Raising Money for Charity

I abseiled off a cliff to raise money for charity. It was an enormous challenge as I'm actually quite afraid of heights. It was only really the moment of going over the edge that was difficult; after that, it was very easy. You just have to get into the rhythm and not go too fast. My son is very into climbing and things like that and he and some of his friends from his university climbing club set everything up and organised the whole event. There were about twenty of us who did it and between us, we raised well over the target amount. It was a great success but I don't think I'll be doing anything like that again. Once was enough!

I ran a triathlon and managed to get over 50 people to sponsor me. I had to train for months and it was really hard work but well worth it. I actually enjoyed the training more than the final event because on the day the weather was terrible. In the months running up to the event I followed a very strict regime and it felt good to be working towards such a specific goal. I would often get up at 5 o'clock in the morning so I could train before going to work. Knowing that I was going to be able to give a large donation to charity made me even more determined to do it. It wasn’t compulsory to get sponsorship and giving money to charity wasn't my main motivation when I first signed up to do it but I wanted to make the most of the opportunity and all my friends and family were really supportive and wanted to help and give money. It was such a positive experience I'm going to do it again next year.

I cycled from L.A. to Quito last spring. All my family thought I was mad but I love cycling and I knew it would be an amazing way to see lots of really interesting places that most people never see. I managed to raise quite a bit of money for charity through sponsorship although that wasn't my main objective. I turned 30 in March and I really wanted to be doing something totally different rather than just sitting at my desk in the office. I wanted it to be different and something I could look back on when I am older and feel proud of. It's something I'll be able to tell my grandchildren about and the fact that I was able to do something to help those less well-off than me at the same time, well that made it even better.

When I was a child I took part in a lot of sponsored walks. Each year my school would organise the walks and although it wasn't compulsory my friends and I would always take part. It was fun. Each walk was about 15 km long so it took quite a long time but it was a nice way to spend a day. The first year I did it I was only 11 years old and my father came with us to keep an eye on us but once we were older we went by ourselves; there were about 8 or 9 of us that all walked together. We managed to get quite a bit of money between us; in fact, it became our challenge to raise more money than the year before, which we always achieved, so there was a great sense of satisfaction.

We used to make a big effort to get the children involved in charity events as I think it helps raise their awareness of world events and the fact that in many places there are people, particularly children like themselves, who live in very different circumstances to them. I think they get a great sense of satisfaction too from knowing that they are able to do something to help. Each year we had a mufti day, where all the children paid a small amount of money and then came to school for one day in their own clothes and not in school uniform. We also regularly held school fetes where the children were encouraged to donate old toys and books and things which we then sold. The children got involved in running the stalls too and all the money we made went to our chosen charity.