The Winners!

Raffle winners....Well done Mr & Mrs Nicholls....have a good Christmas.

Another big thank you to everyone who bought a ticket.

£206 Brilliant!

The Christmas raffle has now been drawn, congratulations to the winners. The Sutton branch of the Derbyshire Building Society sold £120 worth of tickets and the Alfreton branch sold £86, a brilliant overall total of £206!!!

A BIG THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO BOUGHT A TICKET AND TO ALL THE DERBYSHIRE STAFF WHO HELPED OUT.

There has also been a lot of generous donations made on the JustGiving website and in person to us. Sponsorship has now reached £673, which is fantastic.

Cold and Foggy but spirits are high!

The winter is here! Biking is tough this week, it is really cold, plus freezing fog has set in, minus 3 this morning....not nice! My hands were numb by the time I got to work, then the hot aches set in...ouch!!! Only one thing for it...straight on to the internet and ordered some heated gloves...can't wait for them to arrive!

Not all bad this week though! The raffle is to be drawn this week and a substantial amount of money has been raised. This has not been fully counted yet so when I get the final figure I will post the result. Donations have also flooded in on the JustGiving website. Again I will give a full summary very shortly.

Other news this week is since I started biking in June I have now reached a total 1000 miles.

Good week for donations!

Thank you to everyone who has kindly donated this week. Donations to the JustGiving site has raised £110 and the raffle has raised £70 so far. Fingers crossed that peoples generosity carries on!

Not a brilliant week on the bike, TWO flat tyres! Bought myself gel filled innertubes so hopefully they will improve things.

Roll on the lighter nights so I can get some decent mileage in, and see what I am doing when the tyres go down!!

Thanks again everyone for your support

Raffle Prize!

Christmas Raffle Prize

Starting tomorrow (4/12/06) these hampers will be raffled off at two branches of the Derbyshire Building Society. Tickets will be on sale (£1 a strip) at the Alfreton branch and Sutton in Ashfield branch, so why not go along and try and win yourself a great christmas treat and at the same time help the John Eastwood Hospice. The prize draw will take place on 18th December 2006 so don't leave it too long!

Hopefully we will collect a good amount of money for our charity, I will let know how it goes!

JustGiving webpage now set up!

At last! Finally the JustGiving webpage is up and running.

Justgiving is the leading charity fundraising website, it enables ordinary people to raise extraordinary amounts of money for the causes they care about.

Since the launch in 2001, the members charities have collected over £100 million in online donations through their website.

If you would like to donate to my charity fund raising event online please visit: www.justgiving.com/brianhancock

A big thank you to everyone who does.

Winter Cycling!

I have not had much to report for a while so the blog has been quiet. The dark early nights and cold days have arrived so the cycling training has been restricted. I am now commuting to work everyday on the bike so this will help my fitness level. It is not far (5.5 miles each way) but the trip home is mainly all up hill and quite hard, especially when the wind is blowing!

There have been a few developments on the fund raising side of things which I can tell you about.

Up to date £120 has been donated, which is great to say that I have not yet fully started with fund raising ideas.

The mother in law has kindly ran two coffee mornings at the local church which has raised £30.

I went on a golf trip and fellow golfers chipped in with another £90

Jackie (the wife) has had permission from her employers, the Derbyshire Building Society, to do a raffle at work. Over the last month we have been buying extras when we go shopping and have built up two hampers. One hamper is to be raffled at the Derbyshire's Alfreton branch and one at the Sutton in Ashfield branch. Hopefully the hampers will be on display and tickets being sold at the beginning of December. Fingers crossed that they raise a good amount of funds.

Another bit of news is that The John Eastwood Hospice has put me on the front of their newsletter. This publicity may generate more money. I will keep you updated on how this goes.

I am still in the process of trying to set up on the JustGiving website. I have been informed that this is immanent. JustGiving is a website that fund raises like me, can set up a page with information about the charity event and then people can log on and read about it and then at the same time have the opportunity to donate money online! I have donated myself to other charity events and it was really easy to use. When it is up and running I will post it on the blog.

Promotional Photo

Biked to the John Eastwood Hospice where I had this photo took to promote my charity bike ride. The photo was taken in the hospices beautiful and tranquil garden. A lovely spot for patients and their loved ones to sit and relax.

More about John Eastwood Hospice Trust

John Eastwood Hospice Trust

The mission of the John Eastwood Hospice Trust is to support its NHS partners in the organisation and delivery of specialist palliative care services for those with advanced cancer and some neurological conditions, including Motor Neurone Disease.

The Hospice Trust is a registered charity and relies entirely on fundraising and donations to meet its considerable commitments, and to maintain appropriate reserves in order to ensure that the ongoing support provided is safeguarded for a reasonable period.

John Eastwood Hospice
The hospice has in-patient and day care facilities.

The in-patient unit can accommodate a total of 12 patients. Patients may be admitted for a short stay for symptom and pain management, respite care (limited) and final phase care, when a person is close to dying.

Day care facilities are available at the hospice on four week days, with a daily maximum of 15 patients. Day care adds to care given in the community by professionals, such as GP's and District Nurses, and carers such as relatives and friends.

Attending day care enables people to benefit from all hospice services, including complementary therapies and hairdressing, and can give carers a well-earned break.

The Hospice Trust currently funds the Hospice at Home service, which aims to enable people to stay at home for the final days of their life if that is their wish. The service supports existing community services, including GPs and district nurses, to provide specialist palliative care in the home.

London to Paris charity bike ride

London to Paris 13 - 17 June 2007
Charity cycle ride to raise funds for the John Eastwood Hospice

Has anyone got ideas on how I can raise money for this much worthy cause? I hope to raise a minimum of £1100 but hopefully more.

Do you want to donate? Any amount would be appreciated!