Update #2 - For the more optimisitc reader

Next month (March) sees the attempted launch by me of a fundraising initiative called "Yorkshire Sport; giving people a sporting chance".

Everyone says I'll get knock-back after knock-back but hey, someone has to try it and anyone that knows me just KNOWS I won't give up until the very end once a challenge has been set. Here goes nothing (Alison, I'll need your help on this one please).

I also hope to hear that the Manchester-based art 'thing' gets the thumbs up so I can start to plan it properly; thanks to Lucia and Ben for saying they're interested. Wonder if I can get ArtPlatform interested too, and Alison to display some of her fantastic charcoals. If it gets the go-ahead I'll need some work doing in the background on this too (err, Alison .....) and another 2-3 artists to agree to offer their work for sale, with a % of proceeds going to the charity of their choice in my 'stable' of 10.

Time for bed. Another big week ahead

Update #1 - This is for my overseas readers

Hey, how are you? Listen I just had this CRAZY idea that maybe, just maybe, you knew of someone in your country who would want to come on the North Pole Trek. It is quite expensive but it is also surely a once in a lifetime experience.

If you do know someone direct them to http://www.charitychallenge.com/ and let's make this a truly international trek!

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Hey, comment vas-tu? Ecoute, je viens d'avoir cette idée folle que peut-être, juste peut-être, vous connaissaient quelqu'un dans votre pays qui veulent venir sur le Trek du pôle Nord. Il est assez cher mais c'est aussi sans doute une fois dans une expérience de vie.

Si vous ne connaissez quelqu'un à les diriger vers www.charitychallenge.com et faisons de ce trek un véritable internationale!

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Hey, ¿cómo estás? Escucha acabo de tener esta idea loca de que tal vez, sólo tal vez, que sabía de alguien en su país que se quiere venir a la excursión al Polo Norte. Es bastante caro, pero también es sin duda una vez en una experiencia de vida.

Si usted conoce a alguien directamente a www.charitychallenge.com y vamos a hacer de este un viaje verdaderamente internacional!

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Này, thế nào là bạn? Nghe tôi chỉ có ý tưởng này phát điên rằng có lẽ, chỉ có thể, bạn biết của một ai đó ở nước bạn những người sẽ muốn đi vào Bắc Cực Trek. Nó là khá đắt tiền nhưng nó cũng chắc chắn một lần trong một kinh nghiệm cuộc đời.

Nếu bạn biết ai đó dẫn họ tới www.charitychallenge.com và chúng ta hãy làm một chuyến đi này thực sự quốc tế!

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ねえ、お元気ですか？私は多分、もしかしたら、あなたは北極点スタートレックに来て欲しいあなたの国で誰か知っているこのクレイジーなアイディアを持っていた聞いてください。これはかなり高価ですが、それは一生に一度の経験確実にもあります。

誰かがそれらをhttp://www.charitychallenge.com/に指示するとのは、この真に国際的なトレッキングを聞かせてわかっている場合！

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G'day sport. Fancy a couple of tinnies that are well chilled? Why not surf your way to http://www.charitychallenge.com/ and show these Pommies how to do it?

International audience update

United Kingdom = 541 (don't have space to list you all, but LinkedIn, Twitter and now Facebook are sources)

United States = 104 (whoever you are, beyond my family members, thank you for taking a peek)

Germany = 4 (Tania, the TWOTS and ...... err)

Australia = 2 (blimey, perm any 2 from 4 possible readers)

Canada  = 2 (Gary and Stephen I'd guess; correct?)

Russia = 2 (wish I could write in Russian)

Spain = 1 (Mrs Koltunicki, hola)

France = 1 (Malcolm I presume; get off your bike young man and get on some skis)

New Zealand = 1 (best wishes Phil and sympathies to all in NZ at this time)

Singapore  = 1 (hello Yvonne) Vietnam  = 1 (hello .... whoever you are)

11:30pm already????

Where does the time go? Still, I've promised to do a weekly round-up and tomorrow I'll probably just want to flop down when I finally finish my last activity of the week, making sure both my girls are back safe from work.

So highlights this week are as follows: -

- Found out the trek is 75 miles, assuming no 'drift' otherwise it will be what it will be. My sled will weigh 30kg fully laden. Thanks to Alan Chambers MBE, our expedition leader for those gems of info. He's suggested that if I do take a GPS from Boston Spa School, not to look at it as it could be de-motivating if we drift.

