Velindre Walks - Brains SA Captains' Climb

Brains SA Captains Climb update and details of FREE events with Warren Gatland and Welsh Captains

As part of the Brains SA Captains Climb fundraising for Velindre’s Stepping Stones Appeal we have arranged DVD signings with the rugby boys. All proceeds from the DVD sales will be going to Velindre so please come along and support the charity. Here are details of the events with Warren Gatland and former Welsh Captains:
 
7pm Wed 1st December
Old Arcade (Cardiff) Warren Gatland, Mike Hall & Rob Howley

7pm Wed 8th December
Duke of Wellington (Cowbridge) Jon Humphreys & Ieuan Evans

7pm Thurs 9th December 
Yard (Cardiff) Bob Norster & Garin Jenkins

The DVD costs £10 and contains all the footage from the Captains Climb ITV Trilogy as well as new, previously unseen, footage. With Christmas around the corner, the DVD will make a great stocking filler for rugby enthusiasts or adventurers alike.

If you can’t make the above events you can still get your hands on this entertaining DVD at the following venues:
 
Bridgend:
Red Dragon
Ty Risha (near McArthur Glen)
White Horse (Coychurch)

Cardiff:
Barocco
Birchgrove
Cardiff Cottage
City Arms
Dempsey’s
Duke of Wellington
Goat Major
Halfway
Kitty Flynn’s
Model Inn
Old Arcade
Pendragon
Westgate
Yard

Cowbridge:
Duke of Wellington

Cross Hands:
Phoenix

Llanelli:
Stradey Arms
Thomas Arms

Penllergaer:
Old Inn

Pontardulais:
Black Horse

Swansea:
Black Boy
Hen Dderwen
Vivian

Treforest:
Pick & Shovel

Lung cancer remains a difficult disease to treat and is the most common cause of Cancer death in England & Wales. This disease affects smokers and non-smokers alike and research to improve treatment is significantly underfunded at the moment. By supporting the Brains SA Captains Climb you will help advance research into lung cancer, stage by stage and step by step.

 
Help us to help others

 

Brains SA Captains Climb DVD now on sale - an ideal Christmas stocking filler for rugby fans and adventurers alike

If you missed the Brains SA Captains Climb programme on ITV or would like to see more then the Official DVD is now available. At just £10, with all proceeds going to Velindre's Stepping Stones Appeal, this makes an ideal stocking filler for Rugby Fans or to give those who plan a trip to Kili an insight into the challenge ahead of them.

The DVD contains exclusive footage never previously released.

 
You can buy the DVD now from the following Cardiff venues with details of venues outside Cardiff to follow soon:

Brains Cardiff Pubs
Birchgrove
Cardiff Cottage
City Arms
Dempsey’s
Goat Major
Halfway
Kitty Flynn’s
Model Inn
Old Arcade
Westgate
Yard
Barocco
Duke of Wellington

WRU Shop on Westgate Street, Cardiff

Finally, I will also have details of DVD signings (book signing style) with the Captains in the next week or so.

Kilimanjaro Picture Diary Part 7

We awoke proudly with the knowledge that, yesterday, 53 members of our Captains Climb group had reached Gilman's Point (5681m) and 39 had managed to continue to the summit (5895m), Uhuru.

I had a fab night's sleep which started at about 6pm on day 5 and continued through to 7am (ish) on day 6. Today we would be walking off the mountain and the only things between us and a shower were a 21km/13mile walk and a 2 hour bus journey back to the Hotel :))

Before starting today's walk we had a thank you planned for the porters where we would sing some Welsh songs as well as show our appreciation, for all of their help and hard work, with a group tip.

Andrew Morris, Fundraising Manager at Velindre, kicks things off with a Thank You speech: 

 

 
Garin, Russel & Scott follow up with Sosban Fach (short vid)

 
We finish with Calon Lân and Siân is loving it (another short poor quality vid)

 
Onyx, the boss, also has a few words to say

 
The guys sing to us for one last time, here's a snip of their Kilimanjaro song:

 
Joesph and Joveel enjoy the farewell celebrations, I will always be grateful for their help & support. They always checked up on me, even on summit night they sought me out to make sure that I was coping with the conditions.

