FAIRBRIDGE

Fairbridge is amazing, turning round the lives of young people facing the most challenging circumstances.   I've been working for Fairbridge part time for four years and find it completely inspiring: the staff are extraordinary, the young people too.

The results are very impressive, with nearly 4,000 young people coming through the doors each year and a high rate of success in helping them transform their lives.

Scroll down for 1) links to Fairbridge 2) links to my blog, Diary of a Novice and 3) details of the 10k+ challenge   

Visit the Fairbridge website                Watch a short fim about Fairbridge           Diary of a Novice    

                                                                                                      Please read on, the fun continues below...

THE 10K+/£10K+ CHALLENGE

My excuse for raising money for Fairbridge, if any were needed, is running the 10k as a team member in the London triathlon with Laura (swimming) and Mark (cycling). My target started at £10,000, but due to fantastic support I've had to increase it, at some cost to myself (see below).

I'm training hard, hoping to beat my current record of just under 45 minutes.  And here's the painful bit: to start with I said I'd run 1 metre for every £1 you give, and walk the rest of the way.  You've taken up the challenge, and there's not going to be any walking in the 10k.  It looks as though you'll give at least £12k, so I've got to go on running...  either on the day, organisers permitting, or if not in race conditions as soon as I can afterwards. 

THE APPEAL

Your name on the sheet will make all the difference to me, but, far more important, all the difference to the young people supported by Fairbridge. 

DIARY OF A NOVICE (all on its own site at Diary of a Novice but the first bit here too to give you a flavour)

(or the daily notes of a virgin fundraiser)

Starting statistics:

Age: just 49 (only just, and I'm cool about being old.  The older the better I always say)

Height: quite small really

Chins: three

Bodyfat (according to my suspiciously kind scales): 19%

Relevant Qualifications: Willingness to do it when they couldn't find anyone else, and it is entertaining to see the chairman sweating and in pain, with chins wobbling etc.  Needless to say, I am old enough to be the father of both Laura and Mark and if I'd really got on with it  they could legally be my grandchildren.  They've been surprisingly positive, kind and encouraging, but then they do work for Fairbridge.

Relevant Experience (i.e. experience of extracting money from people for doing something you were probably going to do anyway): None

Important author's note: all the people in this diary are intended to bear a strong resemblance  to real people, all of whom I earnestly hope are still alive for they certainly were very recently.  For my amusement I have changed the names of some and left others entirely as in their passports.  There might be a place called East Hindon, but if so I've never been there.

Monday 29 June

Have a lot of fun messing about with the JustGiving website, setting up my page etc.  As I'm nearly 50 of course I haven't got a clue how to do this and not for the first time wish I was twelve or five again.  It seems peculiarly difficult to communicate with the machine on the simple matter of the target: if you don't put in the pence as well as the pounds it claims you haven't done anything at all and must start again like a naughty boy.  The contemporary equivalent of writing lines I suppose. Of course if I were five or twelve I'd know this as a matter of instinct.  Anyone older is in trouble.

Spend quite a long time in inconsequential and artistic musings on the question of whether JustGiving gives good value to donors, with its 5% fee.  Decide it probably does because of all the Gift Aid that would otherwise not be reclaimed and because it is really quite user-friendly even for 50 year olds.

Wonder about a photograph, and whether it is likely to increase my chances of raising any money.  Choose one with me in grinning in a black panama. 

First donation in, £200 from Neil McCann, offline.  Someone told me that the size of your first donation sets the tone and Neil is kind.  I can run 200m now.  Thank you Neil.  Good first day.

Tuesday 30 June

Fairbridge has been the sponsored charity for the Nike 10k London run the last couple of times, with some of our young people making up most of our team and a few hangers-on like me.  In 2006 it was in Hyde Park, with Seb Coe, Paula Radcliffe and Duncan Goodhew to launch it.  The Fairbridge team was introduced to them, very exciting and time for a chat, then put right at the front of the pack.  There's quite a lot of smoking at Fairbridge, by both young people and staff, and a number of our athletes extinguished their cigarettes just before the gun...

First online donation, thanks v much indeed Harriet.  I wonder how long it takes you to earn that serving strawberries to undeserving business people like me at Wimbledon?  Rather longer than I plan to take in running the 10k I suspect.  Later in the day a generous "Anonymous" comes in with another £200, wonderful.  Having been shocked at the effect on my heart rate (+15/20 beats per minute) when I went on a run 40 mins after a cigarette (admittedly rolled fat by me with no namby filter or anything) resolve to give up nicotine for July and throw in alcohol and caffeine for good measure.

Total raised in day £220.  Total raised so far: £420, momentum gathering

Diary continues, with the next thrilling instalment on

William's run for Fairbridge (cont...)