Training and Fundraising Update

By Tommy Lillington

To say the last few weeks has been busy would be an understatement - it has been full on on all fronts , work , social and of course Kilimanjaro training and fundraising.

Both work work and social have seen me travelling up to London a fair bit so its been quite manic.

Training

The weather has been and still remains very cold but the good news is that it didn't seem to put anyone off the training, in fact aside from my weekend walks a lot of the other guys have been walking like bilio in the weekend and some on consecutive days!! Brilliant.

Because of the cold weather I have used that as an opportunity to buy and try out some cold weather clothing I purchased at Great Western Camping in Dorchester, I've got to say I have felt warm as toast with my new Gloves, socks and thermal vest!!

From my perspective I've upped the midweek training to Include 2 circuits or 1 circuits and 1 swimming session or kettle bells. That combined with the weekend walking is working really well and I'm already feeling fitter or should I say knackered!!

We have started walking on Tuesday evenings now and its great fun ,because of the darker nights we are walking from Dorchester out to Stratton (Saxon Arms) back to the Sun Inn and into town its around 10 miles and yes I admit it does sound like a pub crawl its still very good training.

As with my last challenge the most enjoyable part is the banter with the rest of the crew it seems no matter who the walking group of the day is everybody seems to be in good spirits and they seem to be enjoying the company as much as I am.

Fundraising

From my perspective I've had a an amazing few weeks on the fundraising front and since my last blog I've had an amazing donation of £2000 from the Hangers Heroes Charity, this is a great organisation run by Nina and Roger Hanger which is there to provide help for small local charity's, and was my chosen cause last year when I did the three peaks.

On Wednesday 20th March I was guest speaker at a local farmers wives gathering near Blandford my speech was focused on the three peaks and the trials and tribulations of how an overweight unfit man (myself) got to the stage he could climb three mountains in three day days. I'm glad to say the speech was well received and in fact I have been invited back next year to do the same talk about Kilimanjaro!!

You can imagine my joy a couple of days latter to receive a lovely letter from the lady that organised it with also a cheque for £500 that combined with £60 the ladies raised on the raffle makes a total of £560 !! how amazing !! This takes my total raised so far to approximately £2700 excluding any gift aid.

Meanwhile my fellow fundraisers have not let the grass grow and they are already well into organising many events we went to a race night organised by Lee and Jaime Burton it was clear they put a lot of hard work into that night and it was great fun, with a total of £894 raised - fantastic!!

We are looking forward now to another weeks training and next weekends fundraising events, the hecklers ball on Good Friday and the legless walk on Easter Monday - Bring it on!!

Click here to sponsor Tommy:

The Race Night

By Lee Burton

Saturday night saw the 'Race Night' (16th March 2013) which was held at Weymouth Football Club.  Weymouth Football club kindly let us have the venue for free!!

The event was supported by another charity team, the Windy 500 crew, who despite an offer of some of the money, turned it down leaving the pot all to ourselves.  They supplied the horse models and knowledge and Spooky Blackmore’s expertise with the horse racing.  A raffle was also held with a large number of prizes donated by people and local businesses.  The night was a success and we left at the end of the evening with a grand total of £894.00.

I have been busy organising the link between the charity and another local fundraising project, Scarlett’s Starletts – Scarlett is a 9 month old girl from Weymouth who has been diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis.  Her parents are fundraising to purchase a special physio machine which will prolong her life by clearing the build up of fluids and mucus on a daily basis.  The fund has donated £500.00 towards their efforts and I am pleased to say they have almost reached the £8,500.00 required to buy the machine.

There is currently a raffle being run amongst the wargaming community which has some top notch prizes. This will also hopefully see some local clubs running some little events to pass us some £££!!!

Nicki's Hairdressers of Maud Road Dorchester are also running their regular charity raffle on behalf of the fund this year so Clan Burton are tapping into as many sections of the community as possible ;-)

As for training we have both managed some training sessions but sadly none together, due to work and little people so far we have to share training dates.  I am combining my training with some friends who are working towards three peaks this year so should see some more training time.  I have been dribbling over new kit and purchased a new jacket to replace my buffalo which has served me well for years but far too warm to keep up with Mr Daniels.

Click here to sponsor Lee: