Oi !! Tudo Bem?

Otima!

Thanks so much for visiting my page!! 

I’m fundraising for Concern Worldwide, a fantastic development charity who I am running the London Marathon for this April.  All the cash is going to projects in Mozambique, where apparently they speak Portuguese!

This kind of thing is entirely out of character for me, so your encouragement is greatly appreciated/neccessary.  I was the one at school who would be brought to tears at the mere mention of 'Sport's Day' but here I am training away!

But why!?

I had a realisation last year that I didn't do enough positive stuff, and thought if I got myself all caught up in this Marathon malarky I'd be forced into doing a whole bunch of great stuff.  Mainly raising money for this incredible charity and also getting fitter.

It hasn't been easy though & I often wonder if it was such a clever plan, too late now!! 

I honestly don't know how those madmen do it! But they do! And year after year people of all shapes and sizes come together to accomplish this incredible thing and drag themselves sweaty and broken down The Mall to wave at the Queen, and I can't wait to be another one of those guys! I am already envisioning myself wearing the medal for the entire month of May!

I'm getting the running part under control, I have less than 2 weeks ahead of me, all the serious training is done and now I've just a few more sessions ahead of me before the big day.  I'm hoping to get round the course in less than 5 hours, but if I get round in less than a day I'll be pleased with myself. Armed with my proper running gear and the fear of my friends catching me walking, the motivation is there, but I desperately need your help with the fundraising bit.

So far I've had some excellent personal donations. Thankyou guys so much, you have been so generous and it means so much! And we've had the fantastic Comedy Night, and the Ska Punk Night which really boosted the balance. Thankyou so much Sam, Glen, Jodie, Phil, Jacob, Joe, Rachel and Nish, The Jester's Dead, Ruskin, The Scaredy Cats & Bogus Gasman, you were all incredible!!

The target is to raise at least £2000 for Concern Worldwide as a Golden Bond runner, we've done really well, but I still have a little further to go, so please empty your pockets for me and give as much as you can afford, every little helps, I don't mind if you can afford £5 or £50, I will be incredibly grateful, and your support will make all my efforts worthwhile! Just to have your name and some ‘encouraging’ words on my page will help me along my way!

And hopefully I'll be seeing many friendly faces to cheer me on in person on race day! 26th April! Get in tough if you'd like a special 'Concern' paper flag!

Concern Worldwide are an amazing development charity, whose work covers so much, from Emergency response work to Education projects all in a saintly mission to alleviate poverty.  They work in 30 of the world’s poorest countries, so you can rest assured your money is spent wisely and greatly appreciated.

All the money raised for them in the 2009 London Marathon is going specifically to fund their education projects in the Zambezia province of Mozambique (where they speak Portuguese).  Education needs major improvement here with only just over half the children aged 6-10 actually attending school in the province and over 2/3rds of teachers lacking any formal training.  Their projects here aim to contribute to sustainable economic development and poverty alleviation by increasing both access to and quality of primary education.  They hope to build a new and improved primary school infrastructure to accommodate 4,000 pupils;  Improve the quality of teaching;  Increase the opportunities and outcomes for the local children, focussing on the girls in particular;  and raise awareness of HIV/AIDS.

To give you an idea of the huge impact your donation will have:

£20 Will help buy the school supplies for about 10 children for a year.

£55 - Will fund the training of 1 teacher.

And £750 - Will furnish a classroom for 90 children with desks, chairs and a blackboard!

They are a wonderful charity, and thanks to so many friends having worked for these guys for 3 years I know so much about what they believe and what they do and I couldn't imagine doing all this for anyone else. 

Don't forget to add Gift Aid if you're a UK taxpayer, and Justgiving will make sure 25% in Gift Aid, plus a 3% supplement, is added to your donation.

Thankyou!

Love Sally

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