And what a good idea it was! A huge thanks to Alan who has raised over €3,000 for two charities close to his heart. Cancer Clinical Research Trust are the beneficiaries of over €1,500. Well done, Alan and thank you!

Photo: from the summit of Mount Leinster, which was the culmination of Challenge No. 1, completed on 11th February 2017.

As you may or may not have heard recently on the grapevine, Facebook, Twitter, or elsewhere, I’ll be undertaking a series of rigorous personal and physical challenges and events over the coming 12 – 18 months to raise funds for two really great charities:

My chosen charity in Ireland is the Cancer Clinical Research Trust(CCRT), :http://www.ccrt.ie/

To donate to CCRT: https://give.everydayhero.com/ie/good-idea-at-the-time-alans-fundraising

And my selected charity for the UK is the Imperial College Healthcare Charity(ICHC) and specifically the Imperial College HASU (Hyper Acute Stroke Unit) based in Charing Cross Hospital, London:http://www.imperialcharity.org.uk/

I have far more than a passing personal interest in the incredible work of both these organisations and charities:

The team at CCRT do amazing work to treat, help, and, hopefully in more and more cases these days, cure those afflicted by cancer, in all its insidious forms: Their fantastic team have treated friends, family, and, right now, they continue to treat very close family members!

The folks at the Hyper Acute Stroke Unit in Charing Cross Hospital successfully treated my father a number of years ago – and their hard work and dedication brought him to a place where his full recovery from a series of debilitating strokes and TIA’s was possible. In other words, and not to put it too strongly, they saved my Dad’s life!

It’s time to give something back to all those engaged in finding new treatments and engaging in new research. It’s time to give something back to those fine people and their facilities – and this is just my own small way of saying a big “thank you”.

Here’s what I’m going to do:

So here we are, in early 2017, and after months of preparation and planning, this is the rough list (in roughly the correct order) of the challenges I have set for myself (gradually increasing in difficulty over the next 12-18 months), culminating in something that will either make or break me:

o   Mount Leinster Endurance Hike

o   5k Run

o   10k Run

o   Sprint Triathlon

o   Abseil

o   Half Marathon

o   Parachute Jump

o   Olympic Triathlon

o   Adventure Race / Gaelforce-type Event

o   Tough Mudder

o   Spartan Race

o   The Pen Y Fan “Fandance”

So….What can YOU do to help?

Please make sure to go to my facebook fundraising and information page and please like, share, follow, and generally tell all your friends and family all about this:https://www.facebook.com/GoodIdeaAtTheTime/

And please make sure to donate, as little as you can spare and as often as you like, to the two charities – all funds go directly and fully to each of the charities:http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/GoodIdeaAtTheTime and https://give.everydayhero.com/ie/good-idea-at-the-time-alans-fundraising

Please do spread the word and please support me on this journey – and more importantly support the chosen charities and the causes they work so hard for and make sure to donate all along the way in support of the Cancer Clinical Research Trust, the HASU, and the Imperial College Healthcare Charity!

Thanks to everyone who’s inspired and supported me thus far (oft-times unbeknownst to themselves through their quiet encouragement) – and I’m really looking forward to working hard, training hard, and raising funds and awareness for these great organisations, the CCRT and the HASU.

As I’ll no doubt tell myself many times along the way – it won’t be easy, life isn’t – but it did seem like a good idea at the time!

Photo: from the summit of Mount Leinster, which was the culmination of Challenge No. 1, completed on 11th February 2017.