Firstly, We'd like to take the time to say many thanks for taking the time to visit our JustGiving page.

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.

So please dig deep and donate now.

The Dragon Boat Festivasl at Bewl water has been going for years and Fidelity run a team every year. This year, we were very proud to be sponsoring the National Centre for Young People with Epilepsy (http://www.ncype.org.uk)

The event weekend is now over but, as well as sponsoring us, if you are interested in learning more about what happened and who won what, please feel free to click on the links below.

Organiser Website: http://www.funraisers.org.uk/

Bewl Water Website: http://www.bewl.co.uk/

For anyone interested, we did a little write-up on our experience: -

The day started early as Michael McCarthy turned up at 8am to find himself the lone pirate (and indeed, the lone person in fancy dress) blindly looking for the the NCYPE area. By 8:30am, Des, Julian & Mark Baker had turned up ready to help put up the Marquee. The four of us unpacked the bag but, to our dismay, although the Marquee, Pegs & instructions were there, no poles were in the bag.

We were unsure about what to do but Lucy at the NCYPE offered us an alternative. She pointed to a huge Marquee, complete with chairs and tables, which was left over from Saturday's event and unoccupied. Being the Pirates we were, we stormed this construct and took it in the name of Fidelity. We hung a Pirate flag from Des' collection and the Fidelity banner along the side. As time went on, more Fidelity Pirates started arriving and our motley crew grew in purpose. By 10:30am, we were at full strength and ready to pillage.

Suitably pumped up, we entered the first race with our sites set firmly on victory. Nigel had brought an inflatable crocodile with him which we managed to get tied to the back of the boat. We rode our hearts out with the crocodile giving firm chase. We won the heat with the crocodile second and scored a time of 1:18:66 which put us into 11th position overall.

With everyone feeling tired, we kept the spirit going and, as we entered the 2nd race, the adrenaline kicked in full force. We up against a faster team and being Pirates we persuaded our helmsman that if it was close we should try to board the other boat. Half way through the race with the opposition a dragons' head in the lead he steered a course towards the opposition, we got within touching distance and after brief skirmish of paddle bashing ensued, we took a slight lead. We pushed ourselves harder and, this time, didn't tire until long after the finish line. With a time of 1:15:81, we found ourselves still in 11th place overall. A big improvement in time but we still needed work.

Shortly afterwards, as a team, we were called up to the stewards. We had no idea why as we knew our race wasn't for another 30mins. Were we in Trouble? Had the Crocodile caused a problem? Had the near miss during the second race caused problems? Fortunately, we weren't in any trouble, we had simply won the Award for the best dressed team. We were shocked and pleased as we had won before we even got to the final. A great moment for the team which put us in even better spirits for the third race.

Now, with everyone feeling really good, we pushed ourselves even harder to get into the final. We were up against the fastest team on the day who'd posted a time of 1:07. We knew if we kept close to them, we could do this. As the race started, we held our own and pushed with everything we could to get what we needed. By the time we finished, we were exhausted. We were nearly a boat-length behind the fast team but we'd tried our best.

When we got back to shore, we all headed straight over to the scoreboard to check our scores. We'd posted 1:12:66. We were excited. We knew it was good but we had to wait. When the result came, commiserations came as we found ourselves in 7th. 6th place had posted 1:12:34. Only 0.32 seconds in it. We were gutted.

But... Hold on a second. 5th Place were nowhere to be seen. With them being a no-show, we moved up to 6th and I took my place as team captain of one of the elite teams. We all felt extremely proud to be there. But then, just as we were choosing boats, coming across the bridge, heading for the stand was the 5th place team. Elation turned back to commiseration as I stepped down from the stage and went back to the team.

We'd had our day and it was time to pack up. We left with our memories of the day. We'd pillaged a marquee and claimed it as our own, we'd been chased by a Crocodile, fought another boat on the high seas , we'd won a dragon trophy and, for a brief moment, we were one of the elites. Overall a pretty good accomplishment for the Pirates of Fidelity, the Fidelity All-Stars.