3 days! What (apparently) I am to expect...

So just 3 days until i head off to Peru for my Andes challenge! I have been told a bit more information from the tour operators and some fellow Kilimanjaro trekkers as to what to expect so thought i'd share a bit here (and then can compare when I am back with what it was REALLY like!!!)


The trail takes me through the sacred valley in the Peruvian Andes to the Lares region, a remote area which is rarely touched by other tourists. We are told we are very privileged to be able to spend time in the area and will meet some wonderful locals and get a real insight into Peruvian life! 


Altitude - no one can train for altitude and it is likely that most if not the whole group will experience some form of altitude sickness but apparently this can (and is most likely to happen) on arrival into Cusco! Hopefully sickness, headaches and nausea will pass quickly, but I think I will just need to grin and bear it! 


Apparently the food will be wonderful - lots of local authentic Peruvian stews, fish and lamb - and if you know me, I will be definitely making sure I fill up and try pretty much everything I can (i'll use the excuse that I need the energy...)


So a typical day will involve lovely early mornings... 5:30 wake up, tents cleared and everything packed ready for breakfast and the daily briefing at 6.30, ready to head off by 7! Our trekking days consist of approximately 7 hours trekking a day, passing some amaing inca sites and ruins, stunning scenery and high mountain peaks whilst we hike up and down the mountain passes in the remote region. Day 6 will involve hiking up the mountain of Hatun Paso, our highest peak at 4600m (15,000ft). 


Day 7, our main trekking days are complete and our hard trekking efforts are to be rewarded with a visit to Machu Picchu on a breath taking train journey to Aguas Calientes. From here we move to Machu Picchu, known to be one of the most beautiful and enigmatic ancient sites in the world. Macchu Picchu is actually one of the lowest points of the whole trip and I have been told that it will feel such a relief to be there as altitude will be much less and it really is a rewarding day once the trekking is complete. 


Our final day finishes with our celebration meal with the group and a chance to reminisce about the weeks trek!


Everything sounds wonderful and although its going to be really challenging, i can tell it will be one of the most rewarding things I will ever do. 


I will update you on the challenge when I return on the 28th! xxx

2 weeks to go!

In 2 weeks time I am off to Heathrow to catch a plane to Madrid, to catch a plane to Lima to catch a plane to Cusco! Not too excited about this part - I can't stand flying so this part of the trek must have completely slipped past me when signing up! But all adds to the challenge I guess so must grin and bear it!

I am amazed at the generousity of all my family, friends and strangers who have helped me reach yet again a massive target (now over £7,250) for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust. This will give me a huge boost when i'm out there so thanks again to all of you

I have some more info on the trek "schedule" so I will update you all on this in another post a bit later!

Hit the £7000 mark!

Today I hit the £7000 mark for this years sponsorship and event fundraising for the CF Trust. I am sincerely grateful to all of you that have helped me reach this figure for a second time in memory of our beautiful friend Kirsty. Cystic Fibrosis remains the UK's most common life threatening hereditary diseases and relies on support from the public to help research into finding a cure.

Every penny counts and I am so pleased that so many of you have helped out by sponsoring my challenges, coming to our events and spreading the word about Cystic Fibrosis.

If you'd still like to sponsor, please go to www.virginmoneygiving.com/EmilyShimellForCF

Under four weeks until I head off on my trek, more information about my trek will be up soon!

All my love xxx

Gene Therapy Trials To Go Ahead

So pleased to hear the news that the groundbreaking gene therapy treatment trials will be going ahead with phase 2. After huge uncertanties over the last year of whether the CF Trust could reach the funding to enable to next stage to go forward, the money has finally been raised by fundraisers, donations and medical funds. This is a huge step forwards towards finding a cure for Cystic Fibrosis.

Click here to go to the full story on the CF Trust website >>

RACE NIGHT TOTAL!

Thanks to everyone who came along to our Race Night on Saturday evening. We had a fun filled evening with horse races, beautiful food, great company, a bar, a great raffle and loads of wonderful prizes, we sold out of entry spaces, and raised a grand total profit of £1510.98 for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust.

Thanks to all of our race night runners, our chef, bar staff, coordinators, raffle ticket sellers and all of you who came along and supported the event, our race sponsors and companies who donated prizes. This has been our biggest event organised and biggest amount raised for a much deserved charity, the CF Trust.

RACE NIGHT REGISTRATION

Please see below post for more information on the race night.

You can now register for the race night via the link RACE NIGHT REGISTRATION on the right!