 

 
Siân joins in with the dancing:

 
Peter gets James involved:

 
We all try and record as much as we can of this moment, there are smiles all round. We feel remarkably good having acclimatised and descended to a breath easy altitude. The camp is a happy camp on this final morning; Rob takes pics of the dancing:

 
Emyr & Mark watch the celebrations:

 
Steve and Evan enjoy the final moments before leaving camp:

 
Julian, Richard, Paul & Peter:

 
Bleddyn & Ieuan:

 
Me with Rob & Ieuan before we start our 21km final day's walk:

 
Walking down hill continues to be easy compared with the uphill struggle of the last 5 days. Our breathing is back to normal, we are able to walk at a normal pace (fast even) and we almost feel like we have super strength (caused by the huge contrast from the debilitating effects of reduced oxygen).

As we reach lower levels on the mountain we start to enter the rain forest:

 
It's lovely to see green vegetation, Steve admires this new environment

 

 
Scott Quinnell's knees continue to be painful but he soldiers on, slowly but surely:

 
At this stage I confess "I think I can smell something and unfortunately I think it's me!" to which Scott replies, "Don't worry, you'll soon move past that stage!". There was some comfort in knowing that we were all in the same whiffy state :)

 
Peter (who should have had a mention earlier as he managed to get to Gilman's Point whilst suffering with tonsillitis!), Ben & Steve enjoying the rainforest walk:

 
Half way down we stop for lunch and get to a campsite that has running water, proper toilets and best of all SOAP!!!

I share a beautiful hand washing moment with Mike Hall who gratefully accepts soap from the dispenser that I had liberated (temporarily) from the wall in the ladies toilets. It was so nice to have clean hands, even if the rest of our bodies were still filthy, for a short amount of time we had clean hands :D

The final half of the walk is pleasant but we are all relieved to see the main entrance to the National Park.

 

 
A rather understated sign . . . .'temperatures can fall below freezing' should actually read 'temperatures can cause your hands, feet & butt to freeze!'.

 
Also at the gate there's a shop and Bob opts for chocolate and coke (as do most of us):

 
Michael, Colin, Steve & Andy having just signed out of the park:

 
Mark with Chris, Joe, Dave & Dom

 
Mark, Michael, Steve & I sit and chat about the last 6 days as well as ordinary stuff like the best and worst coffee machines that we've owned:

 
Me & some of the boys - Bleddyn Bowen, Mike Hall, Bob Norster, Eddie Butler & Paul Thorburn.

 
It's soon time to get on the bus and head back to the hotel. Mads and I agree the order in which we are going to shower, Mads goes first while I sort out the bags (well actually while I arrange for a hotel porter to bring them up to our room). And then it was my time in the shower. I undertook a very strategic wash from head to toe with the water turning a shocking brown colour at the bottom of the bath. Having felt like I'd done a good job I got out and started drying only to notice that I was still dirty, back in for a second round and finally I felt and looked clean. Happy days!!

Time to get ready for the Party!

Serengeti or Kilimanjaro beers all round and the bar is soon all out of glasses, Rob is presented with a wine glass for his beer!

 
I sit and chat with Ed, Rob & Kylie for a while and then we start mingling as more and more people arrive at the bar. Rob Howley pulls me aside to give me one of his Under Armour training tops as a gift which he suggests I should get signed by the Captains; I was really surprised and totally chuffed!

During our evening meal Ben decided to go for it like he'd never seen food in his life before!

 
The evening involved speeches and songs with Andrew Morris announcing that we had raised an amazing £330k and then read out another letter from HRH Prince Charles (I will try and get a copy and post it on here soon)!!

 
Bob takes the stage on behalf of all the trekkers to thank Huw, Velindre and everyone who made this amazing fundraising trip possible.

 
Garin sings a customised Kilimanjaro / American Pie song and John Southcombe goes with self written, Max Boyce style, tune - both have the crowd in fits of laughter!

