How cool is he!  Finley is the puppy I am sponsoring, and is the direct result of my fundraising efforts for Guide Dogs so far......

 

For those of you who don't know what I've been up to......after months of pounding the pavements, 2 x London Marathons, and generous people like you supporting me, I've netted about £5,000 for the amazing Guide Dogs charity in the past 2 years.  This amount will put little Finley through the next 18-24 months of training, in which it will take him to reach the exacting standards where he will be able to literally change the life of someone who is blind or partially sighted.

 

So to 2010, and a new, bigger challenge........"The Mountathon"!  It's not just a clever name.  Actually it's not even that.  This year, I will be doing a combined fundraising effort to eclipse my previous efforts, by completing a third London Marathon in April, followed by a climb of Mount Kilimanjaro in June.  All in all, I reckon that I will clock up welll over 100 hours of running and trekking during next 6 months, not to mention the 26.2 mile run itself and the 8 day, 3,000m climb through rainforest, desert, snow and ice.  For more information on Kilimanjaro, this site is pretty good:

http://www.climbmountkilimanjaro.com/index.html

 

Along with a more stretching challenge comes a more challenging fundraising target!  After starting Finley's Guide Dog career off, I'm now looking to sponsor another puppy through a training programme, and so with your help I hope to raise over £5,000 in 2010 to enable me to do this.  There's a few really important things to highlight here......

- Every £1 counts......no matter how much you can donate, it will make a diference!

- This year, more than ever, corportate donations will be critical in reaching my target.....so please think laterally about how the company you work for might want to get involved and donate.....I am open to all offers, and will sell my body to the highest bidder!

- Finally, and best of all, the incredible policy we have at Microsoft means that I can apply to have every £1 donated matched and added to my fundraising pot......so give generously knowing that you will ultimately be pledging twice the amount you put in!

 

I will be sure to update you on both mine and Finley's progress as we both plough through the next few months of training, so watch out for more photos in the near future.

 

Please pass the link to this fundraising site to anyone and everyone you know - thank you so much in advance :)

 

Paul

 

 

Some information about donating through Justgiving.com:

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.