So many people do such great things to help worthy causes, and Ian Hamblin is no exception!!
Please help me to get him the support and donations he needs
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My eyes lit up when I saw the challenge. 6 days trekking through the rugged and no doubt sweltering humidity of the Thailand Jungles. Diabetes UK had sent me news of the challenge via their regular email updates and it wasn’t long before I was excitedly signing up to take part in this tough trek through a country I knew little about.
That’s how I set about the daunting task of raising nearly £3,000 for Diabetes UK so that I could take my place on the expedition. But this brought me to the 2nd challenge. Raising the money! I was very excited about what I was taking on but also wary of the massive challenge I was facing.
After a few months of trying a few things to raise the money it was clear that simply asking for donations was not working. For one thing, it was putting me in the role of a taker, which was not only ineffective at raising the funds, it didn’t particularly feel good to have my hand constantly held out towards other people. I then stumbled upon the obvious conclusion.
The best way to receive anything is to give first!
It seems like an obvious statement, but when we want something how many of us automatically put our hands out? We’ve all done it and it’s nothing to be ashamed of. Just human nature i’m afraid!
A little while after this insight, I got talking to a friend about the fact I was raising money for charity and he jokingly suggested we should abseil down the nearest building as batman and robin. After giggling away to myself for a moment, I realised it was actually a damn good idea. And after spreading the idea around a few friends on Facebook, it was clear that there were quite a few other friends who were very keen to join in the abseiling. I think i had about 15 people very interested in a few hours.
Image courtesy of jf01350
I had my action plan. I could give people an amazing life experience and at the same time ask them to help me raise funds in the process. I quickly sought out a company to organise the abseiling and set about finding a building to do it from. I created the www.newcastleabseil.com website to promote the event and keep people updated.
At the time of writing this, I still have a bit to go until I (and hopefully many others) throw themselves off the side of a building for a good cause, but I’m enjoying every step and obstacle as it comes along. There have been days where my enthusiasm began to wane, but it wouldn’t take long before someone would ask “Hey Ian. How’s the abseiling coming along?” and my enthusiasm would be renewed as I told them about where I was.
Without other people around me I’d have given up or moved on to something else long ago. It’s other people’s enthusiasm that has helped me to keep going, especially when I was working on the project late on a Friday night, when I wanted t to be relaxing!
Image courtesy of jf01350
But the biggest thing I’ve learned is the false belief that it doesn’t mean anything unless you do it all yourself. Even top athletes have teams of 50+ people helping them to get the gold. Getting as many people involved in my project has been the best thing about it. I simply can’t wait to have a an amazing time scaring myself to death along with some amazing people and hopefully raise a lot of money in the process. And with it, we’ll get George back to the jungle where he belongs!
Ian Hamlin
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