Inspired by an old friend, James Buchanan (link to James' cause can be found at the bottom of this), I decided to raise money and awareness for some causes I strongly believe in. Unfortunately, there are so many causes that are worthy of any and all forms of charity so I'll be focusing on two things, one of which may seem a little unusual. For my fundraising event I will be aiming to do 3000 (semi-)strict pullups within 24 hours on the 30th of December for these two issues.

So, the unusual one you ask? By the title you may have guessed. I will be raising money and awareness for the humble-bumble-bee. The bee is one of the pillars of society and makes 1 in 3 of the meals you eat possible, especially if said meal has a lot of plant based food. So if you're strictly vegetarian then a bee may have impacted all, if not most of your dishes. The impact of bees on the food we eat will only increase as we all make an effort to reduce our meat intake in order reduce our carbon/methane footprint. Even then bees also pollinate 90% of wild flowers and plants we don't necessarily eat, but our livestock do. I'll let that one sink in with a paragraph.

The UK's bee population has decreased by a third in the past decade alone and 24% of bee species in Europe are at risk of extinction. So I'm (hopefully) raising money and awareness for the trials and tribulations of one of the silent heroes of our eco-system. This cause will be donating to the British Beekeepers Association.

The other cause is to raise awareness on health and well-being. Now before I step any further on this a little disclaimer: I have/am very fortunate to have been encouraged to take part in sports and eat well from an early age, with two parents who themselves kept fairly fit and healthy. This likely resulted in the act of exercising and eating well being fairly natural for me, so I acknowledge those with a different or opposite upbringing from my own will struggle more to muster the will to exercise. However, let's continue on: two in three people are overweight and one in three people are obese. Obesity is now the number 1 cause of cancer, in front of smoking. Now I know "overweight" is an ambiguous word and doesn't mean a person is unhealthy, strong and athletic rugby players would be technically overweight. But 1 in 3 people being obese is a frightening statistic. Aside from the physical health benefits, there is a plethora of mental health benefits of regular exercise too. Apart from exercise dieting comes into play too, now I've long said dieting doesn't work. It's about slowly, incrementally changing your relationship with food.

With this event I partly want to raise awareness on health, well-being and fitness. Going from zero exercise to 3000 pullups is completely unrealistic but if you dont walk, walk regularly; if you walk regularly, run; if you run regularly then you've probably already got a basis of regular exercise. So even if I have provoked certain thoughts or convinced you to keep your monthly gym direct debit ticking for another month I'll consider that a win. In the end I will post a video of the event here/somewhere relevant.

But before I risk preaching, if not already, please consider donating, supporting or sharing this small cause. Thank you in advance and thank you for reading this abhorrently long post.

James Buchanan's cause for children's mental health: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/help-kids-minds