It gives me great pleasure to report that the fund for St Benedict's Hospice (Charity No. 1019410) and The Children's Foundation (Charity No. 1000013) has burst through the £4,000 barrier and currently stands at £4,031.50. For the benefit of readers in the USA, at the current exchange rate, that's converts to $6,539.03.
I think this is an amazing amount of money, given the current financial climate, rising levels of unemployment and the fact that there are so many people doing so many amazing things these days to raise funds for charity.
Without doubt, the recent publicity on www.nufc.com has been instrumental in seeing the fund leep from £3,000 to over £4,000 in just 3 weeks!!!! As a result, Run Geordie Run t-shirt sales have increased massively. I'm very proud to say that I've posted t-shirts all over the North East region as well as various places and the UK and even some to Australia, New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates!!
My thanks go to Biffa at www.nufc.com who has backed me to the hilt on numerous fundraising events in the past and he continues to do so. He has a vast audience of Geordies worldwide. To allow me to spread the word of the next big run to all of those good folk will be the one factor that makes a massive difference to the charity fund and the event in general.
Thanks also go to Peter's Pies who have been matching everyone's contributions at a ratio of 50p in the £1. This has made a massive difference to the total and, as per the sponsorship agreement, the deal will soon be coming to an end. Rest assured, though, I'll continue to push as hard as I can to unlock as much money as I can from that agreement. I'm on the look out for similar deals in 2010 from various companies. So if you would like to sponsor Run Geordie Run in a way similar to Peter's Pies then please get in touch.
Aside from contributions to the charity fund, I've had some very interesting emails from various people offering help and support in the USA. I'll be pursuing each one of these and hopefully I can make best use of these very kind offers.
Finally, I'd like to thank everyone who has contributed to the charity fund so far. Your support really is appreciated not only by me but also by the staff at St Benedict's Hospice and The Children's Foundation. If the charity fund stands at £4,031.50 now, I shudder to think what the final amount will be when I reach New York in August 2011.
