Cocktail Evening for Macmillan

One of Macmillan Cancer Support's biggest fundraising events is its Coffee Morning. The other week, my friend hosted her own version of a Coffee Morning. As the picture below may suggest, the coffee was replaced for cocktails and therefore, it couldn't be a morning affair. A cocktail evening it was! I spent the day helping to prepare ingredients and whipping up some baked goods before everyone else arrived.

Obviously, we had a green-theme. I had so much fun researching green drinks recipes and baking ideas on Pinterest. Does anyone else find organising to be amongst the best bits of throwing a party? The Macmillan fundraising pack that Cathy had requested was also full of good ideas and a few little things to get us started, such as balloons, a green patterned table cover and biscuit templates.

We got to work baking spiced biscuits, little cupcakes and enormous brownies. We had intended that the cupcakes have green butter icing on top, with a slice of kiwi (good old Pinterest idea) but ran out of icing sugar so instead used edible flowers and had a separate little fruit platter.

I was left in charge of decorating the biscuits above. Now, did you get that they are meant to be mugs? Too many people thought that they were handbags! What have handbags got to do with a coffee morning??!!

When the guests arrived, the table was treated with more baked goods and we started making cocktails, including mojitos and appletinis. We also all placed our bets to guess how many coffee beans we thought were in the 2D jar...I tried to work it out with a calculator but this is definitely not the way forward guys... how many do you think there are?

Don't you love these little drinks umbrellas? They remind me of childhood birthday parties more than cocktails, interestingly.

All in all, we had a lovely evening, decided that hosting parties is so much fun and managed to raise a whopping £114.39 for Macmillan. £25 pays for a Macmillan nurse for an hour, so with the money we raised, that's four nurses or four hours of help. Wonderful! Did any of you attend a Macmillan Coffee Morning?

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The end of the Dryathlon

I can't believe that it is February already! And this can only mean one thing....the Dryathlon is over! If we're connected via social media, it will have been hard for you to escape posts by my friends and I about the money we are raising for Cancer Research UK. We are pleased to report that we have managed to give up alcohol in January and have so far raised over £700 in total for the charity. We are so grateful for all your donations - thank you, thank you, thank you! Our sponsorship pages are open until 28th February 2013 so if you would still like to donate, you can do here and we would be over the moon.

Images from Cancer Research UK

As an indication of how exciting this money raised is, here is what the money raised can do (source):

£10 could buy enough glass slides for a scientist to examine 300 tumour samples down a microscope

£30 could buy around 250 special sterile dishes to grow the cells in and keep them healthy, helping answer fundamental research questions that could lead to the breakthrough discoveries of tomorrow

£40 could buy a key textbook to ensure our Cancer Information Nurses never stop learning. That way they can answer as many questions as possible that people have about cancer.

£50 could buy around 50 thermometers – indispensable for many experiments that need to be performed at very precise temperatures.

£94 could cover the cost for one woman to take part in a clinical trial aiming to improve survival for post-menopausal women with early-stage breast cancer.

£120 could fund a trained counsellor to facilitate the nurses’ monthly clinical supervision meeting. Experienced cancer information nurses provide a confidential service for anyone with concerns about cancer. This will develop their skills in dealing with calls and help them cope with the emotional impact of the experiences they hear.

£260 could buy a sophisticated microarray, a powerful piece of technology, helping scientists to scrutinise thousands of genes in a single experiment, and identify which are switched on in cancer.

£677 could cover the cost of one person taking part in a clinical trial testing chemotherapy before and after surgery, and the antibody drug Vectibix, to improve survival for bowel cancer patients.

£1,260 enables a man to take part in a study to help tackle the long term side effects of treatment for testicular cancer. In the future this could improve the quality of life for men who have had the disease.

£2,979 could cover the basic costs for one patient to take part in a clinical trial to improve treatment for head and neck cancer. The trial is testing if a new way of delivering radiotherapy can help reduce hearing loss, a common side effect of treatment, improving the lives of people with the disease.

So once again, thank you so much for all your support and donations. Personally, I think that I will try and continue this and be dry in February too. Will keep you posted!

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Cancer Research UK's Dryathlon

Last year when I couldn't walk I made a list of things that I wanted to do when my legs decided to be a bit more useful (you can find this list here). One of them was to do Cancer Research's Race for Life which is a 5km run but unfortunately this wasn't a possibility. I am still hoping to do that race when I start running and get my fitness back but for now, I have found an alternative way of raising money for Cancer Research.

A few friends and I are participating in the Dryathlon, giving up alcohol during January (and perhaps beyond...) to help raise money for Cancer Research UK. Our team, "If Carlsberg Did Fundraising..." can be found at http://www.dryathlon.org.uk/dry/teams/info/irTwG We all have our targets but very keen to raise as much money as possible.

The idea is to be sponsored for not drinking as well as using the money I would have spent on a drink to make a donation to the charity. So for the whole of this month (in addition to my ban on crisps/chips) we will be swapping the Sambucas for smoothies, Amaretto for apple juice, Mojitos for milkshakes and pints for Pepsi (yuck).

You can find out more about the work that Cancer Research UK funds on their website here. They really are a fantastic charity.

If you are able to make a donation, it would mean a lot to us. Spread the word and get involved - you are able to sign up to be a Dryathlete yourself until the 6th January 2013 if you would like to participate in the event yourself.

Thank you and happy new year!

If Carlsberg Did Fundraising...*

*Please ignore the wine!

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