A VERY Worthy Cause

Here’s a little story from the keyboard of my younger brother Stuart, internet supremo who is still available for all types of techy freelance work. These are all his own words (hence the absence of any of my trivial and annoying observations) so please take a moment to read and consider whether you’d like to get involved in any way. Take it away Stuart…

“I'm writing to spread the word about a charity I'm involved in running and to seek your sponsorship for a cycle ride I'm doing to raise some awareness and some funds for the charity.

So what's it all about?

A couple of years ago, a colleague and I did some work to establish a new online learning resource providing cancer nursing education. You can visit it online at

http://www.cancernursing.org/

To begin with, this was a UK-based voluntary project comprising health professionals and e-learning experts (that's me and my pals) aiming to provide high quality online courses for health professionals and carers of people living with cancer throughout the world. The project was so successful that we subsequently set up a charitable limited company in order to develop it into something long term and sustainable. To date, over 5,600 health professionals from over 60 different countries have registered as learners with the site.

What would I like you to do?

Most importantly, I'd like you to help me spread the word about the work we are doing. If you know somebody that might be interested in this sort of project (as a learner or a donor or a carer) please let them know the website address. If you'd like me to send you some leaflets or promotional pens, drop me a line (through the website) and I'll send you a little parcel.

I'd also like to ask you to sponsor me. In a few weeks time, I'm doing a bike ride from the West coast of the UK, in Northern England, to the East. That's 146 miles in 2 days. The Americans and Aussies amongst you may find such distances paltry. The challenge is really in the terrain: it's bleak and it's hilly.

I've set up an online fundraising page where anyone with a credit or debit card can make a pledge or donation in sponsorship. The page can be found at:

http://www.justgiving.com/stuartcycles

I'd really appreciate it you would consider sponsoring me to do this trip. If you'd like to support me but prefer not to donate online, drop me a line and we'll consider more traditional means.

This sort of fundraising will not make or break us, although it will gain us good press in our local area (to add to the good press we already enjoy in professional journals in the UK, the US and Australia). We're confident that from a range of sources, and through providing a range of services, the charity will be self-sustaining into the long term in a couple of years, and that we'll be running it as our day jobs. That's the dream.

In the meantime, please take a minute to think about whether you can help spread the word and/or sponsor me for a small amount.”

Stuart, as I said on your fundraising page, I’ll be with you every pedal of the way… in spirit. If only it didn’t involve so much lycra and funny helmets…shit, I promised I wouldn’t be trivial or annoying. All the best with the bike ride and see you soon. We can do a full update here on your performance in a couple of weeks time.