 
Scott rounds off the evening of speeches:

 
Steve, Pete, James, Geoff, Mads & I looking nice and clean:



 
Needless to say the evening involved lots of liquid refreshments, wandering between tables to catch up with everyone and I even managed to get time to phone home for a quick chat before returning to the party which ended with Steve, James, Colin Charvis and me at about 6am chatting over our final beers (scotch, although he wanted malt, whiskey for James).

After a short sleep most of us were up sharp for breakfast, some of us were not (James & Steve!!). Today's plan was to check out of the hotel, grab some lunch and eventually end up in Kilimanjaro International Airport for our evening flight.

We arrived at Shanga for a tour of the workshops where jewellery and ornaments are made out of natural and recycled material. Shanga is located on a coffee estate and employs 31 disabled Tanzanian people; it is a self sufficient business not a charity.

"Kindness is a language that blind people see and deaf people hear"

 

 
Here we see the glass being processed before it is turned into beads for necklaces, bracelets, etc

 

 
Metal is also recycled to make ornamental dishes, ash trays, etc

 

 
After the tour we move to another part of Shanga, River House; a haven of tranquillity. I am not exaggerating when I say that we all started to recover whilst lunching and relaxing at River House. It was so calm and peaceful that you couldn't help but feel the positive effects of the environment.

Lunch was predominately a BBQ and salads although curries were also on offer.

For once we are unprepared for the sun, these plate mats are no good for protection:

 
 . . . but these napkins are far more effective!

 
The end of our journey could not have been any better, we all chill out and chat for our final few hours in Tanzania.

 

 
Having had an indulgent evening I stick to cokes but with a little effort Warren finally persuades me to have a beer and shares half of his with me :)

 
Our final experience in Tanzania was 'airport efficiency', or lack of. We arrived to a chaotic queuing, multi checking system only to hand over all our passports for what seemed to be an unlikely chance of us getting onto our transfer flight to Nairobi. We had heard that there were only 30 odd seats for 57 of us. Andrew & Kylie were due to join us as far as Nairobi where they would remain to greet the next Kili trip, arriving in 3 days time. Unfortunately they soon found out that they were not booked on the flight. Scott Gibbs was not part of the main booking as he would be returning to South Africa, he was told that he could not check in until our group had been 'sorted'. It looked like he would be returning to the Hotel with Andrew & Kylie too.

Chris & Dom liaised with the airport staff trying to understand what was happening but managed to get very little information. Our scheduled departure time came and went but eventually 10 or so passports were returned and a little while later all but 2 or 3 passports where handed over. Scott was able to check-in and most of us were asked to go through to the departure gate. Geoff Hughes had already wandered in and out of the departure lounge several times without the need for a passport and hadn't been stopped by security; now that we had our passports we were being closely inspected.

With Kylie and Andrew on their way back to the hotel, we all hoped that the remaining trekkers would get on the plane. It was only when we were all seated and buckled in that the final 3 made it, Emyr Lewis had a seat, Joe had been assigned a seat in the cockpit and Steve was given one of the Steward's seats. We were all on and that was all that mattered.

I sat with Rob Howley for most of the trip home with Ieuan joining us from Nairobi onwards. It was a quiet flight home with Rob & Warren playing cards, Ieuan catching some zzzz's as he had to go straight to work the following day and me in the middle taking stock of what had been a fantastic, once in a lifetime, trip.

I can honestly say that I loved every minute of the experience. This was my first proper fundraising challenge and I had loved it! From washing cars with the firemen, attending fundraising events at Brains pubs, running sweep stakes in work, printing posters to promote events, writing 200+ letters to suppliers, trying to learn the Didgeridoo, blogging, tweeting and much more. Brains customers, suppliers and employees have helped to make Brains' contribution exceed £55k!

Then there's the training & walking. Over the last 12 months I have had the pleasure of walking in the most beautiful parts of Wales, climbed Ben Nevis with my Dad, joined the Vale of Glamorgan Ramblers, made lifelong friends with fellow Kili trekkers, found a new found love for free weight sessions at the gym (big thank you to my gym instructor Laura Jones) as well as some killer session on the rowing machines.

