As promised I’m finally here to announce that my
chosen charity is Motivation – an international charity support people with
mobility disabilities. They raise money to give people high quality but low
costing wheelchair specifically designed for developing countries and their
sometimes difficult surroundings and environment. I felt that not only was I
moved by the stories and their work the fact that they’re called Motivation –
kicked me up the butt!
With chronic pain it’s so easy to become insular and
a selfish, forgetting that is always someone worse off that really needs your
help!
Since I’m becoming housebound I plan to start small;
specially designed seat cushions that relieve pressure (and helping prevent
sores) are £15, spare wheels are £25 and a full wheelchair with motivation is
£135, so I would like to start by raising enough money for 1 cushion, 1 set of
wheels and 1 wheelchair = £175 to ease us in.
Who’s with me?
Now when I started to discuss raising money for
wheelchairs (when I found out that up to 100 million people need one!) I asked
you all for idea’s;
There were the simple classics sent in: bake sales, sponsored
silences, swims, sports & fasting. Offers of; Pub quizzies, gigs, raffles,
pamper parties, make overs, tea parties, body shop, Ann Summers, Pamper Chef
and Vie parties have been very popular choices too! I cannot wait to be
involved with all of the above and plan to do as many as we can possible fit
in!
The more unusual suggestions were surprising; sponsored
diets, both Mike and I have done them in the past, they completely motivational
– your charitys money is held hostage by your scales – I’m only 3lb away from
my goal weight but does anyone want to volunteer?
From where I sit – the idea being that if you are
completely able bodied that you’ll be sponsored to spend a week in a wheelchair
– going to work, socialising and living your daily life seeing what it’s like
from where I (and millions of others) sit. I very interesting idea, as those who
did these would be offered a guest post on Diary of Freedom – almost a social
experiment.
It has been suggested that I compile a booklet/PDF
of my favourite blog posts or write a completely new piece for this project.
Would you guys pay to read my work?? It’s something I’ll have to think about!
For all the wonderful suggestions above there were
some damn right odd and frankly disturbing; one anonymous reader suggested I
walk for a day, now I thought it was a sarcastic message, but the tone of the
message and reasoning “I would appreciate my wheelchair” makes me think they
were deadly serious. If I could spend a day walking around I wouldn’t be writing
this blog and I’d be travelling the globe walking miles and miles and miles
writing about this wonderful world!
Another wrote in that after seeing Cherry Healey’s
how to get a life documentary on prejudice and finding out that disability is a
niche’ in the adult entertainment industry that I “could make a killing for
yourself and the charity”. Surprisingly this is not the first time this has
been suggested!
So, thoughts? What do you all think about these ideas?
Tweet me here, Facebook me here, E-mail me here or leave a comment below!
L x
hellow....nice your blog..simple
ReplyDeleteThink you're doing a great and brave job with your blog. Unbelievable some of the suggestions you mention here!
ReplyDelete