Our final total raised for Macmillan Cancer Support during the 9 day walk was: £4249.99! (We're still shocked and amazed by that).
In October 2013 we were contacted by the Macmillan Representative for the South East, Elizabeth O'Hanlon, who wanted to meet up with us and talk about Wales2Medway - or so we thought...
Liz expressed how amazed she was at our achievement, stating that she believes it to be the highest raising individual fundraising walk for the charity!
She then suggested that it didn't stop there, and being the nutters that we are, we agreed!
Jess and Shelby Fuller have now become Ambassadors for Macmillan Cancer Support with the goal of raising £14,000 for the charity to fund an information and holistic therapy centre for cancer patients.
It is a massive task but when we look at how supportive people have been to us, we're sure we'll find many more kind individuals through our next project...
As a little background into why we're so supportive of this charity, and why you should be too - here's our story:
Our Granny, Beryl, was diagnosed with Bowel Cancer early 2012. At the end of that year in October she decided very bravely that chemotherapy wasn't for her - she didn't want an extended life if it wasn't going to be of a good quality. During Wales2Medway Granny came out to meet us and show her support and it's a highlight of the walk. Granny isn't just our mums mum, but she is ours too as she helped our mum to raise us. On November 24th 2013 Granny passed away peacefully at the Wisdom Hospice.
Our cousin, Megan Doyle, has joined our team too and we cannot think of a better way to honour our Granny than helping to continue the work of the charity that has helped her and us so much during such a difficult time. We have named our fundraising group Beryl's Angels, because Granny is our inspiration in all that we do.
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| Jess and Granny |
As a little throwback to the generosity of humankind we'd like to share with you a great list of great people, you're in it:
At the end of our challenge we celebrated with further fundraising at our homecoming event - so many individuals and businesses supported us during our journey and it's so difficult to name them all, but I will try: all of the B&B's we stayed at, especially Copper Beeches who gave us the whole night stay and breakfast FREE OF CHARGE; Omicron who printed t-shirts, posters and leaflets for us - absolutely free; Morrisons in Walderslade who allowed us to stand with collection buckets in their foyer; Solo hairdressers in Walderslade who kept a bucket in their front desk; the pubs which allowed us to walk around around them pestering their customers with collection buckets - especially the Hungry Horse chain which did this twice during our journey and even gave us another mascot for our travels; Mad Cafe who shared our journey to their followers and set us daily challenges to keep the spirits high; BBC Surrey Radio who interviewed us along our journey; all of the acts who performed at the homecoming event - Jamie Johnson (who is now part of Team Kylie on The Voice!), Charlotte Rose Ellis, Amy Gwynne and Rachel Greening, Sophie Tumber, Loose Joints and Disruption dance crew; The generous donations made to our raffle by Lordswood Leisure Centre and Serene Feeling; Pebbles Face Painters, Kent Discos, and Serene Feeling who all helped make the homecoming extra special by donating thier time and talent; a MASSIVE thank you to the Robin Hood Pub for allowing us to hold our event there and providing a hog roast with profits to Macmillan; and a HUGE never ending thank you to every single person who attended the fundraiser, who wished us luck, who donated anything to us, who gave us the praise and thanks that kept us going - without which we wouldn't still be going...
We look forward to sharing with you the next part of our journey. Thank you, as always x
