A MASSIVE THANK YOU TO EVERYONE

We started off really well in raising money via the Keele revision course in April which raised £483

Following the sinking of the IRRV raft in my first personal attempt to raise money for my chosen charity with my team of Council members in July we raised over £1,400 via a sperate justgiving page.

A successful IRRV Association golf day at Worksop Golf Club raised over £1000 and the raffling of an England signed cricket shirt at the Annual reception (won by Mike Shaw),  raised over £600.

At the end of August, I teamed up with one of the IRRV leading sponsors, Equita who again supported the President of the day in their aim to raise money for two charities, mine and the "Big C", in memory of Brian Dale. Over 4 days, Paul Sharpe of Equita and I captained different teams made up of IRRV members and people who had won raffles to play during the year and played 4 unbelieveable good golf courses, 3 of whom had or are to host Ryder Cups. On Friday 29/8/08 we played the Belfry, the Celtic Manor on 30/8/08, West Lancs on 31/8/08 and Gleneagles on 1/9/08 (tee times kindly donated by Scott and Co). Competetion was friendly and Equita came out winners over the four days but most importantly we raised nearly £5,000 thanks to some great support with my brother ! picking up the prize for guessing the total number of stableford points scored (nothing like keeping it in the family who donated the prize back to be e bayed )

Finally, we raised £1065 on the Performance Awards night and having e bay auctioned the golfbreak which raised  £205, I can now declare that my final donation with gift aid contributions from those who made personal donations via the justgiving website came in at an amazing £8580

I am going to present a big cheque to the Air Ambulance on Friday 12/12/08 along with a signed Atheletics shirt from the Bejing olympics in 2008 signed by some true greats (Seb Coe, Steve Cram, Steve Ovett, Steve Backley, Said Aaouita, Donovan Bailey, Jonathon Edwards etc) which was given to me by Dave Moorcroft who spoke at the IRRV Manchester conference which hopefully can be auctioned off at something appropriate in the coming year.

I know my staff are raising money for the air ambulance with a christmas quiz at work and I hope to keep supporting them in 2009 onwards

Many thanks once again for all your support you gave me during my presidential year

Bob Trahern, Immediate IRRV National Past President