Fantastic Totals Thank you !

Thank you all so much for the fantastic totals we achieved in our fundraising for Point North 38.7 miles in July challenge.

In total the 56 members of the Pilates By Physiotherapy fundraising team covered 3,848 miles (walking / running and cycling) and donations totalled £6,247 (excluding gift aid)

I am completely blown away by these amounts. It has been a really enjoyable and fulfilling experience for me.

 Thank you to Michelle Cooper (CEO Point North and Pilates client) for getting in touch and asking if we would join the challenge. When we launched the idea at the end of June I really did not know how clients would respond. I felt covering 38.7 miles in a month was an achievable target for many of our clients. The idea that we could complete the target as individuals or as a group made the whole thing feel achievable. I knew many clients would like to find others to walk with and for myself having a target to cover would motivate me to increase my running distance and frequency. The idea of meeting up off our mats, doing exercise and having coffee seemed a great way to spend a month while raising funds for a very worthwhile charity.  

Point North Real Stories

People quickly expressed interest and so we formed two What’s App groups, one for running and one for walking. Thank you very much to Beth and Anna for organising these groups as I did not feel I could take on the whole challenge of covering the miles, organising the clients and keeping up the social media on my own. As with everything new there were lots of IT challenges to overcome and lots to learn!! Fundraising pages / Face book groups/ Facebook pages / Wix Broadcasts and Good old White Board messages at the studio hopefully meant everyone was kept up to date with what we were doing.

The month started well with a park run and coffee, that brought together a few people who had not done Park Run before. Thankyou to Jane who provided beautiful homemade cakes after a group walk the next week. Mike has been a great support guiding me on 3 practice bike rides. He sets a fast pace so thanks to Alison who took me for a fourth and well paced ride up to Knitsley as a final practice. We have been very lucky to have perfect weather for the whole month. Doing Park Run while I was away was a new experience which I really enjoyed. I shared Sam and Alice’s first Park run with them which was an absolute pleasure.  It has been a pleasure to share a few early morning runs with Claire as she prepares for the Great North Run. Clients enthusiasm has kept going for the whole month, people sharing their holiday photos on the Whats App groups showed true commitment !!   Clients submitted their miles to Anna and Beth every week so we could see as the month went by the donations and miles were growing at a rapid pace.

The last weekend of July was going to be busy. I hoped I had not over committed myself and my daughter Rachel to Saturday morning Park Run, 3 – 4 mile group walk and Sunday 38.7 mile bike ride.  Dress shopping in Newcastle on the Saturday afternoon was the icing on the cake!! By the third dressing room I was asking for a seat!! But we had a successful trip and the whole weekend was a great success. Archie just about survived running the park run and then doing a 3 + mile walk.

The 38.7 mile bike ride went very well. With a large amount of sponsorship already raised I was feeling a little nervous. Two lovely food stops, great views and great chat. Cycling and chatting at the same time was a new experience which I thoroughly enjoyed. Thanks to Jilly for dropping in to support us and to Aiden for fixing the chain on my bike (perfect timing as he just happened to be out running on the same route).

Thanks to Nicola for planning the route and David for carrying our extra layers as they were needed up at the windy tops of the Waskerley way.

The challenge now is to keep going with the routines set up in July ! I hope some of you will continue to walk together and that once a month we will walk together. I’m hoping to do the Park run some Saturdays and catch up with some of you runners for an early morning run.

 I am planning on visiting some of the projects that Point North are funding so if anyone would like to join me to see how our donations are being spent please do get in touch. Also follow the link below to see what projects are going on in our area.

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Thanks again to each and every one of you who doanated, a total of £6,247 is just simply amazing. Your kindness and generosity are hugely appreciated, Point North is doing great work and I look forwards to learning more about it over the next few months.

Keep up the regular aerobic exercise and Pilates to keep you in good health !

Anne