Well, it's been a bit quiet, but we've had a great memorial golf day and in addition to donations here, handed in another £1690, plus other bits and bobs

Clive Wallers Aberdeen UK Platform Awards Dinner coming up, plus Heroes Day 2012 well under way......

Heroes Day 2012 launches soon......... and we'll be able to announce how some of the donations have been spent, in the near future - both we and H4H are very excited........

Apr - additional ffline donations of £365 (Anon) and £70 (Ian Hendry - Barber)

20 Dec, William Sherwin, owner of the Sherwin Gallery in Shenfield sold 2  paintings donated by artist Jonathan Armigel Wade and has donated the proceeds - £2,975 !!!! Amazing....

19 December Update..... Through £200,000 raised......

National Heroes Day - Many organisations have made contact asking for information of how to pay H4H direct as they don't have a card facility. Details can be found here:

http://helpforheroes.org.uk/donations.html

Please make sure you use you registration numbers to make sure your donation is accounted for correctly.

However, many organisations have paid H4H directly, either by cheque, or via the H4H donation site. This has made it impossible to account 100% accurately, but H4H has agreed that based on what can be tracked, Heroes Day has raised at least £50,000 for H4H and we'll update this figure as we can. To that extent the offline total has been adjusted to reflect this.

27 Oct  - Dinner below amount raised upwards, to £22,713 in total!  A Maze Zing!  BTW ths sum shown does not include any Heroes Day donations, which can be seen here: http://www.bmycharity.com/HeroesDay

1 Oct Amazing couple of days - almost the final sponsor money  for golf, plus CWC Research for arranging a little chat at the Aberdeen UK Platform Awards Dinner last Thursday £6,800 twice matched making £20400 in all - for 4 minute speech - perhaps I should take this up :)

BUT BANGED THROUGH £150K!!!!!

Heroes Day new website up and running and Heroes Quiz website now launched - Phew

27 Aug.... A few additions as golf sponsorship keeps coming in another £1600 from that to come.....

Don't forget 21 October - Schools Pack written and in branding... www.heroesday.org.uk

25 Jul.... More Mile by Mile and golf funds raised (totals still to be finalised)

17 Jul.... Golf payments donations coming in thick and fast, Mile by Mile at £10K, alsos just heard of a £342.38 donation (collection tin/bucket) from anonymous, handed into H4H Rich's anniversary!

12 Jul.... Update from Mile by Mile, already collected £9,700 before their "event" even starts..... total now over £124K.... A-Maze-Zing!!!!

10 Jul, well with a few more dribs and drabs, I have decided to add the reported £6K from Mile by Mile to date to give an amaing total of over £120K.  Just perfect to go with Press Launch of Heroes Day - www.heroesday.org.uk

4 Jul Another update to total - Still doesn't include the £6K from milebymile, nor the golf.  Look our for Heroes Day on 21 October followed by Heroes Quiz in the evening. 

23 Jun, updated total..... still does not include the £6k from mile by mile

20 June - year on to "the" day.... holding up.....  money continues to come in... for yomp, Danny's site for Heroes Day and here.....  Also I know of approx £6K in cash already collected for the mile by mile challenge (not included here) as well as other stuff elsewhere (so you can add £6K onto the headline figure here!!!).... However, can't be bothered with updating all the numbers below - just need to take my word re offline number!!!!

13 Jun Update..... STRETCH TARGET HIT!!!!!! but don't let that stop you contributing......this week we have entered "anniversary" week.... :(

Many more activities coming up, Golf for both H4H and Hounds for Heroes, Hero Day and Hero Quiz..... watch out for details on www.richardhollington.org.uk

5 June.... Well, what a week or so...... Girls have finished - late Friday, tired and a bit sore, but all say they had a great time.  Money continues to drip and or flood in as you can see.  Stretch target for two weeks is in our grasp!

Hope to get websites updated, with fotos this week, but I do have some work to do!!!

Cannot thank volunteers enough - without their help this would not have happened.

Money keeps coming in Super Stretch is £110,000 by 20th June so no one can argue about Gift Aid - see below

BMYC yomp site (£36,423.88  inc GA  (£31,616.15 without) - 13 Jun 15.45, so don't add two together.  Also added the gift aid raised on this site to date (less JG fees) into the headline total, which today is £3542.32 - thank you. Long debate over GA - bottom line is I'm counting what is declared on Rich's donation sites but nowhere else, so even if some from of these sites get GA denied by HMRC, it will be made up for on other sites and offline donations (and of course I have allowed more than £1500 in JG fees, which of course are in fact an expense to the charity, these charges are made on funds raised, so legitimately I could count them.... too late to include now m'thinks - well until we hit stretch target under current accounting!!!).

