Justgiving's blog

Fundraiser of the month - July 2008

July’s fundraiser of the month was an easy one.

Congratulations to the brilliant Nicole Dryburgh who's raised over £20,000 so far towards a neuro-rehabilitation room at King’s College Hospital.

 

Nicole has been a patient at King’s since she was eleven and knows all about how important this new room is going to be. It’s well worth reading the very poetic message on her fundraising page.

She was nominated by Claire McFarlane who said:

“Nicole Dryburgh is 19, she was diagnosed with a malignant tumour on her spine at the age of 11 and 2 years later a brain haemorrhage left her totally blind. Nicole is always fundraising, her next fundraising event is a 100ft abseil on 6th July – she is an inspiration!”

You can find out more about Nicole by visiting her website or reading her book. And you can have a look at Claire's fundraising page if you like too.

Good luck with the very daring abseil Nicole, and you win a £25 donation to King’s College Hospital Charity. 

Fundraiser of the month, June 2008

We used to do a regular ‘Fundraiser of the month’ blog post to shout about an outstanding fundraiser or fundraising team. And although we’ve been blogging about a lot of amazing fundraisers lately, somehow the tradition of awarding the official title disappeared… until now.

We’d like to crown the 60 Lovely Ladies of Amsterdame08 our Fundraisers of the month for June 2008.

For a start, look at how many of them there are on their fundraising page! That’s a pretty impressive display of photos.

And secondly, what an amazing amount to have raised! Not just reaching their £30K target but smashing it, all in aid of Marie Curie Cancer Care.

Oh and they did a 4-day cycle ride from York to Amsterdam and back.

Well done Amsterdames! We hope you’re very proud of yourselves.

Congratulations to Emily!

Just a quick shout out to one of our favorite fundraisers, Emily Thackray. You might remember Emily as the courageous lass who took part in the women's Hydro Active 5k on oxygen and became one of our 'fundraisers of the month' back in 2006. And you might also remember that she got a new set of lungs earlier this year.

Emily has put those new lungs to work: she's been busy campainging for organ donation and on Saturday she got married!!! Here she is in all her bride-ly glory.

Heartfelt congratulations to Emily and Adam from all of us here at JG....Yay!

P.S. if you haven't signed up as an organ donor yet you can do it online here.

Fundraiser of the Month, May 2007

There could only really be one Fundraiser of the Month after this year’s Flora London Marathon, and it has to be David Rogers, who died aged 22 after completing his first ever marathon run.

David was a fitness coach at the David Lloyd gym in Milton Keynes. He became ill after crossing the finish line on April 22 and was later taken to hospital, where he died.

He was raising money for the Motor Neurone Disease Association, in memory of his Grandad and a friend Mark Williams. You can see David’s page here.

After his death dozens of fellow marathon runners showed their respect for David by donating on his Justgiving page. The page has now raised over £12,500 - almost £12,000 of which was donated after his untimely death.

We send our condolences to David’s family and friends

Claire's Tips

Right, back to Claire's winning tips since everyone's aching to know.

2. The simplest way to cook Bird's Eye Potato Waffles

(Instructions on packet) Grill both sides = Put in toaster, use highest setting and put in twice!! No need to dig out grill pan, stand watching waiting to turn or setting off the smoke detector (as my grill frequently does).

3. Scooby Doo is in fact a Great Dane

I'm sure many people know this already, but it really did come as a revelation to me, even though I watched the HannaBarbera cartoons all the time as a child, he was just a big brown dog. When someone told me this news last year I was surprised I hadn't picked it up! At least one person you tell this to will not have twigged either!

Yoinks. Thanks Claire. Good luck on your trek!

And Our Winner Says...

Following on from yesterday's winning fifty words, here's the first of Claire's answers:

How to fold a fitted sheet (besides bundling it up and shoving it in the top of the airing cupboard)

Folding a fitted sheet is much like folding a flat sheet: corner to corner and half to half.

Steps

1. Find a bed, table or sofa on which to work. Fold the sheet in half with the top meeting the bottom (foot) of the sheet.
2. Tuck the top corner into the bottom corresponding corner (left top corner to left bottom corner and right top corner to bottom right corner.) Top corners will be turned inside out.
3. Fold the sheet in half again so all corners meet. Again tuck the corners into each other. This will again force one set of corners to be turned inside out.
4. This last step leaves you with a bunched up corner area. To smooth it down, fold in the longest side so the corner can lie flat (it will be at a slight angle.). The short side can also be folded in.
5. Fold the sheet again in half the long way. This should then cover the folded area from step 4.
6. You should now have a long "strip" that can be folded in 1/4's or 1/3's depending on how small you want the folded product to end up.

Inspiring.

Coming later: waffles.

We have a Winner!

The competition was fiercely fought but there could only be one winner.

February's fundraiser of the month is Claire Tizzard who deftly answered our '£50 for 50 words' challenge with the following gem:

"I will share with you the 3 key things I've learnt this year..including 'how to fold a fitted sheet'  (there is an option besides shoving it in the airing cupboard), 'the best way to cook Birds Eye potato waffles' (surprising) and a key fact about 'Scooby Doo' which I only realised this year."

That was enough for us. Claire's answer and full story is coming tomorrow but the £50 donation has helped her get past the £1k mark for her Great Wall of China Trek in aid of Pilgrim's Hospices in East Kent.

Fundraiser of the month, January 2007

Our fundraiser of the month for January 2007 is James Morrison .

James has been growing his hair for five years. It’s long and knotty and his friends are about to decide whether he should cut it all off. All the money he raises will go to Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital.

Read his story here. Visit his page and sponsor him here.

If you want to nominate someone as a future Fundraiser of the Month, please drop us an email at community@justgiving.com or post details in our forum.

Fundraiser of the month, December 2006

Our fundraisers of the month for December 2006 are the guys in the moust-ashes team .

What started of as a bet in the pub as England began its struggle to defend the Ashes cricket trophy in Australia, has led to four men growing wild moustaches and raising serious money for the Prostate Cancer Charity at the same time.

Read their story here. Visit their page and sponsor them here.

If you want to nominate someone as a future Fundraiser of the Month, please drop us an email at community@justgiving.com or post details in our forum.

P.S. we're going to try an entirely new way of finding Fundraisers of the Month in 2007 - with an added incentive for both nominators and nominatees-- so watch out for it!

Fundraiser of the month, November 2006

Our fundraiser of the month for November 2006 is Adil Latif.

Adil is nearly blind. In January 2007 he plans to be taken up in a helicopter and dropped on the peak of a snow-covered mountain, from where he will snowboard down a glacier to the bottom. He hopes to raise enough money to build 14 schools for children affected by the October 2005 Asian earthquake.

Read his amazing story here. Visit his page and sponsor him here.

If you want to nominate someone as a future Fundraiser of the Month, please drop us an email at community@justgiving.com or post details in our forum.