Time to call it a day …
Hi everyone, it’s been a while …
I hope you’ve all had a successful year and that you’re now able to relax and enjoy the Christmas break. All good here with me … I’ve spent 2011 building my business back up after last year’s “interruption”, and getting back on track health-wise. I am very pleased to be able to report I’ve just had (another) successful review appointment with my oncologist, so I’m still all-clear and it is all looking very promising for 2012. I hope the same applies for you guys too.
As for the 365challenge … well I think that just maybe it has run its course, sadly.
I mean, when I launched it back in August 2008, as a focus for my own fundraising in honour of my sister Brenda and following my own diagnosis, it was supposed to be just something for me to do to help my own recovery. But then it took on a bit of a life of its own and in that first year and a half, it did get a momentum behind it and Cancer Research UK were even hinting that it might have some longer-term promise.
However, the uptake since the middle of 2010 has been pretty slow, so that, unfortunately, by the time I got together with my friend Ian Doherty last year and he and John O’Connor had re-vamped my website (and despite CRUK starting promoting it, finally, to a small extent on their website), it just didn’t seem to have the pull I’d hoped it might have had. I’ve done a little more promotion on Twitter and Facebook and through some other contacts, over the past year, but as things stand, I’ve got just the one 365er actively working on a challenge at the moment, so I think the time has come to wind things down finally. I’ve decided that I’ll retire the 365challenge in the new year (2012)
I think, over the life of this “project”, we’ve raised £34-£35,000 for CRUK, which is no mean feat, and something I am very proud of having been a part of. My own share of that, raised with all your wonderful support, has been £10776, just £174 (or 5%) short of x3 times my original personal target. Not bad, if I do say so myself! You can still add to that total (of course), if you want to, but my JustGiving Page is live for just two more weeks …
Finally, I’d like to take this opportunity to say a HUGE THANK YOU to each and every one of you for your sponsorship, your participation (all you 365ers, you are a very special bunch), your support and all of your kind words over the past three and a half years … you’ve put up with my missives, my pleadings for sponsorship, my highlights and my low lights, and I know I couldn’t have made it without you. It’s a shame we couldn’t take it up a level and bring more folk on board, but we did pretty good, I reckon.
Thanks again so very, very much for all of your support and one day, hopefully, I’ll get a chance to say thank you to each of you in person somehow.
Have a great Christmas and may I sincerely wish you all a happy and healthy 2012 and beyond. Take care, and do please stay in touch.
Cheers
Colin
