Fantastic news today!  Rybrook, Worcester, have pledge generous corporate sponsorship towards the administration of my Channel swim.  This terrific offer brings me that much closer to making the attempt possible, and takes me 2/3 of the way towards the target amount required.

The sponsorship offer from Rybrook serves as a superb example of the long term, continuing support they have expressed towards Acorns children's hospice.

I would like to make my heartfelt thanks known to Rybrook, and wish everyone the very best of season's wishes.

Things have been quiet on my blog.  There has not been much to report other than my standard training: swimming at David Lloyds when possible, and going to the gym across the road from work as often as I can.  But today, fairly spontaneously, I ended up doing something I had not done for a long time...

A friend at work, Duncan, somehow got convinced to enter a 'Running Advent Calendar' challenge.  As you may guess, it involves running 1km on day one, and increasing the distance every day, until you run 26km.  Today, Duncan was due to run 18km.  He came in early to make up his hours, and planned to go out during the day.  As he planned his route on-line, I told him I used to run through St James's Park, Green park and Hyde park (in London, obviously).  As Duncan then began to alter his route to ensure he achieved his 18km whilst also going through the parks, I found myself asking if I could join him.

So it was that we found ourselves dodging human traffic through the Christmas markets as we ran towards Westminster Bridge, and enjoyed a steady jog through the Royal parks.  It took an hour and a half, and I must admit my legs ached a bit afterwards, not used to anything more than 6 miles (and that often on the treadmill, not the open road).

Quite how Duncan will manage doing 19km tomorrow, with the prospect of building up to 26km, I don't know.

For me, today's run made a nice change.  But now I have to turn my attention back to putting the distance into my swimming.

Today I was honoured with being able to tell Dovetail US staff about why an apparently sane Training Manager would volunteer to try and swim through the busiest shipping channel in the world, dodging super-tankers weighing hundreds of thousands of tons, and braving seas cold enough to induce hypothermia.

The reason for this speech was to justify the recommendation of Acorns Children’s Hospice as the nominated charity for 50% of the money raised for the US Christmas raffle.  With around 100 staff in the room, the noise level began at low, moved through to quite, on to silent, and ended at vacuumous.

Ending on a high note, I encouraged everyone present to request an invite to visit a children’s hospice for a brief period.  I ensured them they will witness something totally unexpected – something contrary to what preconceptions will have told them takes place.

The truth is that Children’s hospices are NOT places to simply go and die. They are places where experienced and highly qualified staff help children and families make the most out of every second of precious life – albeit that the life is limited.  These establishments can genuinely be places to find smiles and laughter.  You will witness children playing games with each other; parents with terminally ill children being able to relax and talk to people in exactly the same situation; and willing volunteers dedicating precious time to read and play with life-limited children.

At the end of my speech I drew the winning raffle ticket.  The prize was $500 cash.  The winner, a lovely young lady called Brenda, hugged me and accepted her prize for the camera. 

Then came the shock:

Taking back her original ticket cost of $20, Brenda promptly pledged the other $480 to Acorns.

I must admit, I thought this personal contribution, particularly at Christmas, was too much.  I suggested that Brenda keep the $480, and donate $20 - After all, Acorns were already due to receive the other $500.

But Brenda was adamant.  And though I have no wish to create any competition between the very generous amounts people are (and already have been) contributing, a single, personal donation of $480 is simply outstanding!

The new, updated figure of raised funds will soon be available on http://www.justgiving.com/Alan-Gale1.  In the mean time, I’d like to give a huge personal thank you to Brenda, and to Dovetail for deciding to nominate Acorns for their chosen charity this year.

Later today Dovetail will allow me to do the US office draw for the 50/50 raffle mentioned in a previous post.  At that time, I'm going to take the opportunity to explain how I ended up in the admittedly daft situation of wanting to swim the English Channel.

It will be interesting to see how our family story is received.

It's encouraging to know that my efforts are inspiring others.  Yesterday I learned that a local firefighter, Lee Harding, had seen my successful 1000 press up challenge Tweeted by Craig Gillies.  From what I can gather, Lee is working on Christmas day.  In the anticipation and hope that there will not be a call out during his shift, he has challenged himself and other firefighters to also complete 1000 press ups within an hour.

Hopefully, as well as passing the time constructively, Lee and his colleagues will raise some money for charity.  I wish them well in their efforts.

Today I received an unexpected, but very welcome request.

My employer, Dovetail, has a New Jersey office comprising around 150 employees (I'm currently in the US office as I update this blog).  At Christmas, the office runs a raffle, whereby employees buy as many tickets as they wish, with a ‘winner take half’ prize at stake.  The other 50% goes to charity.

Last year there was an immediately identifiable local charity, what with Hurricane Sandy directly affecting many of the staff, their friends and/or family.  This year, senior management were somewhat at a loss as to which charity they should nominate, until the HR director pointed out that they had a member of staff actively participating in a charitable event, and that Dovetail were already contributing towards administration costs.

So today I was asked if it would be ok for the 50% charitable donation to be gifted to Acorns.  It wasn't a hard decision to make.

As far as I understand, the draw will be made on Friday of this week.  I should know at that point how much extra has been raised towards my target of £10,000.