A well-established fundraising platform called Givestar has set up a £20,000 fund to which adventurous people can apply if they take on a really exciting adventure for charity.
They tell us that the fund will be divided up among successful applicants and can be used to cover any costs associated with making the challenge happen. That includes (but is not limited to) buying specialist gear, paying for travel and accommodation, camera equipment or other logistics costs.
If you have any friends or family who might like to do something out of the ordinary for the ME Association, please let me know.
If the fund had existed some years ago, it may well have supported the likes of:
- Ed Stafford, who raised money for us while spending 3 years in the jungle to become the first man ever to walk the length of The Amazon (before he went on to star in his own brand of off-the-wall adventures on The Discovery Channel)
- Eric Smart, who cycled to Australia for us and then – for the sheer hell of it – took a spur-of-the-moment decision to cycle all the way back by a different route
- Gordon Jackson, who walked 500 miles through Scotland in 2021 and 2022 inspired by The Proclaimers' song with its chorus “But I would walk 500 miles. And I would walk 500 more. Just to be the man who walks a thousand miles. To fall down at your door.”
(Those were the days, my friend. We thought they'd never end!)
If you've got friends and neighbours like this, please ask them to get in touch with me and I'll give them the full details. Alternatively, start the process yourselves: here's their application form:
From the left: Ed Stafford's book cover, Eric Smart in Adelaide, South Australia (before cycling all the way back) and 500-miler Gordon Jackson.
Tony Britton
Senior Fundraising Consultant, The ME Association
tony.britton@meassociation.org.uk Mob: 07393 805566
