As I said in my last blog, I’m currently doing my damnedest to live a more active lifestyle and have taken up running. Well, I say running… I recently got to a point where I can run for three minutes without stopping, and I’m ashamed to say it’s very nearly killing me.
That’s why I’m fairly bewildered by what I’ve pledged to do in the next ten days. And I’m afraid to say that I’m about to become one of those annoying people passing around the begging bowl for their latest charity endeavour.
The first of the two undertakings within the forthcoming fortnight takes place this Wednesday (i.e. the day after tomorrow). For reasons unknown, I’ve agreed to play in a charity football match over in Dublin. This is an entirely ludicrous idea for the following reasons:
1) I’ve not played 11-a-side football for 17 years.
2) I’ve not played football full stop for nearly three years
3) Running in bursts of three minutes at a time is proving a struggle, so quite how I think I’m going to manage it for 90 minutes is beyond me.
The match is in aid of three Irish charities – Â Aoibheann’s Pink Tie, a children’s cancer charity, DPOL, supporting disabled people in Co.Longford and Torun Children’s Hospice.
I realise that many people prefer to support charities closer to home, but I hope you’ll agree that a good cause is a good cause wherever it is in the world, and that if you have a pound or two to spare you may be able to donate.
I’m afraid I don’t have a JustGiving page or anything like that for this – I just have a sponsorship form to fill out. Therefore, if you do want to donate, please email me on ttparker@live.co.uk telling me how much you’d like to give, I’ll pay in cash when I’m in Ireland on Wednesday, and I’ll sort out how you can get the money to me afterwards.
For those of you who do wish to donate to a more familiar charity instead, I’m doing another bit for charity a week on Saturday, and this too involves running around a football pitch – literally.
I’m aiming to do a few organised runs this year as an incentive to keep up my quest for fitness, and the first of them is a modest one miler on 10th March. In the hope that I can be inspired by my surroundings, the mile comes in the shape of four laps of the pitch at my beloved Villa Park, and is in aid of the Acorns Children’s Hospice.
If you’re in the West Midlands, I probably don’t need to say anything more about the amazing work that Acorns does, so it would be great to raise a few quid for this incredible cause. If you’d like to donate for this one, please let me know and I’ll give you the full SP when I receive my fundraising pack later this week.
I realise that there’s a lot of people doing incredibly worthwhile things for charity with regularity these days, and while this is hardly a marathon or a climb up a mountain, it’s probably going to be a struggle for me personally! Therefore, even the smallest amounts would be hugely appreciated.
You are all lovely, lovely people.
You know you are. You really are.
Tom Parker. 