London to Paris - the fundraising

Bit pleased with myself this weekend. The brass band I'm involved with (Gawthorpe Brass '85) played at Ed Balls' garden party - he's our local MP - this weekend and I asked both Ed Balls and Yvette Cooper to sponsor me. They both agreed, although I was a bit slow - when Ed asked me "how much do people normally give" I said ten pounds. In hindsight I should have said fifty... but Yvette doubled his donation anyway.

Unfortunately, although I have asked, none of our other local politicians have responded. Comments about expenses would be unfair at this point, I think!

I have to say thanks to John Tudor from CREW. He is doing a great job sorting out sponsorship for me. I'm due to visit Bradford Bulls game on 23rd August where I can do a bucket collection. That should really help. He's also hoping to sort out a shirt sponsor. I'm not having much luck, none of the companies I have contacted have responded - although Benecol sent me some vouchers for some of their products.

I've been following Bernie Hollywood's progress on his Lands End to John o' Groats + 3 Peaks challenge. He's been doing really well - miles ahead of schedule. Take a look at his website, it makes what I'm doing look a bit wimpy:

http://www.berniehollywood.com/Bernie_Hollywood/BernieHollywood.com_-_Home.html