- David Miller of Bartfields Chartered Accountants is delighted to support the trek and will be independently verifying the income and expenditure relating to my fundraising activities. That way donators as well as the charities can rest assured there will be transparency and robustness about the whole money 'thing'.

- Great conversations with Siobhan at Jane Tomlinson Appeal and with the Heart Research UK team today (Thursday)

- 2 promised (in writing) donations totalling £600 received today, so I'm through the £1 000 mark across all charities; £99 000 to go.

- Starbucks in the Arndale in Manchester now have details of my Trek up on their Community Board (thanks to them for doing that) and I've started discussions with a restaurant over there to see if we can have a Trek event in the restaurant with some of the proceeds going to the charity pot/s.

- Yorkshire Evening Post photographer is out to see me training on 5th March so we'll see when the article is published.

- LOVE the idea of a '1 year to go' launch party with all the Yorkshire charities involved (great idea Rachel) and will push the National charities on the idea too (although one might have to be aligned to when I leave for the Pole and one to when I set foot at the Pole).

You know I have got SOOOOOO much to do but days like today make me realise it's all so worthwhile; I want some celebrity support, chase the possibility of TV coverage, prepare my advert for the Yorkshire Mafia Conference, need to follow through with 3 ideas for fundraising and then prep for another big week next week but now, I intend to go to sleep.

PS. Just to confirm ......

In case I've been vague across this blog, my new Twitter account and various publications, maybe it's time to re-state the following: -

1. I'll be part of a group of up to 8 individuals all trying to raise money for charities of their choice. There will be a professional trek lead to manage us all and he'll have a flare gun to scare polar bears away with.

2. I have 10 charities I'm raising money for; they are (Yorkshire & Humberside-based) Jane Tomlinson Appeal, Heart Research UK, Candlelighters, Yorkshire Air Ambulance and Yorkshire Cancer Research as well as (national charities with local ties) Help for Heroes, MacMillan Nurses, Muscular Dystrophy Org, the Samaritans and the Multiple Sclerosis Society.

3. This trek is hopefully just one in a series of adventures I'll undertake over the next 10 years (Cuba was simply a lightweight intro to exercise). Next one after the Pole is going to be a bespoke adventure for others to share if they want to.

4. The £100 000 target is mine and mine alone, not a group target. I'm underwriting the £25 000 cost of my participation on the Trek but if I can get £12 500 from corporate sponsors to specifically co-fund it in return for PR and Marketing leverage for them, I'll happily accept.

5. Any and all offers of help appreciated. I have a personal trainer but all advice accepted gratefully and graciously, I'm doing all the chasing, talking, visits, driving PR, e-mailing, tweets and blog entries myself whilst trying to ensure my girls, my client and my life continues as is. Boy could I do with some free support on all that, but it's not for the feint-hearted, that's for sure!!

6. Uh-oh, supermarket shuts in less than an hour. Gotta go .................................

Air, give me fresh air .....

Well so far today I appear to have been lashed to my PC (Twitter, e-mails and Word).

At least I can confirm another £300+ of donations are heading my way, have thanked several people (including & especially Ohh-La-La MD Caroline Broquere and 'the Don' Geoff Shepherd) for their words and gestures of support, have customised 15 one-page summaries about the Trek for potentially 'interested parties' and tonight will prep for my meeting in the morning with an auditing company who I hope will offer their services for free to provide a degree of rigour, transparency and robustness for potential donators to feel comforted by.

After all, if I'm hunting for a Lead Trek sponsor for £15k (£10k to charity and £5 towards the £25k cost of the trek) and up to 5 Foundations Partners (£4k to charity and £1k towards the cost of the Trek each) then they have to feel secure in the degree of control and monitoring control I have. Blimey, sound like Fitz at work now!!

I also have at least 5 letters to write to Trek prospects as well as confirming something with 3 of the charities but now Sunday gets really exciting; yes I need to go to the supermarket. Hey, I never said this blog was free of sarcasm did I   : )

P.S.