Huw Evans dreamt big and delivered on all levels, with a massive fundraising success for Velindre's Stepping Stones Appeal and an amazing achievement to get 18 players onto Kili along with 39 other participants. I think the group realised, very early on, that the whole experience was special and we all bonded because of it. There were no cliques we all walked and ate with whoever happened to be next to us at any point in time; on the mountain we were all the same. All experiencing the same lack of home comforts, same cold evenings, same food, same breathlessness, same generosity from porters, same extreme exertion on summit night and the very same exhaustion on completing the summit attempt.

We are now back and I will finish this blog with what I found to be a very humbling conversation. At the book launch of Wales Rugby Captains (by Alun Wyn Bevan & Huw Evans) I spoke with Sue Evans, Huw's wife. Sue was the inspiration for the trip, when Huw found out that Sue had non-smoking related Lung Cancer he soon decided that Velindre needed help and pledged to raise £1,000,000 for lung cancer research. Having listened to Huw's recount of the conditions on Kili and the affects of altitude on our bodies Sue had pointed out that it was as if he was describing the affects of lung cancer and chemotherapy! It made me realise that however hard each of us had found the Kili adventure, we were always able to choose to walk off the mountain to get better. Lung Cancer sufferers depend on modern medicine to cure their illness and the money raised by the Brains SA Captains Climb will help advance the research into improved lung cancer treatments. If you haven't already done so and wish to help us conquer this disease then please donate through my JustGiving site http://www.justgiving.com/BrainsWalks

Thanks for all the help and support that I have received over the last 12 months. There are a few more Captains Climb activities coming up which I will continue to post on VelindreWalks.com.

The Brains SA Captains Climb of Kilimanjaro is over and I feel extremely privileged to have been part of it.

Ciao!

Ogwen

 

An Evening with International Rugby Stars (inc. Zinzan Brooke, Scott Gibbs & Jonathan Davies)

In November Velindre will be holding their first fundraising dinner based in London. I will be a Captains Climb Event in aid of their Stepping Stones Appeal.

It’s a rugby themed event just before Wales face New Zealand, with Zinzan Brooke, Jonathan Davies, Scott Gibbs, Robert Jones, Michael Owen and others.

I would be extremely grateful if you could please forward a link to this page to anyone you think may be interested in attending.

To book your place please contact:
Velindre Fundraising on info@velindrefundraising.com or telephone 029 2031 6211
Donna Glover on donnapglover@aol.com or telephone 07787 843800
Or Christine Wilmot on 07973 329859

Fire Fighters help fundraise for the Brains SA Captains Climb, it's all wet and wild in Ely :)

Once again the South Wales Fire Brigade get behind the Brains SA Captains Climb, this time Ely Fire Fighters host a Car Wash for us. Fully branded in Velindre T-shirts the fun started at 10am.

Some of our customers wanted to help out:

We soon have a steady stream of cars going through the station:

Washing is thirsty work and one of my good friends, Lisa, managed to persuade one of the Firemen, Patrick, to make a brew through some direct banter . . . Patrick got the last laugh:

 

Actually we all had a giggle, Lisa's a good sport and knew she'd been beat on that one!

 

Another happy customer:

 

The guys carry out a tough job but they always manage to keep a smile on their faces, someone is always at the rough end of a joke or quip:

Some of our customers were looking forward to being 'hosed down by a fireman' (an actual quote from one of the lady customers)

And then suddenly the alarm sounded and they were off on a shout. The boys didn't hang about:

They didn't really know what to expect and for the first time I realised that it must be tough to keep going out to the unexpected, not knowing what you'll be faced with.

We were also really lucky that the Chief Fire Officer of South Wales Fire & Rescue Service, Andy Marles, was able to join us for a little while as he wanted to show his support for the Velindre fundraiser.

