Yikes !!! 

Can I just say a massive Thank You to everyone for their fabulous words of encouragement and excitement for the £100k challenge (as I've decided to call it)

I'm under no illusion that this is going to be easy and it is not going to happen at all without help ...lots of it!

There are lots of ideas about what we can do to raise this money but I need to really commit to something every month so instead of doing 10 challenges or fundraisers in the year September 2014 to September 2015 I think we need to think a little bit bigger and go for 1 a month (or more).

Obviously we already have some fundraisers in place in some months however if you would like to host a fundraiser yourself as part of our cause I'd be very grateful or if you are holding any fundraisers would you consider our cause to be the one you collect for?  If you own your own business or work for a company could we be your chosen charity for a year?  I am on with this one myself and even a collection box on a counter would make a huge difference to our total.

We need to kick start the year with something that will get our awareness up as well as getting people donating and I've seen the power of social media so had thought that maybe we could instigate a 'selfie' campaign such as 'A Selfie for SIDS' I know this has been done but it was so well received and was such a boost for the charities involved I'd love to give it a try and see how well we can spread the word.

So ideas on the table for fundraising are as follows:

Alexander's Charity Ball 2015
A Great Big 'Northern' Mile in Memory 
Great North Run 2015
A Family Fun Day 
A Cycling Challenge - Possibly Tower to Tower or Lands End to John O'Groats this is being handed over to those in the know !
Ladies Vintage Tea/Champagne Party
The Teens are looking into organising their own Football Tournament 
Supermarket Bag Packing 
Craft Fairs 
Tough Mudder (Or equivalent without the electric shock) 
Abseil down the Humber Bridge or other appropriate Yorkshire Landmark)
Quiz Night
Collections at local Yorkshire Football and Rugby Grounds 
Creating Children's PJ's or a T-shirt with a percentage of donations going to The Lullaby Trust and the £100k challenge

I'd welcome any and all ideas if you'd like to share yours or if you think you could help organise, sponsor, run or volunteer I'd love to hear from you.  Any bloggers wishing to help also would be fabulous I know what a great bunch of people you are and I'd love to work with you to keep this going.

Please share the challenge if you can I need to keep the momentum going for the year and the more people on board the better the response will be.

Thank You 

So I have lots to tell you...

I'll start with my trip to London yesterday to hand over our cheque for the money raised at Alexander's Charity Ball 2014.  I went with Louise Barrett who also does great work for The Lullaby Trust as Ian was unable to take the time off from work but also because Louise and I have been working together to see how we can help each other with our events and goals.

Myself and Francine have spoken about where the money was best used and yesterday was an opportunity to chat to all the departments within the Charity to see how these changes could be implemented.

Like anything there are always improvements to be made and it's brilliant the way the team is so focused on making it right and they are open and enthusiastic about listening to parents like us as well.  I have to say that it would appear we are all thinking along the same lines anyway but that the main issue for the charity is money.  They have to choose wisely where to spend their hard worked for cash and they can't just go ahead and implement everything they want too as it costs!

The £27,203 that was raised with your help is going to help with numerous projects that the charity and I feel are the most important and once we have more of an idea how these will work I will tell you more.

Onto me and my big mouth!!! 

September 2015 will be Harrison and Alexander's 10th birthday, double figures and a milestone as far as I'm concerned and so for a while I've been thinking of ways to mark the occasion, by stepping out of my comfort zone and doing something I wouldn't normally do!  Anyone that knows me well or otherwise knows I hate running but as the Great North Run falls within September what better way to celebrate the life of my boys than running the most iconic Half Marathon there is!  

Sounds simple enough yes?  No! This is me we're talking about and so just doing the GNR wasn't enough, I wanted a memorable challenge and so the idea of ''10 fundraisers for 10 years was born''.  Over the year from September 2014 to September 2015 I will complete 10 fundraisers (not necessarily sports based) to raise money for The Lullaby Trust, these will include Alexander's Charity Ball 2015 and a bigger 'northern' Mile In Memory plus a list of various other fundraisers that have yet to be decided on.

Also sounds simple enough? Here's the catch ...

Alexander was 17 months old when he died, the usual Safe Sleep messages and most of the preventative measures for SIDS didn't apply to him and as it stands we are no further forward to knowing why he died than we were 7 years ago.  
Increasingly there are families of older babies who have died suddenly and unexpectedly contacting the charity for help and so far other than supporting the families there is no further information they can give.  Until now. There is research waiting to happen by one of the country's leading paediatric pathologists at Great Ormond Street Hospital into Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood (SUDC) but he needs funding.  

£100,000 worth of funding

I want to do my damnedest to get Professor Sabire this money to get this research from proposal stage into action... I want to raise £100,000

I know I can't do this alone and it is going to be a mountain of work but I am so incredibly excited by this research and the goal is just too tangible not to try.  I'm not expecting miracles or answers but just the knowledge that there is someone looking at these deaths means Alexander didn't die in vain.

I need your help in whichever way you think you can help so watch this space for further details on the crazy madcap scheme and help me raise £100k in 1 year.  Please share this post as much as you can we need to reach far and wide this time and hopefully the more you share the more people would be willing to help.