We would like to tell you a little about us and the reason we are doing this charity trek but also at the bottom of this page we will be giving updates on how our training sessions are going and adding photo's!

So a little about us and the charity:

We come from a family of animal lovers and between us we have 17 dogs, 9 horses, 1 cat, 4 guinea pigs, 8 chickens and 3 ducks!! Yes we know what you are thinking......."god are they mad". The answer is no we just love animals and they bring each of us relaxation and enjoyment. We have had pets all of our lives and we just would not be with out them.

So for those of you that do not know a lot about what The Bluecross charity do here is a little information before we explain what our challenge entails!

The Blue Cross mission: Provide care, promote companionship, enhance animal and human lives

The Blue Cross is a registered UK animal welfare charity, meaning they rely on donations alone and get no support from the goverment. Their aim is to:

• * Ensure the welfare of animals by providing practical care
• * Highlight the benefits of companionship between animals and people
• * Promote a sense of respect and responsibility towards animals in the community

They aim to provide support to the nation's pets and their owners by:

• * Treating pets whose owners cannot afford private veterinary treatment, they may be on disability benefits or    elderly with little income or unfortantly unemployed like so many in this current climate! 
• * Find permanent loving homes for unwanted or abandoned animals
• * Educate the public in responsible animal ownership, which benefits those with or without pets.

 

As everyone is aware the number of unwanted "Christmas presents" such as puppies and kittens are very high just after Christmas. This is when people see that they are not that easy to look after or end up costing too much money or little time is spent with them after a few weeks. The Bluecross are happy to step in and take an animal in and re-home them, this not only includes dogs and cats but also horses, donkeys and other such animals and pets. They do not judge anyone, they just provide the love and care that each pet deserves and they strive to find them the most suitable loving home possible. Obviously money and awareness needs to be raised all year round and this is why we are helping them towards their £100,000 target for 2010.

So what are we doing to help out!?

We are starting by training for the next 6 months to ensure we acheive our challenge of " Africa, the trek of the Great Rift Valley"!! The challenge will mean we trek approximately 100km over 6 consecutive days. We will start our challenge in the foothills of 8,500ft Mount Longido, a sacred Massai Mountain. Our biggest challenge will be to climb the Volcano Kitumbeine, where we will visit remote Massai settlements!! All of this will take place in the heat of Africa in June 2010.

So please help us in supporting The Bluecross charity by helping us raise our minimum of £6,000. Obviously we would like to raise more than this if possible and we are sure with all the support of our family, friends and fellow animal lovers out there we will be able to do so.

You don't have to have pets yourself to support us or this charity just caring about animals is enough, after all they do not have the luxury of picking their owners or homes!!

 

To find out more about the charity please visit www.bluecross.org.uk  or you can see what we will be doing by visiting www.charitiyadventures.co.uk/maasai  

Many thanks for taking the time to visit our JustGiving page.

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 and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now and support us in supporting the Bluecross.

Thank you!   Please see below for our updates on our training!!

 

We will be updating you here with our training sessions, you will get the full low down and photo's, we would just like to share with everyone supporting us that we are not just sitting back waiting for money to come in but we are out there working hard to ensure we do the very best at the challenge a head of us by training hard and raising money! 

 

SATURDAY 23rd JANUARY 2010 - Woodchester Park, Stroud, Gloucestershire - 5 miles..........or was it!?