Before you register, please take a look at the owners and jockeys page. Own a horse or be a jockey! See your name on the big screen! Each winning horse owner and jockey for each race wins a bottle of wine!

You can purchase these at the same time as you pay for entry. Just add £1 per horse and per jockey onto the fundraising page and tell us on the registration page which horse/s you'd like in the comment box during registration! Owners and Jockeys can also be for those unable to attend the event so how about turning your boyfriend into a jockey for the evening or even buying your wife a horse?!

We look forward to seeing you on the night. Please note our last event sold out and people were unfortunately turned away! We do expect a similar number to register this time around so please book early to avoid disappointment.

Race Night 3rd March

The race night is going to be held on the 3rd March and will be held at Pinder Hall, Cookham. I'll try to explain to you how the race night works and I hope it gets you excited for a night of adrenaline pumping, horse racing, face smiling and yummy food!

The race night consists of 8 races. Each race has 8 horses and 8 jockeys riding them (Simple!). For each race, you can choose the horses you want to win and buy your tote tickets at the tote table. Once the betting is closed, its time to stand back and watch the race will full commentary and cheer on your horse over the finish line.

The total taken on each race will be split 50/50. 50% towards the charity, 50% into the winners pot. The pot is then split between all the winners so look forward to coming away with some winnings on the night!

We will be serving hot supper for all attendees half way through the night, wonderfully catered by Vanessa (my mum). (And for those who have had any food by Vanessa before, you know thats a real good reason to get down on the night!)

The night will cost £6 entry per person which includes your supper.

Each race will be sponsored by a local company, group, individual etc. in return for advertising on the night (on the race screen, on the sponsors table, in leaflets etc) so if you think you maybe able to help with this, please message me!

There will also two bottles of wine up for grabs on each race for the owners of each winning horse and horse jockey. Its just £1 to buy a horse or jockey and then a 1 in 8 chance of winning! These will be sold in advance of the races (if you would like a race sheet and think you can get family/friends or take this to work and get some filled out, i'd be very grateful!)

This night is going to be a real fun evening with a great raffle, a special race where you have the chance of naming the horse anything you like (your wife/partners name? Your own name? anything goes!) a great value bar and supper, so please come and support my last event and help raise vital funds for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust.

For all of you who attended the Mega Music Quiz Night, I hope you had a really good night and hope to see you again at the Race Night! 

Volunteers Needed, Bristol, 11th February

I have kindly been given a day bag packing to fundraise for the CF Trust at Tesco, Kellaway Avenue, Bristol on 11th February 2012.

I will be needing as many volunteers as possible for the day and hoping that together we can raise around £300 for the Trust. I have a few friends who have offered to help but to raise as much cash as possible, we need to be able to cover as many cashouts as we can and be able to give breaks and lunch to those volunteering! If you think you could spare a couple of hours on the Saturday, I would be ever so grateful. 

Please let me know if you'd like to help out and I will get more information to you as soon as I can. Either email me - emily.shimell@gmail.com, comment on this blog, or contact me via my facebook/facebook fundraising groups. Many thanks

2012, 4 months to go!

So its January 2012, meaning only 4 months now until my trek in the Andes! I have set my targets and goals for training including lots of gymming, swimming and hill walking along with further fundraising events for the CF Trust - our Race Night will be held on the 3rd March in Cookham, Berkshire.

If you don't know already, I am climbing to over 15,000 ft in the Andes, a 6 day trek for up to 8 hours a day, through mountain passes, Peruvian forests and villages, to the top of Mount Hatun Paso and finally to Macchu Pichu. I aim to raise £4,000 for the charity and hope that you can support my fundraising by sparing any pennies you may have and sponsoring my trek! You can do this by visiting www.virginmoneygiving.com/EmilyShimellForCF or via the link at the top of this blog.

I greatly appreciate every penny and hope that we can all work together to see off CF.

Love on the Transplant List

A couple of days ago, a show was aired on BBC Three called "Love on the Transplant List". This programme follows Kirstie Mills (the girl I previously posted a link to, to her blog), a 21 year old girl who lives with Cystic Fibrosis. Its shows her extraordinary experience of living on the transplant list, the fear and uncertainty, the realities of having constant pain, taking endless medications, relying on oxygen machines 24 hours a day to breathe and doing all of this whilst planning for her wedding. Please try and watch when you have some time, it gives a very slight insite into how it must be living with Cystic Fibrosis and really reiterated the reasons behind our fundraising efforts. Click link below to go to BBC iPlayer. (Available until 5th December)


http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/watch#p00m1v39

Mega Music Quiz Night Total!