Below are my 'viewing' figures for this blog from when it started; getting a bit of an international following : )

United Kingdom 478

United States 79

Australia 2

Canada 2

Germany 2

Russia 2

Spain 1

France 1

New Zealand 1

Singapore 1

Good night again : )

It's late but I owe you a round-up

Evening to all 'followers' and casual readers alike

It's 2239hrs GMT on Thursday 17th and whilst I'm tired and need to go to bed (several late nights, early mornings and an impromptu and factually incorrect celebration by others of my fictitious 51st birthday last night), I'm also conscious I've not typed for almost a week. So here goes, in no particular order: -

a) I now have 11 dedicated followers on here and 33 on Twitter. Yes yes I know I said I probably would regret the Twitter thing but let's see; slowly does it and hopefully the 'tweets' are of some interest to the readers.

b) The Yorkshire Evening Post photography editor e-mailed today to set-up a photo opp so I'll be sorting that tomorrow as well as my half-page ad in the Yorkshire Post Business supplement for the Yorkshire Mafia Conference and Exhibition in mid-March.

c) Through a contact at Candlelighters, I now have the interest of a prospective media partner (radio) and what I'd currently call a passing interest by a TV programme. Media partner meeting is on the 1st March so watch this space.

d) A key factor in adding some gravitas and transparency to the fundraising is partnering with a company approved to provide the services of an auditor, regulated and authorised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants so I'm delighted to have a meeting with a medium-sized Leeds-based company next week. I hope their presence means 'Business' will feel less wary of donating to a mystery-man.

e) Already caught up with the Muscular Dystrophy fundraising team who, amongst several brilliant ideas, have also suggested I link up with a sufferer throughout my prep and post my trek; what a heart-warming and emotionally grounding experience that would be.

f) Sue B at Hallam University has done a f-a-n-t-a-s-t-i-c job of not only enthusing the PR & Journalism faculty about their potential involvement but also attracting the interest of the Sport (research guys) who think my prep has great potential for a Masters project. Just pleased the Taxidermist department and Forensic Science team are not also showing an interest : )

g) Wore my Yorkshire Cancer Research t-shirt to the gym on Saturday and had one comment (no, not that the blue clashed with my eyes).

h) An English Premier League club has said yes to featuring me in TWO of their matchday programmes; one before and one after (so at least they're also hopeful I'll return).

i) Trying to speak to Mark at Yorkshire Air Ambulance after a nice reply from Gareth at The Chocolate Factory (who also sponsor YAA); must be some win-win-win potential PR there.

j) Meeting with Heart Research UK next week (hello Barbara) and MacMillan (hi Jamie) week after; must kick-off PR work with them and then complete the initial discussions with the remaining charities (including the Help for Heroes planned activity in North Yorkshire in late 2011) before 'round 2' of activities start.

k) All this and MUST maintain my hours, effort and attention at my clients.

Now I just know there's more buzzing round in my head so I hope it settles down as Tuesday night it took hours to get to sleep and then woke at 4:30am with head buzzing again. Oh yes ......

l) My old Comprehensive school at Boston Spa is keen to get involved in many ways, including asking me to carry a GPS tracker and temperature USB so they can monitor my progress. That's just one of 7 ways we discussed an educational JV for which I would commit the equivalent of one day per calendar month to support.

Donations are slow so far, disappointing even, but fingers crossed that after April and before October there will be some real progress

Okay, time for bed. Tired so will say goodnight before I drop off to slee ...... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

What are the stories behind the story?

Good evening and welcome to the start of the weekend.

Well the last time I went to the gym was Sunday so after a 3-trip weekend last weekend when my abs and shoulders ached (which I bizarrely enjoyed) I've been so 'busy' this week I haven't been back. Uh-oh, 'Dora the Explorer' at work will be giving me hell for that! I'm back in the gym tomorrow and Sunday though so I'll no doubt pay the price by Monday morning.

So a strange week in many ways and although a great chat with Alison (Al') on Monday night and night out to see Spamalot on Wednesday were real highlights, today has been nothing short of inspiring; let me explain and let me explain the title of this e-mail.

Having had the luxury of an extra 90 minutes in bed this morning I was fresh for a trip back to my old Comprehensive school @ Boston Spa. I'd written to them several weeks ago offering to link-up regarding any educational opportunities my trip and the prep for it offered and they kindly said "Come and talk to us ... you idiot". Weeeell ok maybe the tone in their voice implied the last two words but today my contact, Colin Martin, did basically ask if I was bonkers. Hmm a common theme in recent conversations I must say.

Anyway we agreed there was real food for thought with their Science department (they think they'd like me to take a GPS and a thermometer USB to let them track my progress), and maybe Geography and Sports Departments also getting involved too.  Promising stuff with lots more to discuss.