Now included is money pledged for Andrew's bike ride (see above) but not the 2nd Annual Golf, which together have a further £3K pledged but not collected.  It does include Nick's headshave/charity football match, @ £471.50, Andrew Chalmers Mile By Mile bike ride £55 - now plus gift aid - 13 Jun 15.45) and Danny Galvin's Kilmanjaro trek (£3290.21   - 13 Jun 15.45  and Ant Ellis Just giving page for the yomp, here http://www.justgiving.com/Anthony-Ellis1 (£1360 plus the GA less fees! - 13 Jun 15.45)......you wouldn't expect someone who is going to do the yomp sideways to have a donation page in the same place as everyone else now, would you?.  Details of all events can be found here .

So lets see if we can make the super stretch target....

14 Feb 2011..... Awesome - Thanks to Andrew Chalmers and South Downs College, Becky Fox and her amazing Music Nite Tribute and lots of other donations that trickle in (apologies, too many to mention individually, but range from donations in lieu of birthday/Xmas presents, church collections on board cruise liners, golf weekend auctions etc etc etc ......

So What Next.  Andrew is doing another event looking to raise £10K http://www.justgiving.com/andrew-chalmers1.  We have South Downs Way - Non Stop coming up http://www.southdownsway-nonstop.org.uk  and a repeat of last years successful Memorial Golf

Awesome - Just Awesome - thanks you..... I suppose we need to look at £100K now - if we could manage that by the anniversary of Rich's death that would be truly amazing!  However, most of the events we know of (other than S Downs Way) will be after that.....

13 Dec......  £50K pre-Christmas amended target blown away by 2 x Karaoke - one local to us at the Cricketers, Steep and one very kindly run by Bianca Thompson at her Dad's restaurant - Nine Yards in Monmouth.  A couple of local events in the New Year organised by RIchard's mates, then the South Downs Way - non Stop in May! www.southdownsway-nonstop.org.uk 

31 Oct - latest Update! Fantastic fundraising week has seen £30K target blown away.  Golf raised approx £6K, collected cheque from a dinner in London for an amazing £14,100, then our friend Gill raised an incredible £3344 from an evening of playing a silly dice game!!!!!

Now to break £50K by Xmas.....

9 Aug - Breaking News.  After some deliberation and the success of the offline fund raising that other's are undertaking in Richard's name, we have taken the decision to raise the target to £30,000 representing £100 for each of the first 300 servicemen to die in Afghanistan.  This isn't to ignore later casualties, but due to the fact that we cannot set a target against a sadly moving figure.

 The reason for looking to raise funds in Richard's name is our experience of the week Richard spent in Selly Oak fighting his wounds - initially successfully before succumbing to a sudden and unexpected reaction to infection.  What Jen and I saw on the ward was:

- shocking in respect of the numbers and seriousness of the wounds suffered by troops

- awe at the care and dedication of the Critical care staff

- from the next of kin - relief their loved one was alive - fear at the impact of their loved ones future

- incredible bravery and unbelievable recovery of injured troops,

We can no longer do anything but remember the good times with Rich.  We can do something for those who managed to survive their ordeal, but still have a mountain to climb, So please dig deep and donate now.  Rich's story follows:

Marine Richard Hollington, from Bravo Company, 40 Commando Royal Marines, died from wounds sustained in Afghanistan in the new Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham on Sunday 20 June 2010

During the late afternoon of Saturday 12 June 2010, Bravo Company was conducting a reassurance patrol in Afghanistan for the local nationals in an area to the south of Patrol Base Ezeray. At approximately 1616hrs local time, Marine Hollington was caught in an explosion.

He was immediately evacuated to Bastion Role 3 Hospital where his condition was listed as critical. On 13 June 2010 he was transferred to the new Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham. At 1108hrs BST on 20 June 2010, with his parents and brothers present, Marine Hollington sadly died of his wounds.  He was the 300th UK Serviceman to die during operations in  Afghanistan.

http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/MilitaryOperations/MarineRichardHollingtonDiesFromWoundsSustainedInAfghanistan.htm

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