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My story

 
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.

better late than never Donation by Mike Marshall 26/09/08  

£10.00 + £2.82 Gift Aid

Your willpower is better than mine, don't think I could have done a month without cheese! Donation by Debbie Stone 04/09/08  

£10.00 + £2.82 Gift Aid

Donation by denis dunne 02/09/08  

£10.00

The cheeseboard is in sight - keep going Donation by Darren Hallett 28/08/08  

£15.00 + £4.23 Gift Aid

Simon, I'm feeling cheesed off at the min since I'm ill, so I thought I'd do something about it... Donation by Graham Hudspith 27/08/08  

£10.00 + £2.82 Gift Aid

5 days to go! Well done! Donation by Hayley Ponsford 27/08/08  

£10.00 + £2.82 Gift Aid

Good luck Simon. Donation by Dave Hobbs 27/08/08  

£5.00 + £1.41 Gift Aid

Well done Simon!! not long to go now. x Donation by Sukanya 27/08/08  

£20.00 + £5.64 Gift Aid

Simon, I hope that you find your whey, and that everyone will brielieve your achievement. No one coudl call you cheesey. Donation by James Rens 26/08/08  

£20.00 + £5.64 Gift Aid

Well done Simon! No doubt this heroic effort will forever stand tall in the sacred Annuals of Cheese Abstinence. Donation by Mike Conroy 26/08/08  

£10.00 + £2.82 Gift Aid

I'm paying my apprentice too much Donation by Paul Shepherd 26/08/08  

£40.00 + £11.28 Gift Aid

Good luck & enjoy the sweeter smelling fridge Donation by Bev A 26/08/08  

£20.00 + £5.64 Gift Aid

No cheesy puns. Donation by Andy Blackburns 22/08/08  

£10.00 + £2.82 Gift Aid

You shall prevail if you don't keep mentioning CHEESE!! Donation by Gandalf's Apprentice 18/08/08  

£75.00 + £21.15 Gift Aid

The Nolans / Carpenters are a good cheese alternative. Donation by Wonder Horse 18/08/08  

£10.00 + £2.82 Gift Aid

I am sure that your cholesterol level will benefit! Donation by Richard Busby 15/08/08  

£15.00 + £4.23 Gift Aid

Welcome to my cheese-free world. Donation by Oakey 14/08/08  

£20.00 + £5.64 Gift Aid

Oh the humanity. No cheese? Donation by Samwise Tailby 13/08/08  

£5.00 + £1.41 Gift Aid

I am praying to Aristaeus, the Greek god of cheese-making to watch over you, during your month of vulnerability. Donation by Juan Guerrero 12/08/08  

£10.00 + £2.82 Gift Aid

I like your cheesy poem - William McGonagle could not have put it better Donation by Joanne Edmiston 11/08/08  

£20.00 + £5.64 Gift Aid

Bob Marley once sang/no woman no cry/i say no cheese lots of cry Donation by Jonno @ JG - another poem for my haiku? 08/08/08  

£10.00 + £2.82 Gift Aid

Certifiable.. No cheese? Don't think I could do it.. Donation by Emma Richardson 08/08/08  

£10.00 + £2.82 Gift Aid

That is a pound for every day. Donation by Simon Ponsford 07/08/08  

£31.00 + £8.74 Gift Aid

Maybe this will cure the cheese addiction and it will be on the no-go list after August? Donation by JamesD 07/08/08  

£20.00 + £5.64 Gift Aid

Is September going to be Pig-Out-On-Cheese month? Donation by Oscar's Uncle Martin 06/08/08  

£20.00 + £5.64 Gift Aid

This has got to be the cheesiest appeal I have ever supported. Donation by Gabriel McCaffrey 05/08/08  

£10.00

Can often be found lurking in the chiller cabinet section of supermarket breathing deeply Donation by Nick O 05/08/08  

£10.00 + £2.82 Gift Aid

Awsome will power! Donation by Chris L 05/08/08  

£20.00 + £5.64 Gift Aid

I owe you for buying me 12 year old Jameson!!! Good luck Donation by Father-in-law 05/08/08  

£20.00 + £5.64 Gift Aid

could'nt you have done something less extreme, like not sleeping for a month? Donation by Patrick J 01/08/08  

£31.00 + £8.74 Gift Aid
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