Hi People!

Thanks for taking the time out to visit my fundraising page. If you have bothered to get to this page then please take a few minutes to read the below in full to understand the angle I am coming from and also why I have chosen to do, in fundraising terms a long term challenge.

In brief, one of my close family has got Cancer, this is a cruel and heartbreaking disease to watch someone and their loved ones go through, and the saddening thing is that I think each and every one of you reading this will know someone close to you who's life cancer has effected in one way or another.

I'm hoping that most of visitors to this site will know me, but for those of you that don't the following is a brief history about myself and our family company which should help to put into context what exactly I am trying to achieve, and why, by doing this.

In 2005 in partnership with my father, I setup what is now known as the JEEG Global Group of Companies. Originally the company was founded to sell electronics along with gold and silver jewellery on eBay and other such online auction sites. The first 18 months of trading was disasterous for us to say the least and after spending 12-15 hours per day in the office, myself and my father were lucky to have earned a penny, if indeed we did at all.

In 2007 my father and I made a decision to leave the online marketplace and move into an area which my father knew well, wholesale jewellery and precious metal processing. My fathers industry knowledge, business experience and cautious approach coupled with my appetite for high risk, high return transactions and my very gung-ho management style proved the perfect business balance. We firmly believed it was the perfect timing for us to enter the precious metals market. Within 12 months of implementing this decision JEEG Global had increased it's turnover from £70,000 per year to £140m.

My father retired on 21st December 2012 looking forward to a peaceful and restfull life ahead, lets see how long that lasts? He retired in 2003, two years before I convinced him to become a partner of JEEG and to use he's own words 'He has never worked so damned hard or long hours in his life' Goodluck with you're retirement  big man and I'll make sure we have a desk ready for you to return to in two years time when you are bored of looking at the garden.

Today the JEEG Group of Companies consists of over 30 UK and several International companies that we own either wholly or a controlling interest in. Our companies range from a supercar dealership where you can go and spend several hundred thousand pounds on a single vehicle to one of the UKs fastest growing recruitment companies along with 'Old Faithfull' The Bullion Room, which has secured contracts to enable us to lay justified claim to being Europe's largest privately owned bullion dealer for the past 4 years running. The JEEG Global Group's combined predicted turnover for calendar year 2013 is in excess of £1bn.

So why am I telling you this?

I'm simply explaining the unprecedented growth that our companies have had is such a short space of time both in turnover and profitability. (Turnover is vanity, profit is sanity as my mum always said!) which obviously has a positive impact on the income for the owners and subsequent lifestyle changes for myself. So hopefully you will understand my reasons to choose this as a challenge rather than for instance, to jump out of an aircraft, which is over in 5 minutes and most people actually enjoy to raise money for charity. Not that I am belittling anyone that does this as I don't think there would be enough alcohol on the planet or money to persuade me to do that! So respect where it is due to the fundraisers that dare!

My challenge in brief is to exist from the 15th January to the 14th February on £800 in total. I don't wish to receive e-mails from people who exist on less than this each and every month, I am fully aware of this and indeed at most points prior to our companies success I did personally, which is why since 2007 our Group has given £100,000s to charites to combat poverty, disability, disease and underfunded public sector medical facilities to benefit the wider community as a whole. Our Group does not intend on changing our charitable donation policy and I would hope that, by the end of 2013 I will be able to announce that the JEEG Group has made over £1m of charitable donations to those in our society that need it the most.

So for a month my total budget will be £800 the below are the immediate things that I will need to change in order to achieve my promise and more importantly collect the sponsorship money to give to a charity that we may all one day have to rely on!! individually they may not seem massive sacrifices but combined together it will totally change every aspect of my life.

* Change my vehicle.

* Cook at home

* Stop smoking

* Eliminate my socialising budget totally and therefore alcohol consumption.

* Monitor expenditure on household bills.

* Take packed lunches to work.

* Not take a single trip to Tesco as if go in for a bottle of lemonade I end up with a £60 bill!!!!

* No clothes shopping

* Take no unnecessary none business related overseas trips.

There are several other changes but to list them all down would be both a pointless waste of time for those of you who do know me well as you will already be aware and could potential portray the wrong image of me as an individual to any person who doesn't know me but still wishes to donate to this cause.

What am I prepared to do personally to financially support this?

I will donate the difference between my average usual monthly expenditure and the £800 budget to the charity.

I will match pound for pound any sponsorship received from private individuals including all JEEG Group staff members. The only restriction is that my maximum donation on this will be limited to £100,000. I had originally agreed to match the total sponsorship raised, however we have had some very significant high value corporate sponsors. The £100,000 will come from my own personal money, not from The JEEG Group and for all of those that know me well, I already know what you are thinking, no, it is not some clever scheme drawn up by overpaid accountants to reduce group taxation liability and it won't actually end up costing me anything :-( It will be a payment from me personally directly to the charity.

Should I exceed the £800 budget I will donate £10 for every pound I exceed it by.

During the month I will be keeping regular updates on progress along with all receipts online at www.eamongaughan.com

One last thing I would like everybody to take notice of, no matter how much or how little you can sponsor me I would like you to do so. We have helped so many people on the route to where we are today and have never asked for anything in return. Everyone knows I'm direct in my approach so now I'm asking!! If we have helped you, then please help this appeal. Similarly if you do business with any of our group companies, please approach your board for approval of a corporate donation. Every penny really does count so please dig deep as not a single one of us knows when this money may mean the difference between life and death for ourselves or a loved one.

 

'If you want to reach the ceiling then aim for the sky, I'm aiming for the sky!' 

 

Eamon Gaughan

Chief Executive Officer

JEEG Global Group of Companies