Oliver is our next little helper, Oli's a big fan of fire fighters and stations and came dressed for the job:

Oli gets a full tour of the Fire Engine:

Station Manager, Peter Jury, explains that one of the engines was able to return to the station as the incident was less serious than initially thought:

Peter shows us that the call involved many fire stations and equipment as a light aircraft was showing signs of problems on the approach to Cardiff Airport (it's not all house fires and cats in trees):

Oli continues to enjoy the whole experience:

And the day ends with a water fight of course:

After a hard morning washing cars, we clear up and group together to sort out the collection.

We managed to collect a fantastic £355 in 3 hours and the guys were kind enough to give £200 to Velindre with £155 going to the Fire Fighters Charity.

A big thank you to; Patrick Walsh for co-ordinating everything at the station; Peter Jury for spending so much time showing Oliver around the station and allowing us to take over the station with our car wash; everyone else on the watch who were so happy to help us with the car wash - you were all great!

So I have one confession to make before I head off for Kili, I have failed my Didgimanjaro challenge. You may recall that I set myself the challenge of learning to circular breath and play the didgeridoo. After 3-4 months I have failed! You may recall that in the case of failure I needed to wash 5 cars - having participated in 2 car washes and washed way more than 5 cars I am hoping that my Didgimanjaro sponsors will be satisfied that I have paid my debt. I hate failing but I guess I can't win 'em all!! Ciao for now, catch you next on the way to Kili :)
 

Brains’ Captains Climb contribution tops £50K

Yesterday was an exciting day at Brains as we were able to announce that we had reached our £50k Sponsorship and fundraising goal for the Brains SA Captains Climb and Stepping Stones Appeal. Warren Gatland and Captains Rob Jones, Bob Norster, Andy Moore, Eddie Butler and Paul Thorburn joined us to help promote further fundraising. This blog is a mix of the Brains Press Release and a few words of my own. Huw Evans came along to photograph the milestone and half of the photos in this blog are his :)

The former captains, along with Wales coach Warren Gatland, will set off on their attempt to summit Mount Kilimanjaro on Monday 6 September, and with an overall target of £1million for the Stepping Stones Appeal Brains’ contribution will go some way to helping them achieve it.

The climb is the brainchild of WRU photographer Huw Evans, whose wife Sue was diagnosed with non-smoking related lung cancer in 2008. All money raised will go to the Stepping Stones Appeal at Velindre Cancer Centre in Cardiff.

Richard Davies, Sales and Marketing Director at Brains said: “The money has been raised through a combination of sales of our specially brewed ‘Up and Over’ charity beer, various pub events and head office fundraising. Our staff and customers have really got behind the charity so thanks must go to them for their support.”

Andrew Morris, Head of Fundraising at Velindre said: “The contribution Brains have made to Velindre Cancer Centre’s Stepping Stones Appeal is staggering – they have been heavily involved throughout the whole project, producing a special beer, helping with venues to host Information events, and each of the Captains has been adopted by a Brains pub. As well as contributing a magnificent £50,000, Brains have made a massive contribution to help raise the profile of lung cancer research”

You can still support you favourite Captain by visiting www.justgiving.com/brainssacaptainsclimb, or you can make a £2 donation by texting CLIMB to 70099, you will be charged £2 plus 1 message at your standard network rate. Velindre will receive a minimum of £1.72 from each message.

The Captains will be taking on this gruelling challenge to raise funds for the Stepping Stones Appeal, which is raising money for lung cancer research at Velindre Cancer Centre. Lung cancer is the most common form of cancer death in Wales and it is estimated by 2015 there will be a 30% increase in the most common forms of cancer in Wales. Although lung cancer is the most common form of cancer death in Wales, lung cancer research has been relatively poorly supported compared to other higher profile forms of cancer.

It was great to spend some time with the Captains and even though Huw decided to embarrass me with the Chez Lounge pose on top of the barrels I actually quite like the end result and it makes for a great memento of this very special fundraising event.

ITV were also present and even though they failed to mention Velindre or the Stepping Stones Appeal and moved Kilimanjaro from Tanzania to Kenya at least they gave the Climb a bit more publicity which is always helpful, here's the link to ITVplayer http://www.itv.com/wales/captains-climb79197/ . . . Ooh and by the way, as a group, we have raised hundreds of thousands for Velindre's Stepping Stones Appeal ;0)

Blisters are doin' it for themselves, standin' on their own two feet . . . .