After that it was an hours drive to Sheffield to first meet up with Marc Rocca of Rocca Creative (congrats on the proposed house move to you all) and swap thoughts, stories and laughter ... what a great bloke he is as well as a creative guru ..... and then it was Sue from Sheffield Hallam University. I knew Sue from her time as a Team Co-Ordinator at Freemans call centre in Sheffield but she is now an Educational Developer and is currently working with the Journalism students to develop multi-media online news blogs.

LOTS of ideas from Sue and whilst we'll see what we can develop I am very excited about the possible links through her and the students. Maybe even the Sports Science students could get involved but I'm especially keen on a strap-line that popped into my head during the chat; 'what are the stories behind the story?'

After all a guy going to the North Pole to raise money for charity is a story, but there is a richness behind that headline of so many other stories. Wonder if they (and others) will tap into them for that's where the depth and 'hooks' lie in my humble opinion?

After Sheffield I was back up north, back to Leeds, to meet Sara Benson from the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign; what a fabulous session she and I had and what a wonderfully pro-active individual she is. So many ideas were generated, and I had the chance to meet Brian (the Chairman for Yorkshire & Humberside region). That conversation created a myriad of thoughts that are going through my brain about possible sponsors:  37 or more thoughts and ideas to persue. (Al' if you're reading this, I need your brain as well as your organisational skills !!!)

Again, with Sara, the new PR strap-line; 'what are the stories behind the story?' came through loud and clear. Guess the question is, how many of the stories behind the story do I really want to share? Hmmm.

And so now to chill-out; some rare 'me' time this week in what has been a fun but draining week. Long may they continue.

And another Sunday bites the dust

Been to the gym three times for a total of nearly 5 hours this weekend, summary written for the radio broadcaster, summary written for journalism students in Sheffield, letter sent to all 10 charities so I can start to build a PR campaign, Amazon order re-ordered because the delivery company messed up (not that that has anything to do with the trek but it really pi**ed me off tonight; sorry you've had to wait Debbie - happy belated birthday) and I think that's pretty good progress on top of all the other 'stuff' that has to happen on a weekend.

Friday sees me at 4 meetings; trying to fit a 5th one in at 8am (any takers?) and I'll be making up for the fact that I'll be missing two mid-week gym sessions.

Cross trainer session today; 45 minutes on setting 8 maintaining over 100 spm with a short weights and abs session after that included me lifting (six repetitions) the heaviest weight I've ever chest-pressed. I mean like .... EVER!!!

Okay, got to go. Packing an overnight bag and proof-reading something before I sleep. Then got to try to be at my desk by 8am so Andrew has to buy me a breakfast coffee. I know, some people deprive themselves of sleep for the most ridiculous reasons. He's a good 'un really is Andrew despite his occassionally rubbish jokes  : )

Hmm still no donations for the Yorkshire-based charities and not many starting to flow for the others either but it's early days and I've got to remember that it is nearly 14 months to my first foot in the Polar region.

Just a quickie tonight; more tomorrow

First press release went out last night (written by me, despatched by Glenn @ PR for Less) and 4 of the 10 charities now have definite plans to progress some PR and photo opportunities. So far 3 e-mails from the press release, one feature being written in the Yorkshire Evening Post and the possibility of a trip down to the House of Lords in London for a photo shoot via one of the charities.

Oh and another of the charities has said BBC Look North might be interested in seeing me fall over on a ski slope. Ok ok so those are my words not theirs but I bet that's the hook; old portly guy can't ski and wants to go to the North Pole. Well you know what? If it gets donations flowing-in then GREAT, let's do it.

Also needed to write a one-page summary for a UK national radio station that has local shows; bugger, I forgot to do that tonight as went to the gym. Tomorrow for sure!! We'll see if that helps build their interest or dies a death. I've mentioned 'UK' because I have a small international fan base and the States are 'rocking'; 59 page hits this week (thanks to my brother, Can' and Char' ..... you know who you are).

Opened up  a Twitter account yesterday, despite my better judgement. WHAT a waste of time reading 'tweets' from the handful of people I thought I'd try to follow for inspiration (although I'm hoping there's some salvation now I've added Stephen Fry, John Cleese, Monica Belluci and Gene Simmons). If this continues its depressing trend I'm deleting it all tomorrow!!

Okay time to go. Triple gym-fest this weekend so need some rest.

P.S. Thanks to 'speed-queen' Naomi for trying to put me in touch with one of her friends who is training for a cross-country ski challenge.