More newsworthy information two weeks prior to departure!

Another article, this time in The Wealden Ad! Thank you VERY much to the lovely Lisa at the magazine who has kindly popped my trip and climb mentioning those AMAZING sponsors of mine in the 'News of the Weald' section. Check it out!

That's pretty coooool!

Something even cooler?

I wrote to Staplehurst Carnival and Fete Committee requesting/wondering-if-I-could-get some funding for the voluntary parts of my trip and the Kilimanjaro climb. They have been EXTREMELY generous and donated £200 towards the trip! Just incredible!!

Thank you so, SO much, I really cannot express enough gratitude.

Lastly, after raising just under £100 for the NSPCC raffle I drew the lucky winners out of a hat last Friday! All the winners have been contacted and received their prizes. Congrats to Stuart, the winner of the 2 free powerkite lessons donated generously by The Kitesurf Centre at Camber Sands, who sounded extremely pleased with his luck!
Enjoy!

Keep watching this space, the adventure is only 2 weeks away!

In the news!

Who would've thought that a small village (if you can call Knoxbridge that) girl like myself would be in the news? Definitely not me! But I am and that's AWESOME!

That's me in the Maidstone KM (feel free to ignore the photo and remember I am actually 22 not super wrinkly). I'm not sure they've really got the gist of why I'm going to Malawi quite right BUT it's amazing I'm even in the paper and they mentioned my climb for the NSPCC (check out that fetching t-shirt!). 

I've also been told an article will be in the Wealden Ad under "News of the Weald" section on 27th September so look out for that! AND I've been offered funding and an article in the Village Mag in Staplehurst; INCREDIBLE!  A massive, MASSIVE thank you to Nick L at the KM, Lisa at the Wealden Ad and Elaine Downton in Staplehurst for helping me out.

I leave for Blantyre on October 13th, only a month away, so keep on this blog for updates nearer the time!

BIG LOVE going to everyone whose helped me out thus far in my travels (and that's a lot; you are all absolute stars and I could not have done it without you.

Bucket collections and raffles!

Another day, another fundraising activity!

Saturday 17th saw myself and a friend, Stevey V, onto the streets of Tunbridge Wells for a bucket collection to raise money for the NSPCC and awareness of my impending trip. It was surprisingly great fun and the weather held out despite promised rain. We raised an insane £166 exactly! Well worth the 6 hours standing outside hastling people (sorry!).

I was also on a raffle-ticket-selling-roll. So far 100 have been sold with plenty of time to go before the draw on September 21st.

I have been lucky enough to have some amazing people behind this raffle who have donated the most INCREDIBLE prizes. These include 2 free powerkite lessons, 2 free cinema tickets to a 2D film of your choice, 2 free lunchtime menus at CROMA restaurant in Tunbridge Wells, a £50 Topshop voucher, a beautiful frame, bottles of wine and an eye-shadow beauty pallet.

I'd like to thank the following people for these really awesome prizes;

The Kitesurf Centre have very, very kindly given away two free powerkite lessons worth up to £100 for the lucky winners of this raffle.

The centre specialise in offering various kitesurfing, landboarding, buggying, paddle boarding and wakeboarding lessons as well as kit hire, repairs and sales. Based at the beautiful Camber Sands, Kent, this is an amazing centre and well worth checking out! Just give their website a look to see the sheer number and variation of courses they offer! All instructors are BKSA certified. I really can't do this place justice, you have to check them out yourself to see!
http://www.thekitesurfcentre.com/
info@thekitesurfcentre.com
07963 763 046
Broomhill Sands, Lydd Road, Camber, East Sussex, TN31 7SB.


Odeon cinema in Tunbridge Wells have been extremely generous in giving away 2 free cinema tickets for any 2D film.

They have also offered their foyer for my fundraising activities (bucket collections, raffle ticket selling etc.) and so I am eternally grateful. A fantastic cinema with a brilliant wide range of films on offer, this raffle prize is extremely popular!
http://www.odeon.co.uk/

Croma restaurant above the Odeon Cinema in Knights Park, Tunbridge Wells, have also given away two free lunchtime menu meals (includes a drink and main meal between the hours of 11 and 4).

This is an Odeon initiative whereby cinema goers can enjoy a fantastic Italian style meal before their movie making the cinematic experience all the more enjoyable!
http://www.cromapizza.co.uk/


The Arcadia Group have very generously donated a £50 Topshop voucher which can be spent at any Topshop in the UK.

The Arcadia Group is the UKs largest fashion retailer with over 500 stores in more than 35 markets. Their brands include Burtons, Topshop and Topman, Miss Selfridge, BHS and many more.

Website: http://www.arcadiagroup.co.uk/


And lastly, Spice Giftshop in Cranbrook have not only donated items for my various other events but also a beautiful silver frame which will go to another lucky raffle prize winner.

Claire, the owner of the shop, has been extremely supportive of this cause and is an absolute star for giving me so much of her time and effort! The shop really is fantastic offering beautiful items ranging from jewellery to candles to bags to stockings to home trinkets. Please show your support for a local business and check the shop out on facebook; you will not be disappointed!
 https://www.facebook.com/pages/Spice/58528613277

Thank you so, so much to everyone who has donated, I am very appreciative and love each and every one of you!

T-shirts are here!

T-shirts have arrived!

All my beautiful, wonderful sponsors logos have been popped onto a t-shirt for me to wear at fundraising events, throughout my trip and, most importantly, up Mt. Kilimanjaro.

 

 

Here's the front with PNS learning, FFT (Faithorn Farrell Timms), JBE Associates foreign exchange and Royal Docks Property Services.

And this is the back with Fridays Ltd and "Climbing Kilimanjaro for NSPCC". 

