sponsorship is slowly increasing, but I am getting seriously concerned about reaching my target. I have submitted various press releases and written to lots of companies for corporate sponsorship. I am hoping that the Christmas Fair (22nd December, Wadebridge Town Hall) will be a great fund raiser, but I am envisaging spending the next few weekends standing on freezing street corners shaking my tin - if I have to then obviously I will, but not the ideal way to spend a December Saturday!!

Anyway, I need to get back to checking my stats, more from me in the next few days x

22nd November 2010

Well, where to begin? My longest run ever maybe - see my Training Page. Or the fact that I now have 16 confirmed stalls for my Christmas Fair - see the Events Page, or maybe that I have managed to collect from the wonderfully supporting public no less than 22 Grand Raffle prizes!!! - see Sponsors Page.

All in all the fund raising seems to be coming together. I have raised £400 so far. My target is £3000 so I have raised 13% of this. However I need to have raised a minimum of £2300 by the 18th of January. So by my calculations I have raised 17.5% of this - fantastic news!!

I will be emailing out to friends and relatives this week to remind them of what I am going through - out running come thunder, rain (and possibly looking at the weather forecast this week - snow), shaking my tin on street corners and travelling the length and breadth of the country with a 3 foot cuddly Yeti in tow!

The Christmas Fair has a lot of interest. I have written an article for the North Cornwall Advertiser, along with an advert for the Fair - fingers crossed that the editor takes kindly to my submission and I get a bit of press before the Fair.

I have had a lovely email from Holly Day of Pirate FM. If you remember I emailed her inviting her to join us for the Fair. She is a very busy lady, but she will let us know nearer the time if she can come along - that would be great news.

I am hoping for an article in the Cornish Guardian this week - I will keep you posted.

Today saw the launch of my Personal Challenges Competition. The lovely people at Hush (www.hush-uk.com) are supplying a prize for this truly inspirational competition - please see the Personal Challenges Competition page for more details.

And that is about it. My days are full of organising the fundraising and getting mountain fit whilst trying to run a business - so remember everyone - if I can do this anyone can!!

15th November 2010

Not much to report today. I have registered the Christmas Fair on various websites for publicity: Pirate FM, http://www.piratefm.co.uk/contribute/whats-on/ , Atlantic FM, http://www.atlantic.fm/calendar/event/4614, and the Cornish Guardian, which is not active yet, but I will add the link when it is. I will be writing an advertorial for the North Cornwall Advertiser for the December issue and also chasing up last minute stalls for the Christmas Fair – I have been inundated which is great news.

I have also applied for Pirate FM’s new girl – Holly Day – to visit us at the Fair. I will let you know as soon as I do – very exciting stuff.

Training went well today, with a run first thing on this cold and frosty morning – check out the training Page to see how that went.

I am going to design a poster this week for the Christmas Fair and find some strategic paces to stick those and my donation tins will be arriving as we speak!! I just need to fill them up now.

More progress on the Pampered Chef event, so that should be confirmed and posted on the Events Page this week.

Training again tomorrow so I hope that the weather will hold, fingers crossed.

12th November 2010

Well al lot can happen in a few days – I have had major Challenge ups and downs this week – but ending on the up thank goodness.

I don’t want to go into detail, but let’s just say that getting certain assistance has been difficult and a lot of time has been lost through a lack of support and broken promises.

It all came to a head at the end of last week and I had to stop and ask myself why I was doing this. I knew that the Challenge was going to be hard, I also knew that it wasn’t just the physical part that was going to cause me issues – it was also publicly putting myself out there. Asking people to help, support, sponsor etc etc, all of that does not come naturally to me.

The issues that I was having had a huge impact on my training. I have managed only 1 run this week (excuses of horizontal rain, gale force winds and being away from home didn’t use to stop me). My diet has gone out of the window and I have managed to give myself a pretty hard time.

I have picked myself up, dusted myself off and now, thanks to the support of some great friends and family, I am back on the road to Everest Base Camp.

I knew that this would not be all plain sailing, but to falter so early on gave me a real jolt.

