Hi all! 

This is Jed from Rowan House and I would like to tell you about our fundraising project.  What started as an email about the feasability of rowing the atlantic over the weekend (spoiler alert, it isn't) has now become a 24 endurance-if-you-want-it-to-be charity event! 

On Saturday the 21st of November at 1pm UK time we will have a group of boys start running a determined loop around Dean Close school and we hope to have at least one person running at all times until 1pm the next day.  This should be not only a good opportunity to do exercise but also a fun event for those not necessarily running - food stalls and a barbeque will make appearances as well as some music to encourage those running (I have suggested having certain time slots for certain genres to ensure psychadelic blues rock will make its much needed appearance at some point during the event).  While the minimum is one person running at all times we can hopefully get groups of people to be running for some of it, and through the help of strava, we should be able to get a total distance ran by Rowan statistic that we can look at and have a warm fuzzy feeling as a direct consequence.

Now then, on a more serious note, the significance of 24 hours is that it is 1440 minutes, and 1440 is the number of men who commit suicide every day.  This is tragic.  Mental health is something that only recently has been properly talked about, yet men's mental health is something that faces quite a wide and significant social stigma.  We believe that Movember is an awesome, deserving charity working hard to combat this awful statistic so we are doing this to raise money for them.  £1440 is our target and it would be amazing if we could get there.  While you are obviously free to donate as much as you want whenever, we are encouraging the lads in Rowan to get sponsorships for the amount of time they specifically run.  Theoretically, if everyone got a £1 per minute run sponsorship then we would easily reach our goal.

Please give generously.

About Movember:

Our fathers, partners, brothers and friends are facing a health crisis, yet it’s rarely talked about. Men are dying too young. We can’t afford to stay silent.We are the leading charity changing the face of men’s health. We know what works for men – and what doesn’t. Prostate cancer, testicular cancer, mental health and suicide prevention – we’re taking them all on.Since 2003, Movember has funded more than 1,250 men’s health projects around the world, challenging the status quo, and shaking up men’s health research.