I'd like to say once again and massive, huge, giant

THANK YOU!!!

to all my sponsors. Together with them all my events I have raised over 1000 already! Which is just BRILLIANT!

If you want to be a part of sponsoring my challenge please do so on my justgiving page; http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/izzisafrica. Any amount helps and I'll be eternally grateful :]

Another set of sponsors!

Two more amazing companies have agreed to sponsor me!

PNS and Fridays Ltd.

PNS are a learning development company offerring training and coaching programmes specially researched and designed for particular groups. All their programmes have proven to be interactive, high energy, and high impact training that has a lasting effect on clients. Training methods include up to date brain based learning, accelerated learning and attitude shift learning, all of which are known to give great results which last.

In order to learn more about PNS and their services, go to their website http://pnstraining.co.uk/ or call Phil Johnson on 07834 489 326.

Fridays Ltd is a leading food producer based in the South East of England. They specialise in producing fresh eggs, sandwich fillings and salads for a variety of markets. Having expanded organically over the past few years, Fridays Ltd has seen a growth in its business through egg farming and chilled sandwich filling products. Their egg brands include Hearty (Omega-3 free range eggs), BIG and The Kent Egg Co. Their sandwich fillings are produced to be distributed regionally and nationally.

To learn more about Fridays Ltd please go to their website; http://www.fridays.co.uk/index.html. 

A massive THANK YOU to both my very generous sponsors, your help towards this cause is invaluable.

If you're interested in helping towards to cause please sponsor me at  http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/izzisafrica

THANK YOU!!

Another Sponsor for my tshirt campaign!

Yet another sponsor!!

Faithorn Farrell Timms.

 

 

A MASSIVE thank you to Faithorn Farrell Timms generous donation to the cause. FFT are a Limited Liability Partnership offering the core professional disciplines of Building and Quantity Surveying, as recognised by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. They take on surveying projects up and down the country in the public and private sector.

Website: http://www.effefftee.co.uk/
Email address on the following webpage: http://effefftee.co.uk/contact-us.html

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

First sponsors confirmed!

I am very happy to say, I can confirm my very first sponsors!

 JBE Associates and Royal Docks Estate Agents .

 

JBE Associates are a company based in Goudhurst, Kent, as well as Epping, Essex, who specialise in foreign exchange. Their rates are far superior to what you would receive in other banks on the high street and you can save up to 5%. They arrange money payments worldwide free of charge, unlike many other services. They are also happy to give unbiased advice regarding any foreign exchange and transactions.



To learn more about JBE Associates or use their services, go to their website http://www.jbeassociates.co.uk/ or contact brianhogg@jbeassociates.co.uk (Kent Office) or jeffslade@jbeassociates.co.uk (Essex Office).

Royal Docks Property Services are a the longest property service establishment based within the Royal Docks, London. Their staff are extremely experienced and lead the way with exemplary customer service and attention to detail. All staff have fantastic local knowledge and are committed to making their clients sales, rental and mortgage transactions as stress free as possible.

To contact Royal Docks Property Services you can email lettings@royaldocks.com for lettings or sales@royaldocks.com for sales. Or ring 020 7474 1234

Or go to their website http://www.royaldocks.com/

 THANK YOU SO, SO MUCH to both of my first sponsors!

If you're interested in donating towards my challenge to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro please take a look at my sponsorship page http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/izzisafrica

Trip explaination and pre-trip fundraising

Hello!

On 13th October 2013 I will be embarking on what looks to be an epic African East Coast adventure! I'm travelling through three different countries, volunteering for a month in each, getting to know their way of life and cultural differences. Staring in Malawi, I'm staying for the first month in Domasi, just outside of Zomba, Southern Malawi. Here I'll be working in the Domasi community helping to teach children, cook, clean, build etc. After a month here I'll be starting the long trek up to Iringa, Southern Tanzania, which I hope to get to around 8th December. Here I'll be working in a local orphanage as well as teaching local children English and netball. After a month here, around the beginning on January I'll make my way up to Mount Kilimanjaro to climb to the summit on the Macheme route in 6 days and nights. I'll then be travelling along the Eastern side of Tanzania to Dar Es Salaam onto Zanzibar and back up to Tanga before crossing the border into Mombasa, Kenya. My work in Mombasa will involve teaching English and playing games with the local boys in the Mombasa slums. After doing so I'll go up and down the East coast before venturing into Central Kenya and departing Nairobi mid-March 2014.

A 5 month trip easily condensed for you!

Fundraising:

I'm paying for the whole trip myself, however since my current place of work (Croma restaurant, Odeon UCI Cinemas) is in partnership with the NSPCC I thought a brilliant way to raise money for the charity would be through my Kilimanjaro climb.
Odeon has a £2000 target, and thus far through Mud runs, O2 climbs and bucket collections they have raised around £800. Just yesterday I did a boot fair in aid of the NSPCC and through my rusty selling techniques I managed to gain just under £70.

Not bad for a first try!

I'll be trying to do boot fairs around the Tonbridge, West Malling and Tunbridge Wells area EVERY WEEKEND. This is dependant on stock and my being here (for example I'm in Munich next weekend)! If you have ANYTHING at all you can give please get in contact with me as it does run out quite fast (as I realised yesterday!).

Today I also start writing letters to the Marden Business Forum and other local business' in a plea for help with sponsorship in return for marketing at my events, during my climb and possibly at the Tonbridge Half Marathon.
In relation to that, a MASSIVE THANK YOU to Spice in Cranbrook for donating beautiful things for the boot sale, they sold really well and made a HUGE difference to the amount we raise. Check them out, they are a beautiful small shop selling bags, shoes, jewellery, tights, bath bits and other gorgeous home bits and bobs (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Spice/58528613277) (look above)