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<p>Volunteering with the <strong><a title="Central Beacons Mountain Rescue Team" href="http://www.cbmrt.org.uk/">Central Beacons Mountain Rescue Team</a></strong> (CBMRT) since 2011, and running about like a buffoon since a couple of years before that, I've been lucky enough to get a place in this year's <strong>London Marathon</strong> courtesy of the nice folk at Cardiff Harlequins Running Club, and would like to use this opportunity to fundraise whatever I can for the team.</p>
<p>CBMRT is one of four civilian <a href="http://www.mountain.rescue.org.uk/organisation/regions/SWSARA">Mountain Rescue teams in South Wales</a>. Run entirely by volunteers and dependent on public fundraising, the team attends <a href="http://www.cbmrt.org.uk/content/callouts">80 -90 callouts a year</a> assisting people endangered by accidents or natural hazards and assisting in missing persons searches. Incidents vary, from the search and rescue of walkers and climbers in the mountains and hills, to the searching for vulnerable missing persons including the elderly and children throughout the local communitie and assisting the police and ambulance service during severe weather and large scale incidents.</p>
<p>CBMRT cover a 1437 km square area of the Central Brecon Beacons and South Wales - stretching from Pen Y Fan to the coast and from the Neath valley in the West across past Newport in the east. We are also frequently called to assist in search and rescue with one of the other teams in Mid or West Wales.</p>
<p>Saving lives means training and equipping our team. The team receives only a small grant from the Welsh Government and radio equipment support from the Police. <strong>This does not come close to meeting the required funding. As a charity, CBMRT relies the support and generosity of the public to fund this</strong>. <a href="http://79.170.44.78/cbmrt.org.uk/fundraising/costs.html">Our annual running costs are over £20,000</a>. This includes the maintenance of our team base – a major expense in itself, and the running and maintenance of the team vehicles. Volunteer team members foot the additional bill for their own kit and fuel for attending training and callouts.</p>
<p>It'll be my second attempt at London, and I'm setting myself a rather ambitious 3 hour target, a wee 34 minutes faster than previously managed. I may have done it before, but doing it faster will ensure I suffer just as much (for your viewing pleasure) both during and afterwards. Hopefully, a bit of extra practice since last time and a few lessons learnt (1. Don't get a cold five days before, 2. Don't fall off your bike the day before, 3. Don't be in the toilet when the starting klaxon goes and spend the first two miles walking behind some slow moving inflatable beer cans) will see me through, but the extra incentive of lots of generous funding pledges from beautiful people like yourself would certainly help! <strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong>SO.... </strong> please dig deep and contribute what you can to this great organisation that needs your help.</p>
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<p>Ben</p>
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<p>Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.</p>
<p>Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.</p>
<p>So please dig deep and donate now.</p>