Red & White Appeal Day

I met two of the ladies behind the Red & White Appeal at a Business Southampton networking event at Yuzu Lounge Bar just a week or so before their big 4th March appeal day.  With my Dad having recently spent a month at Southampton General Hospital, it was something I could relate to.  The effects of cancer have really hit home in the last year.  Anything that can be done to make the life's of people suffering from this bastard condition has only to be a good thing.  So earlier this week I decided not only to donate my time to photograph their event but also to make the Red & White Appeal my chosen charity for 2011.

The day started early with a business networking breakfast at Dockgate 4 Bar & Grill.  A year ago I'd promised myself not to do any more networking breakfast meetings, but there is always the exception to the rule.  After raising £££'s at Dockgate 4 it was onto the main event taking place at WestQuay Shopping Centre throughout the day.

Events kicked off at WestQuay with TheCoast106FM's Matt Hopper presenting his show live from the shopping centre.  Over the next 3 hours amongst other things Matt interviewed Duncan Preston who is currently appearing in To Kill A Mockingbird at Southampton's Mayflower Theatre, and we were also treated a little bit of live music in the form of up and coming singer / song writer Josh Bray.

A quick thanks to Bob Hoad, managing director from TheCoast106FM for buying everyone tea and cake.  Cheers Bob!

We did promotional shots with the "star" outside various WestQuay stores, including John Lewis, Clinton Cards, Krispy Kreme (yes we did get some free doughnuts from them!), Pumpkin Patch, and Millie's Cookies.  When else am I ever going to get to photograph a "star" on the escalator in the middle of John Lewis again?!

There were also Las Vegas style showgirls (kindly provided by Abi @ Daze Entertainment), and two wonderful dance troupes entertain and amuse shoppers thoughout the day.

Having spent the day with the people behind the scenes at the Red & White Appeal it's clear they are passionate about what they do.  I was proud and happy to have been a small part of their big day.

These are just a very small collection of the photos taken on the day.  If you were involved and want any of the images for PR use, please contact Amy @ Red & White Appeal.

Charity Road Trip

I love travel, road trips in particular.  I always find myself watching the celebrity travel documentaries from the likes of Michael Palin with a little bit of envy.

So when I was approached a couple of weeks ago regarding doing some photography over the final 10 days of a road trip that starts in London and finishes in Dushanbe, Tajikistan it immediately got my attention and interest levels up.

It's called "The Roof of the World" Rally, it's all for charity with the profits going to Sworde-Tepa and Make-A-Wish.  The website is www.charityroadtrips.org.

Currently my involvement is to photograph the start of the rally in London on 3rd July 2010, and then to fly out to Baku, Azerbaijan to meet up with the rally on 15th July and then stay with it all the way to the final destination of Dushanbe.  As the crow flies its around 1000 miles, but our planned route will be much longer along what appears to be some "interesting" roads.

If I said I wasn't a little bit worried about some of the places we'll be visiting I'd be lying.  Lets face it the area hasn't exactly had a positive press over recent years, but this is a huge opportunity for me, and impossible to put into words just how excited I am.

As you might expect with it being for charity I'm not going to get paid, so I'm going to have to find a way to fund myself.  By far the biggest expense will be the air fare, probably around £700, so I need to raise quite a bit of money.

How?  Well I'm going to be approaching some companies direct also asking for small amounts of sponsorship in exchange for advertising space on my website.  I'll be creating a special section of the website dedicated to the trip and updating it with news and sponsorship information as things progress.

Maybe I should get myself sponsors for all the injections for inoculations I'm going to need prior to July - I've been told I'll need 11 jabs.  Have I mentioned yet how much I hate pain & needles?

That's all for now.  There's lots going around in my head.

Update: I've just got information through on our ideal route.  The exact route we take depends on visas, so it might change a little, but this is the ideal scenario.    Baku – Turkmenibashy – Ashgabat – Mary – Turkmenabat – Bukhoro – Samarqand – Tashkent – Andijon – Osh – Pamir Highway – Dushanbe – Qurghonteppa.

Don't let people tell you...

... what you can't do.

That was the message that Gary Johannes was getting across during his 4sight at a 4Networking meeting in Grantham last week.

Although Gary was talking in general terms that none of us should let anyone tell us what we cannot do, his story was more personal.  Several years ago his son, Christopher was in an accident where he broke his back in several places, paralysed from the mid-chest down and had the top surgeon in the land was telling him he wouldn't walk again.

You can read more about their story on their blog, but to sum up briefly, Christopher can now walk, the surgeons still don't understand fully how, and in October 2010 they are both doing a 450 mile bike ride across Vietnam for charity.