203 days ago
Yesterday I revealed how JustGiving almost forces folks to make a voluntary “tip” claiming that the cash will go to help charities raise money/improve its service when in fact the vast majority of it is paid out in dividends, £31 million in the last reported year. Amazingly the FCA regulates the charity platform so appears to sanction this deceit. Today I have received an email from Just Giving…
485 days ago
1275 days ago
I seem to have pulled some muscles in my back and shoulder and am in a bit of pain which will make tomorrow’s 34.2 mile walk from Winchester Cathedral to Woodlarks even more “fun”. But walk I shall as the quite amazing charity said that it needed to cover its costs in this year when its revenues have been eliminated by lockdown by us raising £48,000. So I will walk and I will finish. I won’t be alone but ask that you do your part and sponsor me as we seek to raise that £48,000. To those who have already done so, I say thank you, to the rest of you…
1411 days ago
I wrote in my weekly Tomograph Newsletter HERE this morning that, by this June, I hoped that over the space of four years, myself and my fellow rogue bloggers would have raised more than £200,000 for the amazing, if unfashionable, Woodlarks charity. That would cover about two years of its bare minimum running costs and absolutely every cent I have raised will go for the purpose it is intended for, enriching the lives of severely disabled young people. There is zero going on management or other purposes. How unlike some bigger names.
2020 days ago
Woodlarks is an amazing but incredibly unfashionable charity. If you give £10,000 to an organisation like Guide Dogs for the Blind or the RSPCA it makes no difference. Give £100 to Woodlarks and it will help change a life. And that is why, in ten days time I shall be walking the 33 miles from Horse Hill to the Woodlarks camp site.
2163 days ago
In 2018 in the first Rogue Bloggers for Woodlarks 33 mile walk, myself, Brokerman Dan and Lucian Miers raised more than £25,000 (£32,000 with gift aid) for the amazing, if unfashionable, Woodlarks Charity which provides unique holidays for severely handicapped young people and adults. Without the Woodlarks camp very few of those folks would get a holiday at all.
2313 days ago
On Saturday I shall try to walk 33 miles from Horse Hill to Woodlarks with Brokerman Dan and Lucian Miers, my fellow rogue bloggers. In this podcast I explain why I got involved so many years ago, what Woodlarks does and why all of you should donate to this great charity HERE. Please take 12 minutes out to listen and then make a donation.
2313 days ago
Brokerman Dan has been replaced as the maps man on our Woodlarks Charity walk on Saturday. Perhaps we now know why in his former career he did not always get away. For it turns out that the walk is not 32 miles but 33. Lucian has mapped it out in full. Cripes. We now need just over £2,000 to reach our £20,000 target so if you have not yet sponsored me please do so HERE. Get us to target & I will shut up about it. In the podcast I look at IQE (IQE), Rangers FC and another date in court for Dave King, Thirsty Paul Scott not understanding what research means & wanting me not to cover Sosandar (SOS), Cenkos (CNKS), ADVFN (AFN) and Online Blockchain (OBC), Highlands Natural Resources (HNR) and Fishing Republic (FISH) which, I think, is AIM toast in waiting
2345 days ago
In the build up to my 32 mile charity walk for Woodlarks on July 28, I planned to build on last week’s 15 miler stroll with 19 miles and it all started so well. My pal Lucian Miers drove over from Winchester first thing and at 8 AM we started walking from just near Bristol Temple Meads. According to my calculations the Bath Bristol Railway path was 13 miles and Bath to the Hop Pole Inn on the other side was 6 miles largely along the Kennet & Avon Canal.
2363 days ago
In just under two months I shall be doing a 30 mile walk for the excellent Woodlarks Charity with my friend the blogger and former bank robber Brokerman Dan. Dan is rather fitter than I am and keeps tweeting messages about how he is just popping out for a quick 10 mile training yomp. I do not know if he is just trying to spook me or if he is serious but I have a horrible feeling that it is the latter.
2394 days ago
Those of you in the Woodford session at UK Investor Show may have noticed that when coming off stage I was greeted not only by the Mrs and Joshua but by a very pretty teenage girl who was chatting to Mark Slater and Nigel Wray. That is my Welsh Nationalist daughter Olaf who is the reason Nigel and I have been involved with Woodlarks for so long.
2479 days ago
I have been consistent over many years in my belief that at almost every level the Oxfam charity is not fit for purpose, as you can see from a stream of articles HERE. I try to persuade my reactionary old father that he should stop pretending to my PC sisters that he is one of them by giving money to Oxfam but to no avail. Maybe today I might get my way, you see it appears his cash has been spent on underage hookers.
2563 days ago
The loathsome, state funded, fake news producing, BBC will tonight tell you that “all your donation will go to Children in Need.” They will not tell you that "all your donations go to children in need." Do you get the difference? It is c£8 million quid of difference.
2660 days ago
Anyone with kids will know the classic tale The Gruffalo. One godfather of my baby son Joshua recently worked in the Shetland Islands so gave him a copy of the book in Shetlandese. I was reading that to Joshua, the other day, when a mining fellow called Paul Johnson rang and Paul said that if I recorded a podcast of the Gruffalo in Shetlandese then he would donate £100 to my favourite charity Woodlarks, which I have been supporting for more than a decade and a half. I know that I will sound like a total prat and my apologies go out to Gruffalo author Julia Donaldson and to the entire population of the Shetland Isles but it is for a good cause. If you appreciate this exercise in self-humiliation and wish to make a small donation to a good cause go to the Woodlarks website HERE
2913 days ago
On my way to Heathrow I stopped off at the Woodlarks campsite in Surrey a place where I have had an involvement since the birth of my daughter Olaf almost sixteen years ago, as I explained HERE. This site provides holidays for folks who are severely disabled and who would otherwise not get any sort of break. It is not a fashionable charity but it is one I have supported financially and which readers have supported over many years. To all those who have donated both to the Christmas festivities for 181 kids and also to the ongoing work here is the proof that your cash has made a difference.
3902 days ago
The only charity I support (it is a long story) is Woodlarks. It is an amazing organisation which provides severely handicapped folks with probably their only opportunity to enjoy a holiday each year. This is not a fluffy kitten fashionable charity. Keeping it going is hard work and the team at Woodlarks are all total heroes.
Now I ask can you spare £5 a month? Or even £10 a month? I shall keep asking until I find enough people who say yes. Woodlarks has a special swimming pool for its campers which needs to be very well heated and that costs money. £15,000 a year.
And so it has launched an appeal asking those who can afford £5 a month or even £10 a month to make out a standing order to keep the pool heated and going.
I will kick this off with a £10 a month pledge. If 124 others make the same pledge then I shall stop banging on about this. Until then, I shall not let up.
Please help, this is not a fashionable charity or one with celebs backing it. If you can spare £5 or even £10 a month make the Woodlarks pledge now.
You can download a form here
