This will be my fifth year running my Christmas Cheer festive fundraiser - something which evolved from my time working in teaching, where my god-awful jokes became a thing of legend, and during which I‘d regularly fundraise for vulnerable families.

As in previous years, I‘m raising money for two charitable causes. One marks a bit of a departure, as it’s very personal and family-based; the other is a local community pantry which I‘ve supported since I started doing this in 2018.

1. Tracy Dunn’s $100k Cancer Treament Fundraiser

Let me introduce you to Tracy, our beautiful daughter. She was diagnosed with an aggressive, fast-growing bowel cancer (Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma) on 12th October 2022. She went downhill very quickly and was life-flighted from Bozeman, Montana to Spokane, Washington on October 17th. They had the right specialists there to look after her and her donor kidney while they started her chemotherapy (she had a transplant in February 2010 after her only kidney failed…Kim, her mum, was her living organ donor ♥️).

Her first round of chemo began immediately. The tumour started to shrink, but that caused damage to her bowel, causing perforation. She’s been in hospital since, waiting for her body to recover from that first round of chemo so that they can get her into surgery to remove as much of the tumour as possible, and to repair her bowel. That surgery is scheduled for 15th November.

Being in the USA, she’s facing huge medical bills and is currently too ill to work. Her boss has started a fundraising effort over there to help with the $100,000 she’ll need pay for her surgeries and treatment. So it really was a no brainer for me to make this part of my fundraising effort this year.

She’s such a beautiful, brave and strong young woman. She’s battled through so much in her life to date, and she kicks ass every time. She’s determined to do the same to cancer.

2. Sefton Community Pantry

For the past 10 years the team at the Pantry have worked tirelessly to support vulnerable families throughout Sefton. Working with local schools, they provide food, free meals for children during school holidays, and other essentials like toiletries, school uniforms and winter coats.

They also have a community fridge, which provides free fresh food to those who need, whilst reducing food waste in the local area, and free hot meals two days each week.

They rely entirely on donations from the community for the incredible work they do - and during this time of immense struggle for so many families, I couldn’t think of a more deserving cause for our support again this year.

You can follow all of my daily antics, including a daily ‘live joke’ broadcast at 7pm, on my Facebook page here: Christmas Cheer 2020 Facebook Page

I‘m also on Instagram as @Christmas_Cheer2022