UPDATED - NOVEMBER  2009

THE GRAND TOTAL RAISED BY THE VARIOUS EVENTS TO DATE, INCLUDING GIFT AID NOW STANDS AT A PHENOMENAL: £23,087

** Thanks to Steve and Tom ( friends of Jo & Ben) for choosing our fundraising page for donations for the Hell Runner Half Marathon which they completed through Delamere Forest on Sunday 1st November**

The Hell Runner is a gruelling race of over 12 miles long of cross-country running, up & down very steep hills & through numerous waist-deep ponds & streams. It is very tough & the weather conditions were attrocious.

Steve & Tom ran together & finished in just under 2 hours - a fantastic achievement. Well done!

In keeping with their promise, the boys wore (very) sexy devil fancy dress outfits-which prompted lots of sponsorship money. There is an attached link to the photos from the event - on the bottom left simply type in their race numbers which are 870 for Steve & 838 for Tom

http://www.sleepmonsters.co.uk/photoshop_digital.php?basket_ID=1257409270&event_id=7421

 All of our family would like to say a huge 'Thank You' to Steve & Tom for their tremendous support at this difficult time. We are so appreciative of their help to boost our fundraising.

It is now 8 months since our family received the devastating news that John has terminal cancer, with the prospect of only a few months left to live. Our families' lives will never be the same again and it is still a daily struggle to adjust to this situation. John, however, remains positive and in his own words he is not going anywhere yet!!

When we received the original prognosis, we thought that holidays were a thing of the past. However, the chemotherapy, which was such an aggressive treatment and so debilitating has had a positive effect and bought John some time, which is the best we can hope for just now. We were advised to holiday sooner rather than later, for obvious reasons and therefore we wasted no time in booking an eastern Med. cruise. It was a great holiday albeit an emotional one, since it will probably be the last one we can share. Here is a link to some of our photos:-

http://picasaweb.google.com/BarbaraMPotter/Cruise?feat=directlink

Amidst all of the negativity that surrounds our family we needed to have a positive focus and raising money for St John's Hospice has  provided that. John  chose The Hospice as our charity since this is in the local community and may play a  part in his palliative care in forthcoming weeks/months.

The most recent fundraising event in which Barbara participated was The Ladies Midnight Walk on 26th September. This was the first ever midnight walk organised by The Hospice and it was a huge success with a tremendous turnout of 450 ladies. Although the photos are not brilliant, a link is set out below. A huge thanks to all family and friends who sponsored this event.

http://picasaweb.google.com/BarbaraMPotter/MidnightWalk?feat=directlink

Previous events that have contributed to the fantastic amount of money raised include the enormously successful sponsored walk on Easter Saturday at Thurstaston Country Park on the Wirral. The support from family and friends was tremendous with 125 people turning up on the day, which way surpassed our expectations.
We had a great day and we couldn't have wished for better weather. A warm felt thanks to all those who supported us  and also to those who have donated  to our charity but couldn't join us. We really do appreciate the support and it does help us to come to terms with our situation. A link to some photos of the day is set out below:

A further fund raising event in May was organised by The Village Hotel, Bromborough of which Barbara is a member. This took the form of an Open Day and a 4 hour sponsored spin-a-thon on 50 bikes. The total raised from this event was a phenomenal amount of £4562.61. The family are extremely grateful for all the help and support from the staff of the Hotel and the people who participated on the day. It was a fantastic day, which gave us all a buzz. A link to some photos of the spin-a-thon is below:

http://picasaweb.google.com/JohnKPotter/SpinAThon?feat=directlink

A further £1000 was raised by auctioning a framed and signed Manchester United shirt at a recent charity ball run by St John's Hospice. The shirt was donated to a friend of the Potter family by Thomas Kusczak, a United goal keeper.

We would also like to thank Dave Bye who raised £408.85 for the hospice by running the Edinburgh marathon in May.

Anyone who still wishes to support our charity can do so by donating via this web page. Donating through Justgiving is quick, easy and totally secure. It’s also the most efficient way to sponsor us: St John's Hospice in Wirral gets your money faster and, if you’re a UK taxpayer, Justgiving makes sure 25% in Gift Aid, plus a 3% supplement, are added to your donation.

So please sponsor us now!

Many Thanks,

John, Barbara, Michael, Joanne, Kate and Ben