Me and my pink exercise bike...

A few tips for fundraising and training from June, one of our Nottingham team...

“I am sure most fellow Kilimanjaro climbers will agree that although tackling a 19,000ft mountain will no doubt be tough, our fundraising target is also a big challenge! After setting up a Just Giving webpage, it quickly became apparent that this alone would not be enough to help me reach my target. So, I started looking on the Be.Macmillan website for fundraising ideas, and came across lots of make-your-own fundraising materials which were fantastic and gave me lots of inspiration.

One of the pre-made posters was designed for a pottery event, with the slogan “We’re Potty About Raising Money”. Inspired by this, I organised a fundraiser at Creations Pottery Cafe in Loughborough at the end of May (to coincide with half-term), where people came along for pottery painting, face-painting and a toy tombola. The owner kindly donated a proportion of sales to Macmillan. There was a lot of mess but a lot of fun, and kids and adults alike had a great time “going potty for Macmillan”. A few customers shared their stories about the great work that Macmillan nurses have done for them, which made me even more proud to be part of a great cause.

That same weekend I roped in some friends to don green wigs and help out with a cycling challenge in our Loughborough Boots store, as well as helping me run the raffle/tombola stand I set up. With help from the store, I took along a (pink!) exercise bike which I placed at the entrance with a couple of collection buckets.


June and friends during their Loughborough fundraising

We each did 10 kilometre stints, and altogether we covered 110km. All whilst enjoying the lovely aromas coming from a nearby fish market van! And we also managed to get into the local newspaper.


Coverage in the Shepshed Echo newspaper

Overall so far I have raised around £2,000.

It still feels like I have a long way to go so I have a couple more cycling events planned with bigger Boots stores over the summer as I really think it’s a great way to train and raise money at the same time. From experience, I think that the sillier, sweatier and more tired you look, the more willing people are to donate!

I hope everyone’s training and fundraising is going well and I look forward to reading about it on this blog”.

Taking training to another level



Katy with Snowdon behind

The sun has been shining, and that seems to have been inspiring trekkers to up their training over the past few days. Not content with climbing one of the national three peaks, Katy Barley tackled both Snowdon and Scafell Pike. Here is her report...

"On Thursday I went up Snowdon with my uncle, we went up the Miners Path which is the route I normally take. However this time it was so misty it seemed like a completely different climb! It was very challenging, as you could not see exactly where you were going, but we made it to the top – slightly disappointed that it was so cloudy you could not see the normal magnificent view – especially as it was my uncle’s first time. But after a tea break we were about to set off down and the clouds amazingly disappeared, so quickly, revealing my favourite view! We then came back down the Pyg Track. Very happy with our successful day!


Top of Scafell Pike

Mission accomplished

48 hours later my friends and I decided to take a road trip to the Lake District, and we climbed Scafell Pike on Saturday. The weather was amazing, so sunny! The climb was much harder than I expected, as I thought it would be similar to Snowdon, but I found it much more challenging. We made it to the top in just over two hours, which was a great feeling. We decided to walk from our hostel so the whole walk ended up being over 15 miles long.

We were three very tired people at the end … and slightly sunburnt!

The feeling of completing both walks was amazing. I am getting extremely excited for Kilimanjaro!! I am also really looking forward to our training weekend in the Peak District and meeting everyone! 

I hope everyone’s training is going well, Katy"

Neil Jones
Julie Lawrence