A few weeks ago I was fortunate enough to meet Miles Hilton-Barber.  Miles is an inspirational person, he is also a blind adventurer, public speaker, after dinner speaker, corporate speaker and much more. He was generous enough to talk at Chloe's Climb Evening of Inspiration. I'm pretty sure Chloe will soon be the youngest Welsh woman to climb Kilimanjaro, she starts her walk on August 25th with her Dad Jeff Smith and they are fundraising for another worthwhile cause, Barnado's.

It was an evening where I had to pinch myself to realise that I wasn't dreaming. I also met Richard Parks and Rosie Swale Pope during the evening. Miles was keen to hear all about the Brains SA Captains Climb as well as my preparation; he was also generous with his help and advice.

Yesterday I started to apply one of the valuable tips he gave me - prepare and harden your feet with Surgical Spirit before and during the walk.

Initially I was somewhat sceptical about this advice as I didn't want to introduce any further risk to me feet, following the Firewalk.

So what changed my mind? I was browsing the aisles of Boots picking up some last minute essentials (Johnson's baby wipes, Compeed Blister Plasters, Imodium, Nurofen, etc) when I noticed White Spirit on the shelf. I picked it up and proceeded to read the label including it's usage - "To harden skin on hands or feet: soak cotton wool and gently rub in a circular motion". So into the basket it went and I've just completed my first hardening session.

Having googled for instructions it seems that 14 days is the minimum prep time, I'm just in time, we leave for Tanzania in 20 days. I will apply the spirit to my feet every night from now on and monitor its affect. I am also keen to do this following three days walking in the Beacons. After several blister free months of walking in my lovely Meindl hiking boots I received my first few blisters this weekend. My feet were the victims of 3 full days of walks in which they endured damp and slightly sweaty conditions. After each walk my feet looked like they had been in water for some time, white and wrinkly. It was only a matter of time before it would inevitably affect me.

Miles said that every time we take a break, from walking, I should take off my socks and boots, wipe my feet dry, preferably with White Spirits and generally make sure that I look after my feet for the duration of the trip. After applying the first dose of White Spirit the skin on my feet is tingling, hopefully this sensation will reduce as my skin toughens up (rock on post Kili pedicure!)

In less than three weeks I will start to find out if all my preparation is enough to make it to the summit of Kili. It also means there's not too much time left for you to sponsor me, if you want to support us then please visit http://www.JustGiving.Com/BainsWalks or alternatively if you prefer to send a cheque then please make it payable to S. A. Brain & Co Ltd (I will place it in the Brains Velindre fund) and post it to:

Ogwen Evans
S. A. Brain & Co Ltd
The Cardiff Brewery
Crawshay Street
Cardiff
Cf10 5DS

Help us raise £1,000,000 for Velindre's Stepping Stones Appeal, please give whatever you can afford as every pound will make a difference to Lung Cancer Research and Treatment.

I've made the Tech press thanks to Vista Retail, check it out !

Vista Retail have been great supporters and not only sponsored some of my equipment but they have been keen to help publicise the Brains SA Captains Climb, check out this article in the trade press (click on the image to open the article):

It's all about Fire . . . . Fire Fighters & Firewalking, what a combo!

When I found out that a few of our pubs were hosting 2 charity fire walks I thought I'd get involved by promoting the events. However, my sister had different plans all together, her response was " We are sooooo doing that for our Birthday this year!". For those that don't know Siân is a year older than me and we both celebrate our birthdays in June. I agreed to get onboard with my only condition being that we wait until after the Ben Nevis walk with Dad.

When I told my rambling buddies Jan had the fab idea of asking South Wales Fire Fighters to get involved with the fundraising . . . mainly due to the fire link . . . bit tenuous but genius. So I started contacting the local Fire Stations and 3 were up for helping out. We came up with a plan to hold car washes at the fire stations which is a popular fundraising activity taht they do an a regular basis hroughout the summer. Also, two charities would benefit from the fundraising because the money would be split between the Fire Fighters Charity and Velindre's Stepping Stones Appeal.

