#43 Do Something Charitable

This is a 'thing to do' that means quite a lot to me...

When I was younger my Mum started a Friends Group for a charity that some friends of ours had founded - Children's Hospice South West. They set the charity up to provide respite care for families in the South West with life limited children, like themselves. They needed to raise £1 million to build the hospice and, with the help of groups like ours, did it. They have since gone on to build a second hospice and are in the process of building a third. Being part of something like this right from the beginning proved to me the power that groups of people, motivated to the same end, can have.

Since then I have maintained an interest in volunteering and fundraising and, of course, I now work for a charity too. I'm not trying to sound pious and righteous, it just makes sense to me to get involved in this stuff. We all know it would be nice if the government provided hospices for terminally ill children and catered to the needs of people suffering from awful illnesses and those living in poverty, or those suffering abuse at the hands of others, but in reality it just can't happen. And even if, suddenly, they had the means to solve all these problems, I think a lot of people who volunteer for causes like this would lose out. Volunteering brings people together and provides opportunities to develop communities, skills, friendships and gets stuff done too!

At Ostomy Lifestyle we send out a quarterly newsletter to around 2,500 individuals. We can't afford to get a mailing house to send these out for us so I bribed our loyal and jovial band of volunteers with pizza and cake (see previous blog) and 11 of us achieved in a day what it would have taken the 3 of us in the office a week to do. We spent a whole Saturday folding, stuffing and sticking and then filled up every post box within a 20 mile radius. I was completely bowled over by the effort everyone put in and the feeling of satisfaction was immense. Plus, whilst we were busy filling envelopes we chatted and caught up on the news and generally had quite a nice time.



I have also challenged myself physically to raise money for charity. I did the Race for Life a couple of years ago and that was horrible. I'm definitely not built for running and I injured my knee training, but I raised some money for Cancer Research UK, so that's ok. I also cycled the width of England on the Coast-to-Coast route last year with a team of 8 other riders.



It was really far, and really hilly, and really rainy, and really, really cold, but between us we had a good laugh and raised more than £4,000 for Ostomy Lifestyle. We earned every money, but I genuinely enjoyed the experience and am even planning something similar again.



I don't know what motivates other people to volunteer and fundraise but I do it because it makes me feel good. Yep, no true altruism here. I get a nice feeling by using my skills and energy in a genuinely constructive way. If you don't already help out somewhere, do consider it. It's great fun and if you pick a cause that means something to you it's even more satisfying. And if you really don't have the time or inclination to volunteer, please think about making a regular, or one-off, donation to your favourite cause. I know it's a cliche but every little really helps.

This 'thing to do' is one that I'm going to keep doing so I definitely think I can give myself a green star!