Thanks to everyone who came along on Saturday night and supported our Mega Music Quiz Night for the CF Trust. After all costs taken (bar/licence/hall) we raised a total profit of £1300 on the night which is much better than hoped for and so a massive thanks to all who put teams together, bought drinks/raffle tickets, made donations (including the winning team who donated their £100 prize and the winner of the heads/tails game!) and to all supporting companies who donated the great raffle prizes we had on offer!

More details about our next event will be announced soon,

Thanks again

Emily & Family

SOLD OUT! Mega Music Quiz Night

A massive thanks to all the teams who have signed up to take part in our Mega Music Quiz Night this Saturday. We are now closed for registration as we have filled all the team spaces available! 

Because of the huge amount of interest for this event, we will be holding another Mega Music Quiz next year. We are also running a Race Night on the 3rd March 2012. If you would like to register your interest in either of these events, please use the registration page on the right of this blog so I can email you details when more information becomes available!

Thanks again to all and look forward to seeing you on Saturday!

Cystic fibrosis cure under threat from £6m cash crisis

Funds dry up as scientists pinpoint effective treatment for cystic fibrosis - 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/sep/18/cystic-fibrosis-cure-cash-threat

Please help us do as much as possible towards this massively important cause to help save the lives of thousands of babies and children.

THE MEGA MUSIC QUIZ NIGHT

Our next fundraiser, The Mega Music Quiz Night, will be held on the 22nd October 2011 at Pinder Hall, Cookham. The quiz night will have music for all ages and involve music trivia, name that tune, picture and lyric rounds, a prize of £100 for the winning team and much more! We will also be holding a raffle and a good value bar and there will be nibbles for your team table!

The doors will open at 7:30 for the quiz to start promptly at 8:00pm. To register your team, go to the "MEGA MUSIC QUIZ NIGHT REGISTRATION PAGE" on the right of this blog. Spaces are limited so please register your team asap. A team can consist of up to 6 members and there is a £20 entry fee for each team, proceeds of which all goes to the Cystic Fibrosis Trust. Remember, you don't need to decide on team members just yet, so you can register a team and decide on members and numbers at a later date!

The night is hopefully going to be one of our biggest fundraisers yet and if any of you have experienced David's music quizzes before, you know you are going to be in for a treat!

We look forward to seeing you on the 22nd!

Thank you

http://www.lloydstsblondon2012.co.uk/en/carrytheflame/Nomination/?nid=0363e5d1-4650-41d3-88e2-b2389cbb5ce1

I would like to give a massive thank you to Harriet Jamieson, Kirsty's cousin, who has kindly nominated me as a torch bearer for the 2012 London Olympics for my charity work for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust. It really means a lot to me to have such kind words said and I hope that this can help with gaining the much needed recognition for the charity.

£300 from our Charity Car Wash!

Thanks to everyone who came along to our Charity Car Wash on Saturday, where we managed to raise a whopping £300 in the 4 hours of washing. Comments were made on the quality of cleaning we did (one guy even went home to get his other car!) and suprisingly we were even trusted with cleaning a beautiful Aston  :)

The weather turned out really well after the torrential downpours on Friday, hopefully the guilt trip from Lucy and Joe stood redirecting traffic from Tesco car park doesn't turn against us at the next one!

Sounds like everyone had a really good day and hopefully will be running another in the upcoming months, more info to come...

Introduction to my Peruvian Andes Trek 2012

Please click on the image for a bigger view!

Charity Car Wash, Bristol

Kirstie's Road to Transplant Blog

I urge you to take a few minutes to read through this young ladies blog. She is 21 years old and living with CF. This blog gives you a glimpse from a first persons view of living with CF and her desperate struggle to find a lung transplant that will save her life. Please take time to look at the various pages including her "New Lung Task List" which I hope will make you realise some of the things you may sometimes take for granted.

http://kirstie-2ndchanceatlife.blogspot.com/

Bishops Cleeve Street Fair

Yesterday was the 2011 Bishops Cleeve Street Fair, just north of Cheltenham. The Street fair ran between 12 and 4pm with stalls, dance groups, music performances, parachute jumps, vehicle displays and a spitfire flyby all taking part to help raise money for both the community and 6 charities, one of which was the Cystic Fibrosis Trust.

