Bingo Night Fundraiser

Last night I held a Charity Bingo Fundraising Night at Carlin How Working Men's Club, in the North East of England. I am aware that I need to start working hard now on getting the money rolling in. So I really needed this to give me a boost!  

I first held my Bingo Night in The Avenue Bar, in Glasgow in October last year.  I took it there first to see if it would work.  People seemed to enjoy it.  It gave me the confidence to want to do more.  It is not just your standard number bingo night!  I have put my own twist on it. There's five rounds, each with a different theme. 

1. Movie Bingo

2. Famous People Bingo

3. TV Theme Intro Bingo

4. Standard Number Bingo

5. Music Intro Bingo

Each winning prize is related to each round. So for example, Movie Bingo prize was a £20 Cineworld Voucher.  With the TV Theme Intro round, I played 20 seconds of a well known popular TV tune, so the players needed to identify the tune so that they would mark if off their bingo cards, if it was on there! Tricky, but a lot of fun.

I was taking a HUGE risk doing this bingo night.  People in this village take bingo very seriously! I admit that I was shitting myself on how they'd react.  I wasn't even sure if anyone would turn up. I had been harping on about it on Facebook for weeks, and getting very little response back.

I'm very pleased to say that was such a huge success. I raised a fantastic £500.75!! I was so scared it was going to flop, as so many were pulling out of coming. Though, new I could rely on my army of a family to come up trumps. Soon as I arrived at 6.30pm to set up, there were people already sat waiting to play. Then people just kept arriving. I really cant keep saying thank you enough to the people of Carlin How, and the Club, especially my Uncle Steve. What was also fantastic, was I had from 2 dear friends of mine that turned up to support me. 

So the verdict? THEY LOVED IT. It worked. They have even requested I go back and put another bingo night on. Gotta give the people what they want. 

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Got a lot of fundraising ahead of me over the next few weeks. A bake sale at my school, and another bingo night in London. The money is coming in now. Which is what it's all about.  I can look towards bringing my bingo night to London.  A soon as I have confirmed a venue, it's on!! Will keep you posted. 

I would just like to thank everyone that donated prizes towards the raffle we put on. There was so much of it. I have to personally mention Sound it Out Record Shop, in Stockton-On-Tees, who very kindly donated a £15 voucher!  I can't forget me Mam' too. She organised the raffle and a 'Name the Teddy' game which raised a lot of money too. 

Please sponsor me at by clicking here!

5k Training Run Blindfolded

Myself and Abbie had our first run together today. Well, not really our first run ever. I did the Stockton River Rat Race with Abbie a good few years ago. We jumped in swamps, scaled bridges and was very bad at canoeing round a river. She won't dispute this 

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This would be our first blind training run. I wasn't sure how far we'd manage, as Abbie has just recovered from a torn ligament and I was totally and utterly out of my comfort zone. Within an hour of arriving into Middlesbrough from London, she picked me up and we headed over to Stewart Park. Haven't been to this park for about 15 years. So I have little memory of it. This meant I was unable to use my memory of the park as a security blanket. I had to completely trust Abbie instantly to guide me safely. As soon as I put the mask over my eyes I felt very scared. I was scared I would fall over, scared of potential people walking passed me. I just had to block all my worries out and just try and concentrate on Abbie's voice.  We must have walked for only a few short minutes before I had to take the plunge and start running. We were met with a few obstacles. Very uneven surfaces at times, lots of leaves and sticks on the floor and a few little inclines. 

One silly thing I have to admit, is that I was so worried about other people staring at me, even though I couldn't see them staring. I know that may sound ridiculous. Well, of f course people are going to be bloody staring at us! The park isn't exactly full of people running around it blindfolded!! We ran passed a family, and as they were behind us, I heard a little girl in a strong Boro accent say "Dad, why is that girl running like that with that thing on her face?" It was as clear as if she had been standing right next to me and said it, but in fact they were quite a distance away from us by the time she had said that. It still amazes me how sharp my hearing becomes when I am blindfolded.

We had very quickly completed a lap of the park. We had gotten so comfortable with each other that we talked for England.  So it just made more SENSE to do another lap. So we did, much faster and would you believe it...we did a 5k completley blindfolded the whole way. I am so happy I chose Abbie. She's a marvellous guide and i trust she'll keep me alive and in one piece. I still believe running 26.2 miles blindfolded will be the hardest thing I have ever done but I am more confident than ever that we will do this. 

One thing I got Abbie to do before we finished, was to walk back to the car blindfolded herself, so can can get a better understanding of what I am going through.  This will help her more with guiding me.  It also gave me an understanding on her role too. Thank you Abbie for keeping me alive.  

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