And so to the ups – I have had more stalls confirmed, and have started a list on the Events Page. I have also had more Grand Raffle prizes offered, the list is updated on the Sponsors Page. Anne Watts, author of “For the Children” has kindly agreed to open the Christmas Fair for me – what an honour, this lady is truly inspirational.

The amazing ladies loungewear company Hush have offered to donate a prize for my new competition “Personal Challenges”. I wanted my journey to be an inspiration to woman everywhere; my thinking was if I can do this anyone can. So following on from this I have created a competition where women are invited to write in and tell us all about their Personal Challenges – how they overcame obstacles in life, where they gained inspiration and how they got through. I am really looking forward to receiving the stories and publishing them for you all, more details on the Personal Challenges page.

We had a major Yeti war this week – my daughter Charlotte put a bid in with a name, but my friend Marion equally decided that she had the right and proper home for him – it was chaos. At one point they were questioning whether the Yeti was a boy or a girl!! The Yeti will be making several public appearances between now and Christmas and if you want him to come and live with you just take a look at the Yeti page.

Finally, I have a training session with Petra tomorrow at 10:15 sharp – if she isn’t going to shake me up and tell me to sort myself out then nobody will!!

7th November 2010

Goodness, the 7^th November already, where is this year going? As I am writing this I am more than conscious of the ticking Everest Countdown, going on in the top right hand corner of my Blog!

I attended a charity event at the Metropole Hotel in Padstow yesterday in aid of the Precious Lives charity. It was a great evening and I met some super people. It is not until you start to raise money for a charity that you realise just how many people are out there asking for support. So much voluntary work goes on that with our everyday busy lives it seems to pass us by – well done everyone last night, much needed funds were raised and a good evening was had by all.

I am busy writing to a couple of retail outlets, one in Bodmin, one in Wadebridge, to see if I can fund raise in their shops on their late night shopping evenings. Hopefully the Yeti will be out and about and you can all come and meet him in person.

I am also looking to launch a competition on the Blog to hear from women who have taken on Challenges in their lives. I hope that my Challenge is inspirational to other women, and in turn their stories will bring inspiration to others, more details to follow.

Finally the date has been set for my February Garden of Eden Valentines Event –Saturday 12^th February at the Metropole Hotel, Padstow. All the details of the day will be posted on the Events page.

4th November 2010

Another run this week, the 2^nd of 3. I had to cancel my training session with Petra due to work commitments, so going it alone this week.

Find out how I did on my Training Page.

We had a bit of a “Yeti War” going on yesterday. One of my daughters and one of my good friends started to battle it out to win the yeti – after a lot of discussion on Facebook they have both put in a bid – see what they went for on the “Yeti” page.

Yet more interest in the Christmas Fair today – great news. Also Clare and Sharon of Vitality in St Austell are being fantastic by providing a treatment voucher for our Pampered Chef event – have a look on the Sponsors page for a link to their business. I love going to Vitality for a pampering session, plus Clare is also training with Petra so she shares my pain!

Finally I have 2 meetings tomorrow, one at the Metropole Hotel in Padstow to put the plans in place for the Valentines Event - I will start to post the ideas under Events once we have something concrete – and the other with the Macmillan Fund Raising Manager for Cornwall. We should start to sort out some publicity for our events and get the media interested in the Everest Base Camp Challenge – watch this space!!

1st November 2010

OK, back to my training regime. I decided to consolidate the 5km run that I had achieved at the end of my 6 weeks, and ease myself back into it gently.

Read how my first run back in went on the Training Page.

Not a lot else to report today. The stalls for the Christmas Fair are more or less fully booked. I have had lots of requests for Booking Forms, just not received them all back yet.

I am scoping out the Valentines Event at the Metropole Hotel on 12^th February and will post details as and when they are confirmed.

I need to push on with my fundraising. Although the event doesn’t take place until March 2011 I need to get the majority of the sponsorship in just after Christmas to show Macmillan my commitment to their cause. If you haven’t sponsored me already please can you think about doing it before Christmas – it would be really appreciated.

I have posted my “Yeti Competition” on the Prize Finder website, www.theprizefinder.com, to generate more traffic to the Blog. Hopefully the number of visitors and followers will increase and together we can get me to Base Camp.