Fundraising, life & business

It is a truly amazing place. The courses, help and support offered are brilliant but like most organisations of this kind, it is under-funded. It really bought home to me how important charity events like the marathon are for these organisations.

We visited the vocational service centre which is where our money will be spent. It really motivated me to raise as much money as possible. What is offered is life changing to so many people. The stories which we heard and which show such resilience, grit and determination make you realise how lucky we are. I wake up in the morning, in the warm, in a comfy bed; I can walk and talk, I have my health and have my family and friends not too far away. How I take this all for granted.

 Life-changing Disability

Just imagine how it would be if one day you woke up and couldn’t walk, or lost your sight, or had a life changing accident that meant you could no longer take part in life as you know it? Imagine being born with a condition that meant you would be in a wheelchair for the rest of your life? It is impossible; we have no idea what this would be like, how it would affect us, change our personality. Imagine one minute leading a care-free life and the next minute it’s gone; you have to then rely on support, care from others to manage on a day to day basis. The impact of this on confidence, self-esteem I can’t even comprehend.

Emily's Story

One example: Encephalitis and meningitis caused Emily severe brain injury that left her completely dependent upon carers.“Aged 17 I had achieved 13 GCSEs, was studying for A levels and hopeful of a University place. I woke up one morning unable to see, by the afternoon I was on a life support machine. Encephalitis and meningitis caused a severe brain injury that left me unable to speak or walk and completely dependent upon carers."

Making a Difference...

The QEF is essential for supporting people with not only physical disabilities but invisible ones such as dyslexia, hearing impairments, mental health conditions which from looking at someone you wouldn’t realise they had. Many of the residents and clients suffer from depression as a secondary factor due to their disability. This is often brought on from lacking in confidence, their quality of life and feeling insignificant within society. To me this is simply awful. I almost feel embarrassed by running these marathons as I actually love the running, the challenge, the tiredness and everything that comes with it. My body functions as it should, I know I can do it and that’s it. The clients and residents at the QEF don’t have the choice that I do but they are so overwhelming supportive and thankful for us doing the marathon/s. This makes me feel slightly uncomfortable as really am I do them to fulfil some deep rooted need within myself, to make myself feel better? The effort that is required to run a marathon/s is nothing compared to what many have to deal with on a daily basis.  I’ve decided to look at it like this, my sister and I are lucky, we can run and are ok at it so why not capitalise this and do something which will help others through it and if it makes me feel better about myself then that’s fine too.

Are You Too Judgemental?

The visit also made me think about how we judge people on a day to day basis, I don’t care what people say the truth is that we do. I met some clients on the courses today and from looking at them you would have no idea of the day to day struggles they face. This started me thinking about my life, my career, networking and how more than often I am at fault of doing this.  We do make judgements about people which are not always right.

My learning from today’s experience is something that I urge you all to be aware of please don’t judge a book my it’s cover, don’t make assumptions about people you have only met once or you meet fleetingly at a networking meeting. We all do but wouldn’t it be great if we took at step back from this and gave each other more than once chance to make that right impression.  None of us are perfect, we all have different personalities, characteristics which is what makes the world an interesting place to be.

Conquering Self-doubt

As for courage, grit and determination. We all know that this is needed to make our business a success and we all have moments where we falter, doubt ourselves, even feel sorry for ourselves. When these moments occur perhaps we should think of others out there who are not as fortunate as us and  a shining example of what can be achieved not necessarily in business but in life, fuelled by  sheer determination and focus. Those individuals who have faced adversity, have been told they will never walk again only to amaze those around them and accomplished the unthinkable.

When you think of it like this, we really don’t have much to complain, instead we should be grateful for what we have.

Please Help Us to Help Them...

I wrote this with the hope that a) you will support my sister and I with you fundraising http://www.justgiving.com/themartinsisters/ b) the next time you are networking think twice about dismissing someone c) you realise how lucky you are every day and lastly d) what can you do to enhance the lives of others or what act of kindness / charity can you become involved in? A smile is always a good start and costs nothing.