Each of the charities had a stall, which I decided we would run the Throw-A-Lightbulb game and also have a stand for information and awareness about CF and the Trust.

We had a really busy day right from the start, with constant queues and crowds around our game, and many comments about how great the game was, and even a few asking if they could have permission to make a copy! Within the 4 hours we raised £160 on the game towards my £4000 target and hopefully find out shortly how much will be donated to the Trust from the profits of the Street Fair. A cheque presentation will be happening in September this year.

Thanks to all who came and took part and to Mars and ShakeAway for some of the donated prizes.

Winnersh Fete 2011

Saturday 18th June 2011 we set up our pitch at the fourth year of Winnersh Fete, with fingers crossed the weather was going to hold out. Big black clouds loomed overhead and within 5 minutes of putting the gazebo up, the heavens opened and the expectations of raising money for the charity quickly fell. But as quickly as it had started, the weather cleared and bright sunshine and blue skies were on for the start of the fete!

The throw-a-lightbulb game again proved itself as a great fundraiser, with constant queues and battles between youngsters to win prizes including a skateboard, football, chocolates and milkshakes, with the top score of the day reaching 312, one of the highest scores in quite a few years! The Silent Auction was a slow starter, but once the afternoon went on, the bids came in and between the game and auction (which were only running for 3 1/2 hours) we managed to raise a whopping £400 towards the CF Trust!

The Winnersh Fete was definitely a fete we will return to next year, a great day for the family and a great fundraiser for all the charities that attended - 40 charities and local voluntary groups who provided a really enjoyable afternoon for all.

2011 Fundraising Events so far

So far in 2011, we have run 2 fundraising events, kicking off with our annual Treasure Hunt organised by David and Vanessa (my mum and dad).

This years treasure hunt took place in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, where 15 teams turned up to take on cryptic clues, scavenger hunting and photo finding, ending at the Ship pub. Each team donated £20 to the trust to take part and many helped by buying raffle tickets and pizza's at the pub, who kindly donated £2 per pizza to our cause. This family day managed to raise us £500 towards our target and really started off the year with a bang!

At the Marlow Regatta, 11-12th June 2011, we ran our locally famous "throw-a-lightbulb" game and a Silent Auction with prizes donated by:

• Shakeaway
• Choco-Latte, Marlow
• Legoland
• Ministry of Paintball
• The Waterside Inn, Bray
• Midwich
• The Vanilla Pod, Marlow
• Grove Riding School, Wycombe
• The Marlow Brewery
• Gear4

Together this managed to raise £400 towards our £4000 target, despite the rain on the Sunday which meant the turn out wasn't good! Thanks to all of you who bid for items and played our game!

This weekend, 18th June, we will be running another Silent Auction and "throw-a-lightbulb" game at the Winnersh Fete, Bearwood Recreational Ground, Winnersh. This will include prizes donated by:

• John Nike Leisure Centre, Bracknell
• Mars
• Ministry Of Paintball
• Billingbear Park Golf Course
• Legoland
• Shakeaway

Fingers crossed the weather holds out and we can raise another few hundred towards the total.

Please visit www.virginmoneygiving.com/EmilyShimellforCF to help support the cause.


Thanks


Emily

Welcome to my Fundraising Blog!

Hi all

I have decided to start keeping a blog of my fundraising activities after being asked by quite a few people about what I was getting involved with and the events that we are running for the CF Trust.

For those of you who do not know about my fundraising and challenges, I will give you an introduction here :)

I have been fundraising for the CF Trust now for around 18 months, since my oldest friend Kirsty was admitted to hospital in November 2009 after taking a turn for the worse from CF. In March 2010, our beautiful friend could not fight any longer with this cruel disease and passed away at the young age of 21.

Since then, I have been fundraising alongside a number of other friends and family members to raise money in Kirsty's memory for the CF Trust.

In September 2010, I trekked Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa to Uhuru Peak, the highest free standing mountain in the world. Through sponsorship for my challenge and through other events, we managed to raise almost £7000 for the charity.

In April 2012, I am taking on another challenge where I will be trekking the remote Lares region in the Peruvian Andes, to 4,600m altitude, 8-9 hours a day for 6 days with the aim of raising another £4000 for the CF Trust. This year, we will be running numerous events and fundraising activities to help raise these much needed funds for the charity.

I will aim to keep this blog up-to-date with fundraising activities, events, CF Trust information and our progress. Please visit my donation page to help support the trust. www.virginmoneygiving.com/EmilyShimellForCF

Many thanks

Emily