The first car wash took place at Cowbridge Fire Station and fire fighter David (Dai) Thomas did a fab job of rallying the troops and getting everything organise. Here are some pics from the day:

Dai kicks off the car wash with a hose down of the first car

Some of my colleagues came to help out at the car wash, Kerry get's stuck in with the fire fighters:

We are then seconded to promotional work :)

The Brains marketing team, Ffion & Nicola, take over the promotional work while Kerry & I help with the car washing:

 

 

Another volunteer, Mike, comes to help us in the afternoon:

Before we pack up it's time to water the Fire Station allotment: 

 

The day raised a grand total of £390 and the guys were kind enough to give £260 towards the Brains SA Captains Climb. 

It was then time to start getting anxious about the fire walk. Unfortunately our first planned walk, at the Hanbury (Caerleon), was delayed so we moved it to the Ty Risha whilst the Hanbury underwent a refurbishment. 

The walk took place last Wednesday, June 14th, and we were joined by:

Kirkland Davies - Brains' Head of Retail Operations
Mark Power – Manager of the Ty Risha
Kevin Grabham – Assistant Manager of the Ty Risha
Simon Curwood – Paranormal Investigator and Ghost Hunter
Siân Lima - My Sister
Ogwen Evans - Moi

David Briscombe took us away for an hour prior to the walk and talked us through the method and gave us the confidence to walk. I can't share the details with you but I walked in the private room very apprehensive and came out ready to walk the walk.

Here are some pics from the evening:

Siân & I before our talk with David, Siân was extremely relaxed about the whole situation. Me? Not so much!

Before we walk one of David's team carries out a test walk:

First up our Paranormal Investigator, Simon Curwood (later I found out that Simon was married to one of my old school friends, Miranda Masella (now Curwood of course))

Next up, Kirkland Davies my colleague and partner in crime at company events: 

And then it was my turn! 

I was a little unlucky as a small piece of charcoal stuck to the bottom of my foot and Ii could feel that I had a small burn, other than that all fine!

Then it was time for Siân to have a go:

Cool, Calm & Collected.

Next up Kevin: 

And finally Mark: 

We had all successfully walked the bed of hot coals. Beforehand I had been adamant that I was only walking once, but, either side of me, I could hear my fellow walkers start to voice their enthusiasm for a second walk. I was torn between wanting to walk again and minimising the risk of affecting my chances of going to Kili. After a few seconds I was confident that I could do it again without any issues so we were all in for another walk:

It was weird, my first walk felt hot but the second wasn't at all.

We all congratulated each other and posed for a group shot:

Click here to see all of the Firewalking pics

Our fundraising total has not been confirmed yet but it will be well over £1000 once all the money comes in.

The next Car Wash is at Roath Fire Station on Saturday 14th August followed by Ely Fire Station on Saturday 28th August. I need 5 - 10 volunteers to help at each of these car washes-  are you up for helping? It's such a fun day and there will be free pop and biscuits available all day. I'm also pretty sure you'll get a chance to wear a fire fighters uniform - more fun than you can imagine :) Please contact me if you can spare a few hours to help with the fundraising.

VelindreFundraising.tv is launched

I've just returned from the launch event for http://www.Velindefundraising.tv. The site aims to give people an insight into Velindre by publishing videos from Supporters, Sponsors, Patrons, Staff as well as promoting News & Events.

I realised tonight that when I walk into Velindre I go there without a worry in the world but many who visit for the first time, as patients or friends/family of patents, arrive there feeling apprehensive, worried and often scared. Many of these videos express a reassuring constant that Velindre's caring and supportive staff quickly put people at ease and hopefully if new patients, friends & family can use this TV site to get an insight to Velindre, prior to visiting, then they will arrive armed with this reassuring message.

Check it out, quite a few rugby captains and Kili trekkers have contributed as well as staff, patients, friends and family of patients. Click the pic below to link to the website: