Another year…. another challenge

02 Jun 2019 Leave a comment

by Carole Gardiner in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , ,

Last year 3 crazy ladies, myself and my 2 buddies Debbie and Selena, did a zip wire ride  in central London in aid of the Motor Neurone Disease Association. As the charity is very close to my heart I suggested and arranged the whole thing.  It was a massive challenge for Selena and Debbie as both are afraid of heights. When we climbed the tower, that moved from side to side with every step, I felt very guilty when Selena was shaking with fear and Deb looked like she was going to throw up. But they were both extremely brave and we managed to raise £1104 for the charity.

zip wire challenge

This year however there is no death defying slide through the air and no coercing my terrified friends into doing something that they really don’t want to do. No this year I have been talked into running the 10k Race for life by my friend’s daughter Phoebe.

I haven’t done any serious running since I did the Bristol Half Marathon many years ago, when the weather was so vile that I was sobbing as I crossed the finish line. It wasn’t something I wanted to repeat in a hurry. But time is a greater healer, all memories of that awful day have almost been erased and it is only 10k.

Every penny raised and donated to Cancer Research can only be a good thing, so dig deep my friends and click on the link so I can’t back out of this challenge.

Carole’s Race for Life

Three Crazy Ladies

27 Aug 2018 1 Comment

by Carole Gardiner in Uncategorized Tags: , , , ,

Just when I thought the birthday fabulousness was over the tenacious trio are at it again!

While scrolling through the land of Facebook I spotted an advert for the Zip Wire London. Of course the first people I thought of was Selena and Debbie, my partners in crime for the walk over the O2 for our combined big fabulous birthdays last year. Luckily for me they had had a little tipple or two just before I suggested doing the wire and agreed to do it.

Since booking our slots a very dear friend of mine very sadly died from Motor Neurone Disease, my dad also died from this devastating illness 24 years ago. So we decided to do the zip wire as a sponsored event in aid of the Motor Neurone Disease Association and try to raise £1000. This amount of money will enable invaluable research and fund care and support for sufferers and their families. At the time of writing we have had enough donations to get us 53% of the way to our target.

As an adrenaline junky I can’t wait to do it, Selena and Debbie…. not so much. This is a massive challenge for both of them so it’ll be really fantastic if you the reader could click on the link below, donate to this fundraising event and help make a difference.

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/carolegardiner

the tenacious trio

 

 

 

Spring into 80’s action

10 Mar 2016 Leave a comment

by Carole Gardiner in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

A week ago my brother, my sister in law and I celebrated the decade that style forgot by going to a 1980’s disco in aid of a local children’s group. In our alter egos of Robocop, Adam Ant and fabulous disco chick we boogied our way to the fundraising event for Springboard Opportunity Group.

Based in North Somerset; Springboard provide support to children from birth to 5 years with addition needs. They run play sessions at Clevedon, Weston and South Weston where key people are assigned to the children , on a one to one basis, to develop a specialised play plan. They also support the children when they are ready to transition to school.

The support group Springboard 4 families offer mutual support, friendship, information sharing and advice about available benefits,  which is vital to prevent parents and families from feeling isolated.

In order to provide this essential service Springboard needs £1000 a day and they are totally reliant on charity and fundraising. Donations can be made via their website here, alternatively tickets can be bought for the Give and Win Voluntary Lottery.

When we first arrived at the disco was no one there except Mario and Luigi, we felt a bit self conscious in the main bar with the locals watching the rugby!  But very soon the place filled up with another 2 Adam Ants, a M C Hammer and lots of Wham followers in “Choose life” t shirts. Along with shoulder pads, leg warmers and garish colours we danced the night away to all the great 1980’s sounds.

More than £400 was raised by entry tickets and the raffle and we made it into the local paper.

There are more fundraising events planned; a barn dance, a fashion show and much more. If these are even half as good as the disco then a great time time will be had by all in aid of a very deserving cause.

Here are a few photos……

adam and roboadam antadam robo and chickadam roboglammc hammer

 

Doing our bit

26 Jun 2014 Leave a comment

by Carole Gardiner in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , ,

In a moment of madness I thought it would be a good idea to walk 5 miles around Bristol in the middle of the night. On the 12th July my best friend, Jane, and I are doing the Midnight Walk in aid of St. Peters Hospice.

This is Bristol’s first and only hospice for adults suffering from life limiting conditions. The original concept began in 1978 with the appointment of a community nurse, with another 4 in post by the end of that year.

St. Peter’s Lodge opened in Knowle in 1980 for inpatients with 8 beds. I worked there from 1984 to 1985 before I started my nurse training. That year was invaluable to my future career, I was taught basic nursing care, gained so much experience in communicating with patients and their families and how to deliver good holistic care.

The hospice soon outgrew the lodge and moved to a purpose built site at Bentry in 1998 and by 2013 they were treating 2,675 patients a year.

It’s a common misconception that hospice’s are just places that people with cancer go to to die, but they offer an awful lot more. Services include; community nursing, day care, physio and occupational therapy, complementary therapy, psycho/social spiritual care and nursing care in the inpatient unit or by the hospice at home service. All of this to support the patient and their family and loved ones through their journey.

But this comes at a cost, £18,000 a day and the hospice relies on gifts from wills, fundraising and a bit of NHS funding, there are quite a few St.Peter’s Hospice charity shops dotted around Bristol and they do a fantastic job raising much needed money.

The Midnight walk has been going for a number of years with the option of doing 5 or 10 miles around the centre of Bristol. As Jane and I haven’t really been keeping up with our power walk training as often as we planned to, we felt 5 miles would be challenging enough.

All we need is some generous and kind people to sponsor us and our quest. So please feel free to click on the link and part with a quid or two, we will be eternally grateful.

Since writing this post unfortunately We’ve had to pull out of this event but will be making a donation to the cause.

midnight walk

 

A cruel illness

03 May 2013 Leave a comment

by Carole Gardiner in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , ,

On this day 19 years ago I lost my dad to Motor Neurone Disease (MND).  He was diagnosed with this dreadful illness 2 years before he died,  after displaying symptoms of slurred speech and being unsteady on his feet. Unfortunately it didn’t take long for the symptoms to escalate, only months later he was in a wheelchair and he was very soon bed bound and unable to care for himself at all.

For me the worst symptom to cope with was that he was unable to speak for much of his illness, it was very frustrating for him as he couldn’t communicate without the aid of a typing machine and towards the end of his life that was almost impossible for him to use. After he died I found myself watching the video of my first wedding over and over just to hear his voice because I couldn’t remember what it sounded like.

My dad was extremely fit and walked everywhere before he got ill, this disease cruelly took his independence and life. Even though it’s been 19 years I still find his illness and death hard to deal with. I wish he could have met my sister in law and my nieces and I wish he could have seen the strapping young men my sons have grown into. But I’m not sure what he would have made of me running off and marrying a young Turk!!

087

Unbelievably there is still only one charity dedicated to MND. They seem to be making some breakthrough with finding the cause and possible treatments but still seem to be a long way off offering anything concrete.

June is MND awareness month and there are plenty of fundraising events to get involved with, so that more lovely dosh can be raised to carry on the good work. Check out the link below and let’s see if we can kick this foul disease up the butt!!

<a title=”Fundraising: Fundraising – There are many exciting ways you can raise much-needed funds for the MND Association – either as Get Yourself Involved or through your Get Your Business Involved or to Do Your Own Thing.” href=”http://www.mndassociation.org/ca6ac6fe17b24e5298a6d1ca80382399?