Hi
I am Simon Guerrero and I love cheese. Seldom does a day go by without me eating at least one variety of cheese in some form. Anyone who knows me will understand how tough this is going to be for me...
I am going to spend the entire month of August, 2008 without eating any cheese. No cheddar, stilton, brie, camembert or parmesan. No Babybel, no pizzas, no lasagne, no cheeseburgers, no caesar salad - not even cheese and onion crisps. NO CHEESE AT ALL!
My family and colleagues will be fully briefed to ensure I remain cheese-free throughout August. All meals and snacks will be audited before consumption to ensure cheese is not involved in any way.
There is a very good reason for all of this. I became a father on the 11th of June, 2008. My little boy, Oscar, needed a little extra help at the start of his life from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Bath's Royal United Hospital. The staff at NICU were fantastic and helped Oscar with the last little push he needed, so that he and his mum could come home.
It's no exaggeration to say that the existing NICU unit is tiny. Mums find it difficult to get any privacy with their babies. The environment is cramped, noisy and hot and lacks natural daylight. The staff do an incredible job in these conditions.
The Forever Friends Appeal’s NICU ‘Space To Grow’ Campaign aims to raise £4.7 million to fund a new sustainable Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
This new unit will be calm, spacious, and purpose built to accommodate the 21 cots and the medical equipment needed for the specialist care of babies. It will be the very first of its kind to be designed, built and operated with sustainability in mind, creating a light and spacious environment for vulnerable babies and their parents.
In return for my efforts, I would like you to make a donation to the Forever Friends appeal. Donating through Justgiving is quick, easy and totally secure. It’s also the most efficient way to sponsor me: Forever Friends 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 me now! I will update this page throughout August to let you know how I'm getting on.
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30/07/08: THE FEAR has arrived in the pit of my stomach. Or perhaps it's just not enough cheese. First donation received! Woo hoo!
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31/07/08: It's not even August yet and already over £200 has been donated. Many thanks, you generous people.
Someone requested a poem about cheese, in return for a donation. So here you go. Worth a fiver? :-)
Ode To Cheese
Oh Cheese, you are the pinnacle
of taste; a minor miracle.
Through processes I find incredible,
Does curdled milk become quite edible.
From brie’s soft heart to Edam’s rind
it is impossible, I find
to adequately summon words
in praise of your delightful curds
So take me to delirium,
oh lactophile bacterium
I’ll feast on you until I fly
To that great cheese-shop in the sky.
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31/07/08: News has spread across the Atlantic and the largest single day fall EVER in wholesale cheese prices has occurred! [pdf file]
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02/08/08: I am already missing cheese. Last night I had a McDonald's Quarter Pounder With Cheese "Without Cheese". This seems so fundamentally wrong.
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05/08/08: The press! The photos! The interviews! The radio! Come on TV, what could be bigger news than a man in Wiltshire not eating cheese for 31 days?
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11/08/08: I'm featured on the JustGiving blog! - thanks Jonathan.
Here's a cheese haiku for you (strict 5-7-5):
geese will soon fly south
in my fridge the lancashire
and cheddar turn green
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15/08/08: Halfway (just). Awoke in a feverish sweat last night, from a nightmare in which I was pursued by the Laughing Cow through fields of nodding Babybels. Keep finding myself zoning out at work and dreaming of Cropwell Bishop Stilton. Please, God, let it stop.
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26/08/08: It's the last week without cheese! I am longing for a nice cheese platter at midnight on 1st September. In the meantime, over £800 has been given. Thank you very much, you extremely generous people....
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01/09/08: Finally - it's over! Thanks to everyone who donated - it's an amazing total! At 13 minutes past midnight this morning I partook of some Blacksticks Blue and some Organic Glastonbury mature cheddar - yum.
