I have just spent a lovely afternoon in Westerham at a “Strawberry Tea at three” event hosted by the team that fund raises for a local hospice. There are thirteen ladies in the team and the afternoon was lovely. (The weather kept dry for us) We paid £4.00 each and were served endless cups of tea and coffee, scones, jam, cream, and ofcourse strawberries in one of the lady’s gardens. The event was very well attended and made me think that I would like to do some fund raising events.
I know some of you have taken part in the Race for Life and also the Moonwalk, I was just wondering what other things people have done or are doing to raise money for Cancer charities.
I’m taking part in the BCC Ben Nevis climb in October this year - seemed like a good idea back in 2007 - not so sure now it’s approaching lol. Hubby is coming with me - so far between us we have raised £1100 in sponsorship - so I guess I have no choice but to climb now lol.
Given that following chemo x 4, rads x 20 and chemo x 3, and herceptin x (I have no idea how many yet lol but starting soon) - I find it difficult getting to the local shops and back, I have no idea what made me think I could climb a 4000 ft high mountain !!
Oh my goodness me, please please don’t do anything that will make you really unwell after how ill you have been. I was going to do the race for life, but the weekend I planned to do it was only a week after my surgery and I didn’t do it as I knew I would have been too tired. I will do it next year though!!!
Oh don’t worry Jules - I’ll be taking it steady and I’ll be in the ‘slow’ group at the back lol - apparently on the day I am doing it there are 99 of us - so at least I’ll have company lol - just hope someone else is as slow as me haha
Hi Jules,
I have been fund raising for Cancer Research UK for about 6 years now. I started out doing an adventure team challenge, bit like a mini triathlon but instead of swimming we canoed around a lake.
Then I did and abseil for them but for the last 4 years I have been involved with their Relay for Life, 2 years as team captain and then last year and this as chair of our local organising committee. Last year the teams raised almost £28,000. I can’t say I raised it but I did organise the event with 4 other ladies. This year it is mainly just me and my friend Clare but we will get there.
There are loads of “big” fundraisers which the charities organised them selves and you get sponsored for, like the Ben Nevis challenge or Inca Trek’s etc. CRUK also have a new one called ‘come dine at mine’, I think you invite friends to eat at your house and you charge them, not sure exactly. Another way is coffee mornings, 1 of our team members did this last year twice, first time she got over £1000 and the second almost £900. The team raised £5000.
In the past I have organised pub quizzes, discos, walks, relays and bbq’s. Oh and I also did a cooked breakfast at work once and got a couple of hundred. I got local butchers and bakers to donate the food and charged about £4/5 for a cooked breakfast. Sometimes the simplest things are the most effective as you don’t have to pay out as much.
Try looking up the various cancer charity websites as they always have their fund raising stuff on there, it’s up to the individual to bite the bullet and do it.
Margaret,
I know what you mean I am sure you are exhausuted hunny. A couple of my friends have queried me doing the Relay this year but to me this year is even more important. But mine is no where near as strenuous as yours. Good luck with it.
Hi Jules
Glad you had a lovely day.I work for Asda and we have the tickled pink campaign every year.A few years ago I sat in a bath of pink blancmange and was pulled around the store and the town and raised over £2000 ,I was freezing at the end of it.We also do a walk in August every year in Liverpool with all the stores, along the waterfront collecting,we all dress up in pink and have a really great day
Oh I meant to say my sister and a friend were collecting today for Cancer research and I was shocked to hear that a majority of young women (especially ones with young kids) walked by and pretended not to see them with there tins. They said the older ladies and lots of men of all ages were giving generously but alot of younger women hardly gave a penny. This made me upset and angry. Cancer touches all of us in some way or other and where they were collecting was not a poor area. If everyone gave ten pence it would still help!!!
Why are some people so bliming tight!!!
Rant over, and carefully climbing down off my soap box!!!
Hi Jules,
My family have all just set off to do the Ribbon Walk for BCC today. I should be going with them , but have horrendous back pain, which is being treated with 3 different kinds of morphine, codeine and ibroprufen, but nothing relieves intensity!! Really disappointed waving them all off when I planned the whole team. and did all the training etc. Still, just got to get thru’ the day on my own, and keep in touch with them all thru’ mobiles. We found fund-raising really difficult and slow at the start, then all of a sudden as the day approached, people’s generosity kicked in and between 7 of us we have raised over £3000 and counting!! And I have been amazed at how generous relative strangers have been, some putting £20-£30. It has been so good to see people support a really good cause. I hope thay all make it without too many blisters!!
I am doing a 10km sponosred walk in September to raise money for a local charity that supports cancer patients and their families. They donate a large sum of money each year to the charity who provide the volunary drivers who took me to the hospital every day for 6+ weeks for my rads.
I’ve always supported breast cancer charities in the past long before I was dx myself.
In the past I abseiled down the back of the Hilton Hotel in Glasgow (the tall one next to the Kingston Bridge - not the one in Great Westernr Road) for CRUK.
