Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

I'm trying to kill two birds with one stone.

Bird One:

Most people who know me are aware that I support the charity Crisis. Specifically, I am a volunteer at Crisis Christmas. For those who know a bit about CC, I am what is known as a 'Green Badge'.

This means that once a year, for a week, I boss other people about at a temporary homeless centre in London that is staffed entirely by volunteers and which performs numerous important functions for people who, for whatever reason, have ended up on the street. For some guests it's time for an 'annual MOT' - an opportunity to be patched and checked up at the start of another gruelling winter. For others, it's the chance to escape the streets and get a roof over their heads. Most important of all, CC is an opportunity for guests to meet people and have some companionship.

Crisis Christmas is MUCH more than a 'soup kitchen' (although we do aim to provide guests with three meals a day) and people are often surprised to learn how many services are provided at the centres. Dental care, chiropody, IT training, hair-cutting, clothing repairs... I counted 27 different services one year. The experience really challenges preconceptions and the effect on both guests and volunteers by the end of the week is extraordinary.

Crisis is MUCH more than Crisis Christmas. It's quite a remarkable organisation that operates 365 days a year, working to end homelessness by helping people before they hit the streets and transforming their lives. One of the most important innovations Crisis has developed is its Supportive Housing model.

Bird Two:
I'm overweight, unfit and not happy about it. I've been procrastinating about doing something about my ever-expanding girth for years now, but all that has happened is that I've become bigger and less happy. In the past three and a half years I have gained three and a half stone - and I wasn't small before!

It's time for that to end. I won't bore you with details here, but I've built a website at www.losingthebelly.com where I go into more detail about my fitness campaign. There's even a blog on the site where I plan to document my progress and if I can work out what I've done with the password, I'll be updating a Twitter account, too.

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