Just Keep Swimming: November 2011

Thursday, 24 November 2011

I got another donation!

I got a call from my sister Caroline the other day. I was asleep so I found it very confusing.

"Someone gave Carl at work £5 for your swim. He's given it to me to give to you, but I don't know who it was who gave it to Carl. I've also forgotten if Carl could remember who gave it to him in the first place. Whatever. Even if he did remember, I've forgotten. Basically, I've got a donation here for you from someone"

(She wants to be a doctor. I fear the future of the NHS!)

Anyway, after some investigative work (I tweeted Carl), it turns out the anonymous donor was, in fact, another gentleman who I used to swim with in the evenings. I'm afraid I don't know his name, but I'd like to thank him very much for the donation!!

(I didn't mean it Carli. I'm sure you'll be a wonderful doctor. Love you really xxx)

Sunday, 13 November 2011

You're not getting rid of me!

I got an update from British Sugar today. You might remember that they promised to sponsor me earlier in the summer, but couldn't let me know the date until Autumn time. Well yesterday I got a letter from them saying that they will sponsor me £100, which is really fantastic!

So I've now raised almost £1800, including Gift Aid. It's phenomenal!

Thank you to them :-)

This weekend I was also back into the pool to compete for the first time in years and years for the BUCS swimming championships at the national pool in Sheffield. It was wonderful fun but I'm exhausted now!

Is it too early to go to bed?

Thank you to:

Sponsors:

Akash, Mercy, Tom, The Breezes, Bat & Steve, Carli, Anna, Zerelda, Katie, My Mum and Dad, Angharad, Jen & Justin, The Crisp Family, Harry, Rusty, Hazel, Jackie, Hugh, Ursula, Sam, The Bedford family, The Banks family, Granma and Grandad, The Westoby Family, Chris, Catherine, Christian, Anna, Danny, Will, Chris, Jenn, Roz, The drunk lady at the pub, Michael, Joe, Alice, Todd, Christian (again. He wanted more brownies), The Wright Family, Ursie again :-), Aiden, Lianne, The people of BSEAODS, The people at the Spread Eagle, The people at Abbeycroft Leisure, Bury St Edmunds, Ross, Rui & his brothers, Tahi, My Granda Peter and Marion, The Clark family, Ray, Maddy, Glasswells, Jill and Barry, Lloyd, Abi, Hannah, The Limmer Family, Cat, Ian and Jack, Jordan, Tim, Tom (again, because he thought that donating by text looked like fun!), Denny Bros, Neil, The people at the Rose and Crown, the people at Eric's Prime Cuts, The JustGivingTeam, Jackie, Megan, Ruth, Linda, Mark, British Sugar, the Gentleman I used to swim with.

Other help:

Kath and Jacqui from TAG, Jo & Tudor at the EADT, Hugh, Carli, Mum and Dad for putting up with all of my swimming talk & giving me lots of ideas (and Hugh's also made lots of phone calls for me and taken lots of pictures and made me a poster and agreed to do lots of favours, so thank you a lot :-) ). My Dad's also taken me to places he frequents (the pub and the butchers) so I can ask them to put a collecting tin on their counter/bar. Clare and Tracy who have let me put a collecting box, poster and business cards on reception at the leisure centre. Hazel who let me do the same on the bar at the Spread Eagle, and Liz at the Rose and Crown, and Jim and James at Eric's. Carli who made lots of brownies for me and then sold them, and who's also took some pictures of me and given out business cards :-) . Neil and Ant at the Spread Eagle who gave me the kick up the bum to ask all of the patrons for sponsorship. Ursie, who's been getting all of her friends (many of whom have never met me) to donate, and Carli (what would I do without my sister??) who's been doing the same, especially with BSEAODS. And also to all of the lovely people who don't know me and who haven't heard of Arthrogryposis, but still gave a few quid, and an extra special thank you to the woman who had never met me before but who gave me £20 at the pub today (18/6/11), because she didn't have anything smaller. Bat who bought me some more business cards and is just generally a wonderful godmother :-) Jackie who gave me the idea for a scrapbook. I'd never thought about it, but I think I'll appreciate it in the years to come. Jill for letting me film in a training session, Hugh, Amy, Lloyd, Chris, Jordan, Jack and David for being in my video, and Ursie for filming it. Tal at JustGiving for putting me in their blog, the judges of the JustTextGiving competition who gave me a runners-up prize, Hugh and Ursula especially, but everyone who was involved in my surprise video, party etc. (Mum, Dad, Carli, Hugh, Granma, Grandad, Ursula, Polly, Steve, Diana, Kian, Christian, Joe, Hannah, Carl, Josh, Lewis, Aiden, Hannah, Jordan, Hazel, Veronica, Jackie, Alice, chris, Tim, Tim, Tom, Chloe, George, Alison, Lloyd, Rui, Jess, Katie, Paul, Molly, George, Oscar). Everyone who was in the surprise video (Diana; My sister Carli; Poppy; the Lovely Steve; Carli; Ursula; Ian and Veronica; Hazel; Mark; Leah-cat; My Daddy Martin; My Mummy Judie; Ruth; Hugh's parents, Jill and Barry; Hugh's sister Kirsty, brother-in-law David and nephew Alistair; Chloe, Tom, Pete and Julie Bellotti; Christian; The Bury Bombers; Carl; Josh; Luke; Cat, Megan and Josh; Hugh.)

Jordy, Tim, Carli and George who joined in on my last swim.

Hugh and Ursula get a special thanks. They organised my surprise party, got a lot of people to come and watch me swim, got the Bury Free Press involved, got me a special lane in the pool and made me a surprise video. I love them both lots :-)

And also to everyone who has 'liked' my justgiving page, tweeted and facebooked about what I'm doing, shared my video, and generally helped to spread the word :-)

I'm sure there are lots of people I've forgotten. So I'm sorry if you're one of them (I also can't thank specific people who have given me money in the collecting tins as I don't know who you are). But this doesn't mean you're not appreciated. This list is expanding as I remember people. Thank you so much everyone. The response has been overwhelming.

Just Keep Swimming

Thursday, 24 November 2011

I got another donation!

Sunday, 13 November 2011

You're not getting rid of me!

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