Charity Head Shave

This is only a week away now & I am really looking forward to doing it although a little nervous about organising the event itself.

Fundraising total to date stands at £582 – £82 over target, so anything more that I raise from here on is a bonus. I cannot thank people enough for their generosity & for taking the time to learn about Hepatitis C. I have personally spoken to nearly everyone that has donated money & have given out leaflets & put up posters etc. So this event isn’t just about raising money, but more importantly, spreading the knowledge necessary to bring Hepatitis C into the public domain & hopefully under some sort of control.

What I find frightening, is that out of the 200 or so people that I’ve personally spoken to over these past few weeks, only 3 said that they knew something about it & their knowledge wasn’t totally accurate. At least 2 people told me that they had been vaccinated against the virus & were shocked when I told them that there isn’t one. And the classic, was one woman who said “I don’t’ have to worry ‘coz I always use a condom!”

The landlady & friends at the pub have been so helpful & supportive. Julie (landlady) has donated a couple of prizes so that I can do a raffle, which we are going to start tonight. I made up a poster & she also agreed to put up copies in the pub for me. She is also going to provide a bucket so that we can collect any last minute donations on the night. Dave (head barman) is not only going to do the dirty deed for me, but has kindly agreed to shave any gents hair for a charitable donation too! Darren & Rachel have been fantastic support, both with ideas & financially; not only have they sponsored me very generously, but Rachel has promised to help me fund nibbles on the night & has helped me think of ways to make the event more successful. And then there's Pauline & Kevin who again, have both sponsored me & supported me personally & Pauline will be bringing her video camera on the night so that we can get a video on YouTube & some pictures of the event. Thank you so very much guys – you’re wonderful!!

I can’t write this post without mentioning my work colleagues. Since I made the announcement in last month’s staff meeting, I have had a tremendous amount of support, through sponsorship, genuine interest & even being allowed to organise a lunchtime seminar for everyone. So a huge thank you to everyone at ESI Ltd – I couldn’t wish for a lovelier bunch of people to work with!

There are so many people to whom I should say thank you, but I just can't list you all, so I raise my glass (of water!) to each & every one of you for your kindness, compassion & generosity!

Raquel from the Hepatitis C Trust has done her part too. She managed to get me an interview on Radio Shropshire, which went out live on their breakfast show last Monday. It was a telephone interview with no preparation between the presenter & myself so I hadn’t got much idea as to the kind of questions I was going to be asked. However, the feedback I got from people who have heard it is that it went well, I came over as being confident & managed to put across a few important points. Some have told me that I am a natural & I must admit, I did enjoy it very much. I have always enjoyed being able to impart knowledge to people & am seriously thinking about trying to find myself a future role in raising health awareness. I managed to get the interview on cassette & with a lot of help from a friend (that’d be you Nick!) I might be able to post it on the net – will let you know if we manage to do it!

Raquel also managed to stir the interest of my local paper (Shropshire Star) & a reporter rang me last Thursday to get some more detail so that she could write an article & a photographer came & took a few snaps yesterday too. (I even managed to educate him & give him a leaflet to take away!!) The article may well be in today’s paper so I’m off out later to get a copy. If it is, I’ll scan it & post it here for everyone to read – just hope the reporter has taken down all the facts correctly, but if there are any discrepancies, I can always write a letter of clarification & get it published in a future edition.

More on this after the event so watch this space……………