I buy things from the Tickled Pink range at Asda on a regular basis (the velour hooded top from the leisure suit is the best thing I’ve ever bought) and I get the Riboon Pins for myself and for gifts on a regular basis.
I also buy books by the dozen from the loacl cancer research shop, read them and donate them back.
As a support group we have raised a lot of money over the last 12 years for our local hospital. We’ve done 3 big fashion shows (400 people in audience) with the help of John Lewis. The latest thing we did was last year when we held an Indian evening (including supper and live music). We raised just over £13,000 for our hospital for the Indian evening.
Leading up to Christmas we were approached to have a Christmas stall to raise awareness of b.c. and also we did a tombola. We had the opposite to you Jules in that it was the younger people who came up and gave us money (especially young lads!) rather than older people. It might have had something to do with the fact that we were dressed totally in pink with pink wigs etc!
One of our ladies is also doing the strawberry tea in the next week or so plus quite a few go on the Race for Life and some of us are going to the Relay for Life.
I’ve recently arranged three charity quizzes at my local with the proceeds going to my Oncology Clinic. Up to now total raised £1,370.00 so I think we’ve done quite well. Giving them a break now until September with people going on holiday etc., and I think if we do them too often people will get fed up. Really enjoy putting them together.
i did the race for life again this year with my daughter ,we are doing the moon walk on the beach in september and hope to raise a lot of money for the local hospice. i try to give as much as i can to collectors but sometimes its hard to say no when you havnt any money left ! people tend to look the other way when they see the collecting tin ,if only they knew it could affect them any time . well done to all the ladies that are raising money for the charity its much needed .
I know what you mean about collection tins Aroma - to be honest I hardly ever give to ppl in the street with collection tins, partly because I can’t afford to give to all and these days it’s not unusual to walk down the High Street and pass 6 ppl with tins all for different charities. I also have selected charities that I give to and I do tend to stick to them - I’ve supported a BC charity for years never dreaming that I would suffer myself.
I’m thinking about something as well - I am a member of a small business club and might see if I can do something through that as the info goes out all over the country to different branches of the club.
I personally hate the shaking tins at the door of the supermarket etc. I know it has to be done,but I feel so bad when I dont give. I only take my credit card with me to the supermarket and never have cash. I do have a direct debit to three charities to which I donate a fairly generous amount each month and I am always sponsoring someone for something. I do think we have to draw a line in our donations otherwise it is non ending. So please dont think that people who dont give to the tins are mean. It could be me!
I have to be honest here, I rarely see collecting tins anywhere. Maybe five or six times a year in general. I give to everything. Its the way I have been brought up. I have aways been taught to realise there are alot of people alot worse off than me. The only thing I don’t give money too, and thats because you can see lots in one day is the big issue sellers, and boy do I feel guilty. I also admit to not liking the charities where you are told the amount to give. (again my bug bear with the big issued).
My mum has collected round the doors for years. Cancer Charities, Save the Children, Christian Aid to name but a few. I have helped her and I will be honest here lol even as a young child when people refused to give money (and we lived in Petts Wood which is NOT a poor area) I used to get so cross inside at people being so mean. God I am on my soap box now lol
One year at my childrens school we did a collection of food, toiletries etc for a homeless shelter to give them a better Christmas. I filled a carrier bag up of bits and bobs and took it up to the school feeling pleased that I could do my bit to help. One mum at the school said what have you wasted your money on that for charity begins at home…!!! Her children had everything going. I walked away with a tear in my eye when I realised what kind of world we live in. Yes ok I am soft and probably a few of you think stupid, but I would rather be that way that not care at all.
PS I know people on this site care, I was meaning people not caring at all like the mum at the school, did not want off offend anyone.
Ok - I am going to stick my neck out here and probably be damned … I do not like charity collectors coming to my door, I feel that charities should not approach you in your own home asking for donations. If I wish to contribute to a charity then I feel it should be my choice and having someone on my doorstep shaking a tin is not on. I feel it is putting unfair pressure on people and I hvae known occassions where friends have been too embarrassed to sya no and have dropped money into a tin that was to pay for their child’s school lunch the next day.
I also hand-pick the charities that I do support and a big factor in this is how they spend the money that is donated, in some charities as little as 2p in the pound actually goes to ‘the cause’ and the rest is spent on administration. I accept that the larger charities will require to pay for administration but in some cases they have staff on directors wages and driving very high spec company cars. Many years ago I watched a programme on TV which exposed a chairty (I will not name them) whereby directors were able to take extremely large interest free loans over an unspecified timescale - and I mean loans large enuff to allow them to purchase 5 bedroom country houses. There is often a lot of politics in charities which again I ojbect to.
To be honest I do tend to stick to local small charities which I know are run by volunteers but I have donated money or taken part in sponsored events for some of the larger charities.
Obviously everyone has a budget and I truely beleive that as a nation we do support charities very well but whether to give to a particular cause should be our own choice.