Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

I'm going to give two explanations as to what I'm doing: a short version and a long version.  Skip to whichever you're interested in:

THE SHORT VERSION: Given how much has been written about rape and sexual assault (or 'bad sexual etiquette', if you're George bloody Galloway) in the past week, it occured to me that the people on the front line working with survivors need our support.  Therefore I am doing what I never thought I would and am going to read the 50 Shades of Grey trilogy.  Those who know me know how much of a challenge this will be.  To lessen the pain of this undertaking, I will also be live tweeting my thoughts over on Twitter (follow @Suffer50Shades) until i reach the end.  Please sponsor me, even if it's £1, as it will be a task for me but all proceeds will go to help survivors of rape and sexual abuse.

THE LONG VERSION:  Rape has been in the press and all over the internet this week, and everybody seems to be talking about it.  From the downright pig-ignorant views of George Galloway and Todd Akin through to the truly moving accounts of bloggers who have been personally affected by rape and sexual assault, it seems that I can't get away from it.  I realised that after all of the hundreds of thousands of words that have been written regarding Julian Assange and the case of 'bad sexual etiquette', the apparent differentiation between 'legitimate rape' and 'rape-rape' and everything in between, I haven't really seen any promotion for donaing to rape and sexual assault charities.  So I decided that I wanted to raise money for Rape Crisis.  But how to do this?  Being overweight and really quite lazy, the traditional run/trek/swim/cycle thing isn't an option.  I wanted to do something that I like to do anyway, but would be a challenge.  However, the majority of my hobbies seem to involve me sitting on my arse for long periods of time (reading, theatre, reading, watching films, reading...) so I kind of abandoned the idea.

Then I realised something: I can put my love of reading to good use.  Those of you who know me will know that I have a massive problem with the 50 Shades books, due to my feminist leanings and the fact that I really hate trashy fiction.  I know that I haven't read them or had any intention of reading them, but everything I had read about them made me hate them more and more.  So, in aid of Rape Crisis, I'm taking the plunge and declaring September a Grey Month - I will read the books back to back, live tweeting as I go along (follow @Suffer50Shades), and all I ask in return is that you support me through this by donating a few spare pennies.

Who knows, maybe all those people who kept telling me that I would like 50 Shades if I just gave it a chance will be right.  I very much believe that you will see Miss Piggy flying over your garden before that happens, but it's alway good to keep an open mind...

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