Charity

I am Jumping again – #MMskydive2014 10

This entry was posted in Lullaby Trust Matilda Skydive and tagged Baby Tilda Facebook fundraising Lullaby Trust Matilda Matilda Mae MMskydive SIDS Skydive on

I cried and screamed last time, but I have signed up to do it again. Hayley didn’t even force me 😉 In August we will be skydiving for Matilda Mae, time may pass, but we have not forgotten. We will not let Tilda be forgotten. All money raised is going to the Lullaby Trust, as it did last year, and I truly hope our crazy fundraising has helped to save a little life or maybe a few? So today I opened a new JustGiving page, and am after your support, donations or even just your tweets? There is a team page, Team Matilda 2014. There is not much info yet on the pages, as we are being added to the team page one at a time as each member makes a new page. Bare with us, or pop back next week to see whose in? The lullaby trust try to prevent […]

Honk! I’m in the #TeamHonkRelay for Sport Relief 5

This entry was posted in Comic Relief Good Causes Random and tagged Comic Relief Freya Woof fundraising Ghana Gloucester HONK Sport Relief on

If you don’t #TeamHonk are Alexander Residence, Mammasaurus and Mummy Barrow. Last year they went to Ghana and were quite frankly awesome. That was for Comic Relief, but this slightly daft brilliant Lands to John O’Groats blogger relay walk/skip/dance/run thingamybob is for Sport Relief. The relay started in Cornwall a few days ago, and has already raised a lot of money, seen funny dress up outs and outrageousness a plenty, but I get involved in February. Some photos from the bloggers who have already done their “leg” of the relay can be found on the team honk photo page, and the master plan of the massive route is also on team honks site, and it is a little epic. What am I upto you ask? Well it’s Sport relief, but I just think of comic relief so need to look a bit silly … So I am walking from Gloucester city center towards […]

Today Is #XmasJumperDay 2

This entry was posted in Charity Christmas and tagged blog post blogger children Christmas Save the Children on

Did you know that you can make a real difference by wearing a festive jumper and donating just one pound? Save the Children is asking people to make the World better with a sweater. This is to help raise money for their life saving work, which helps the most vulnerable children, in the poorest countries, with things such as vaccines and mosquito nets. Save the Children work in more than 120 countries.

Cancer Research UK Want To End The #PacketRacket

This entry was posted in Charity Family Good Causes Kids and tagged boys Cancer Research children chocolate Gramps health light on

Today Cancer Research UK are launching a video (below) to help the campaign for standardised packaging. That means removing the funky, bold, iconic and eye catching designs from fag packets because children respond to branding. I started smoking young, about 12 years old. I stuck to certain brands, pretty ones. So I do agree with this campaign, anything that makes children less likely to start smoking is a good thing. Why do I care about smoking cancers? I care because this killed my Grandad, Gramps, the man who was a dad to me. Killed by brightly coloured sticks of poison sold at the post office, the supermarket, even the sweet shop. I remember clearly my Gramps smoking, and telling me the dangers weren’t known when he started smoking as a young man. That he knew better now, but he was already a smoker for most of his life, why stop? […]

Letters From Santa by the NSPCC 1

This entry was posted in Charity Christmas Competitions Crimbo planning / Gift guides Random and tagged boys children Christmas kids letters from Santa making Santa win on

I like to help charities, particularly ones I have experience of, and more so at Christmas! As a teen the NSPCC were my legal guardians, so rather than writing a letter from “Santa” for my boys I get a lovely one from the NSPCC website in return for a donation. The suggested donation is £5 and you can choose more or less if you wish. Every year online I see people selling “letters from Santa” where people are just printing out their own scripted letters and changing the names and ages – not very personalised really and that money goes straight to that seller. With the NSPCC letters to Santa the actual letters are awesome AND it’s not money to someone’s pocket, this helps real kids. (Trust me!) The Letters from Santa section on the NSPCC site lets you make your letter. You tell them some basics, first name, surname, favourite things, and a […]

Oxfam Christmas Toy Range 2

This entry was posted in Charity Crimbo planning / Gift guides Games Reviews Sponsored Posts and tagged Charity gifts Christmas craft Devon dog fashion GB Help Charity Jen kids music play poverty on

Jen and D received a lovely retro gift in the post thanks to Oxfam. It is a boxed set of glass “days-gone-by” marbles, although marbles aren’t modern, and unlikely to appeal to the 3DS generation my lads like them. On our recent holiday to Devon Jen wanted to buy marbles from every little gift shop we went near. As we were camping we refused to buy any, as we knew if they were lost camping in the woods there would be many tears and sniffling. When these marbles came Jen was very pleased, “Ooooooh these are them things I wanted to buy in Devon Mum!” Although we’ve had these in the house for over a week life gets in the way sometimes, parents evenings, dog adoptions, play dates with little friends, and we’ve just got around to playing with them – sorry Oxfam.   Like me you might have been unaware […]

Christmas Shoe Boxes 5

This entry was posted in Charity Christmas Crimbo planning / Gift guides Good Causes Toys and tagged Belarus boys children Christmas cute Everything Rosie glitter kids postage on

After years being a bit anti the charity shoe box schemes I’ve decided I will give a box to a girl overseas. This change of heart is entirely MichelleTwinMum’s doing. Last year she went with Operation Christmas Child, (or OCC for short) to Belarus to see how they operate and who gets the shoebox parcels. You can read all about it on Michelle’s blog by clicking on the link here.

Stigma – Do I Look Mental? #MentalPatient 5

This entry was posted in Charity Feelings Halloween Mental Health News and tagged Amazon BBC bullying cooking DDNOS Halloween costumes health media mental health murder PLEASED PTSD supermarkets Tesco on

Well twitter was a fun place tonight. An awful lot of people are deeply offended, upset, angered or plain livid with ASDA and Tesco. If you missed it I’m sure you’ll read about it soon. It’s not the costume that offends me so much as the name. Mental patient. I’m a mental patient actually, thanks ASDA. Read Nickie’s post on this costume. It has offended me and I am not really buying ASDAs “sorry” tweets. Way to go, fuel stigma and prejudice.   Do I look mental? Is there a uniform my psychotherapist forgot to issue me with? If I was cooking and had a big knife would that be a Halloween worthy look? Can you tell by looking at me I’m nuts? Mental? Medicated?

Budget Bucket List 3

This entry was posted in Competition Entry Skydive and tagged Australia blogger Blogger Challenges boys competitions Formula One history ideas kids photo racing trees tv woodland on

Money supermarket have another blogger challenge competition running. The budget bucket list. Well I heard about this and wanted to join in. I intended to write this post before my skydive, as the MSM logo for this challenge shows a happy, calm skydiver. Skydiving could have been on my bucket list, but not anymore! I’ve done it, I really did it.   So new ideas! Extravagant I would love to swim with dolphins. In Australia. I went to Aussie a few years ago and I utterly fell in love with the place. One of the things we were meant to do was go swimming with Dolphins, near Adelaide. The day before we were due to go out on the boat, a horrible note was pushed under the hotel door, and under the doors of the rest of the group we were with. It said that as bad weather was reported for the next […]