I’m doing like, marathons and shit. Isn’t it?

I know these “give me money” things go around all the time so apologies in advance – but here goes…

I’m running 5 marathons in 5 days this September, 131 miles from Brussels to Amsterdam. It’s going to be torturous, arduous and painful-ous but at the same time, probably the greatest achievement of my life so far. I’m running with three friends and we’re aiming to do something amazing while also raising money for our nominated charity, Mary’s Meals. They provide daily meals to chronically hungry children in their local school, and in doing so, children who would otherwise often go without a meal are well fed, encouraged to attend school, and through education gain a better life for themselves.

Our £7,000 target will hopefully lead to more photos like this

We are firm believers in the notion of sustainable giving – that those in need don’t want to rely on handouts for the rest of their lives, but want the tools allow them to improve their lives themselves. A good education is surely the most fundamental of these tools. £7,000 will build a kitchen in a school in Malawi or Liberia through Mary’s Meals’ Sponsor a School scheme. Through this project, all those donating will know which school their money has gone to, and will be able to see photos of the what the money has funded. The last thing we want is for our donations to go into a black hole – 80% of all donations are spent on charity “admin” costs, or so we have read – so having this specific project as our target means that we know where our money is going, which is something I feel very strongly about.

Anyway, here are various web links to our various… things.

Donate:                http://www.justgiving.com/frombtoa

Web:                     http://www.frombtoa.com

Twitter:                http://www.twitter.com/frombtoa

Facebook:           http://www.facebook.com/pages/FromBtoA/219787328045635

Charity:               http://www.marysmeals.org.uk/what-you-can-do/sponsor-a-school/

If you can afford to donate then it would be massively appreciated, but anything is appreciated really – a retweet, a Facebook update, forwarding this on to your friends; anything.

As an added cry for help, we’re also looking for corporate sponsorships – i.e., getting companies to provide us with some of our resources so that we don’t have to pay for them ourselves. Sadly the runs don’t mean we just have to show up, run loads, then come home. We need things like flights, accommodation, a hire car, drinks, kit, shoes, nutritional supplements, a portable ice bath… you name it. So if you have any contacts who work for companies who might be prepared to chuck any of these things (or anything else you can think of) our way in exchange for some free advertising via our website and various other PR portals, then I’d be really grateful.

Anyway, I’m going to stop rambling now and leave you with pictures of my training schedule (in miles) and our route, in order to try to inspire the sympathy vote. Thanks for reading!

Mikey x

FromBtoA Training Schedule and Route... argh!