The Royal Academy of Dance - where I'm Director of Fundraising and Development - hosts an international ballet competition called The Genée every year (www.rad.org.uk/genee).
Its aim is to give the world's most talented young dancers a launchpad into a professional career as a dancer.
This doesn't come cheap - it costs us on average £2,500 to give each candidate their place at 'the friendly competition,' a 10 day experience of study and performance. Yet we charge them only £500 each to enter...and with a new bursary scheme now available, many don't even need to pay that.
So it's my job to find the rest of that funding, and this year I'm hoping to put YOUR money where MY mouth is by embarking on a six week course of GYM and TONEics.
It will work like this:
- I will give up alcohol completely for six weeks (with one pre-arranged and unavoidable exception in April!)
- every time I would have bought a drink - in a pub, in Tesco's on the way home, at the theatre - I will donate £5 by text message
- every time any of YOU would have bought me a drink, I will ask you to donate £5 (and FYI you'll need to text GYMT79 £5 to 70070)
- I will complete a new fitness challenge every week and blog about it so you can see how I'm getting on
Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity.