Walkers: Belinda, Sarah & Ben

So mum and I went on our first long training session today!! We obviously have been doing training leading up to this but by doing smaller walks daily or every other day, we have to admit this tends to be our dog walking times but you would be surprised how far we can walk with the dogs and tends to be approx a mile each time! So back to todays walk, we had decided that we would manage our walks in different locations giving different distances, surfaces and elevations. First port of call Woodchester Park in Stroud. We have not been here before but it looked good from the walking book, part of the National Trust and the surroundings were great. So we met at 11am and after a bit of micking taking about who was the most prepared (hands up it was mum!!) we started our walk. So mum and I were in a good pace side by side and Ben always seeming to be a good few hundred meters a head of us (he is much taller so strides are bigger, and enjoyed walking on his own!!) we felt good, weather was good as dry and nice cool temp outside. We knew we were attempting 5 miles in 3 hours according to the book and Ben gave updates every now and again as to how far we had walked in what time keeping us motivated.....then we came to a T junction, do we follow the orange trail or the red one!?! Red trail steep hill, orange trail flat gound, "in for a penny in for a pound" I said "Well do we want distance or build our strength up hill" mum said, Ben running half way up the steep incline already!! So we went red trail, going steady up the hill both myself and mum were doing ok a little out of breath but like mum said "I am nearly twice your age, well not quite twice your age but older!" my excuse "I gave up smoking 2 weeks ago for this and think I am doing much better than I thought I would"!!. We enjoyed this one more it took us right up to the top of the hills where we could look down on the trail we had just started on, on different surfaces due to the mud, water and unlevel ground. At the half way point (not knowing this was half way) we stopped for a quick 5 min break and slice of mum's great cake, (home made weight watchers so still good for us!) mum came prepared and laughed at us that if something happend we would have gone hungry and she wouldnt of, again another reason why mum wins for being well prepared. We kept walking and it had come to our attention about a mile or so before that the trail we had took was not only the most taxing due to the inclines but was also the longest!! We hit 6 miles and I dont mind admitting that I started to feel a bit of a burn and so did mum, by 6.5 miles we knew we were on the home straight and would not be long before we finished. I have to admit the last lap up the steep incline back towards the car park was only done knowing that I would be able to sit down in less than 5 mins. After we climbed the steps and we looked at the board to see how far we had just walked I think you could see the amazement on both mine and mums face, we had started out that day with 5 miles in 3 hours in the back of our minds as that is what the book had set out for us and in fact we had just completed 7 miles in 2 hours and 57 mins we were so pleased we had done so well and both looking forward to the next training session like that next week to see if and how we improve on that.

So until the next session thanks again for supporting us, it is hard work but we are enjoying it and appreciate all of your support and we have also added pics of todays training!

 

Well the training continues and the fund raising continues so we thought we would inform you of some of our up and coming fund raising events!!

MARCH 2010

March 6th - Blue Cross Car Boot Sale - based at Cheltenham Racecourse. There will be lots and lots of great items for sale so everyone should come along grab a bargain and help support the Blue Cross - THIS WAS A GREAT DAY AND WE MANAGED TO RAISE IN TOTAL £670!! HUGE THANKS TO OUR HELPERS, DAD, BEN, TINA AND JAMIE

March 20th - Street Collection - Cheltenham town centre street collection will be taking place, keep an eye out for those large furry animals running around the town with their buckets!! We will have childrens masks to give away with donations made, balloons, badges etc......so come on dont just stand their dig deep in those pockets and put your change in the bucket!!

March 23rd - Tea Party - Being held at The Armstrong Hall, Thornbury, Gloucestershire. Come along and enjoy a nice brewed pot of tea and cakes along with a good old fashioned dance to the classics. Starts 2pm - 5pm and with entrance fee you will get a pot of tea, cake and sandwich!

March 27th - Tesco Bag Packing. Takes place at Tesco in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. Help support the Blue Cross and pay us to pack your shopping for you!

 

APRIL 2010

April 13th - Tea Party - Being held at The Armstrong Hall, Thornbury, Gloucestershire. Come along and enjoy a nice brewed pot of tea and cakes aong with a good old fashioned dance to the classics.  Starts @ 2pm - 5pm and with your entrance fee you will get a pot of tea, cake and sandwich!

April 17th - Clairvoyant Day - Brunswick Church, Gloucester. Starts @ 11am come along and spend the day experiencing the world of Clairvoyants by having as many 20 min readings as you like with up to 10 different Clairvoyants. We will also have mind, body and soul readings, stalls with items for sale and other items through out the day and event.

April 17th - An audience with Clairvoyants - Brunswick Church, Gloucester. Starts @ 7pm you can be a member of the audience while a number of local. fantastic and experienced Clairvoyants see where the spirits take them for the evening, could it be you who has a passed one that would like to communicate or could it be the person sat in front of you!?

 

We have more up and coming events that will be updated and added to our list of events soon such as a beer,band and burger night based in Cheltenham and a family fun day!!

If you have any questions regarding our events or up coming events or would like to know more details regarding tickets etc please drop an email to sarahkeet@hotmail.co.uk

If you would rather commit to supporting us by giving us a donation once our event has been completed then please email me on the email address above stating your name, address, contact details and the amount you would like to sponsor us.

Many thanks again every one for your every growing support!!