It feels completely surreal writing this blog post. On October 21st last year we decided to sign up for the adventure of a lifetime by taking on the Mongol Rally 2019. Since then we’ve spent countless hours planning our route, looking into FCO travel advise, applying for visas, buying our car, trying (and failing) to fix our car, debating whether or not to go through Iran, and deciding what we definitely shouldn’t miss on this incredible road trip.
There is one thing that we spent more time on than all of the things mentioned above combined: raising money for the Bone Cancer Research Trust. Indeed, we’ve dedicated this entire adventure to the memory of a fellow Teddy Hall legend, Matt Greenwood, who died of bone cancer in 2016, and hence it felt completely natural to dedicate our time and resources to fundraise for the BCRT.
We set out with what we thought would be an extremely ambitious goal: to raise £5,000 before we (hopefully) reach the finish line in Ulan-Ude in the end of August. But thanks to our amazing friends, the Teddy Hall community and everyone else who’s donated to our cause, we are grateful, humbled and honored to report that we have already exceeded that goal!!!!
We are in no way done fundraising, so from now on it is simply a question of how much more we can raise for the BCRT, to help them improve existing bone cancer treatments, develop new ones, and support families who are struck by this disease.
If reaching our original fundraising target is not a good excuse to pause and look back at our fundraising efforts so far, we don’t know what is. So here it goes:
1) With the support of the postgraduate student body at St Edmund Hall we organized a charity Formal Dinner back in February. Joining forces with Cirkus, a night club in the center of Oxford, and a multitude of local shops, we raised money through selling raffle tickets and discounted entry and drinks for a night out. The dinner was a success and we raised just short of £500!
2) Rowing is massive in Oxford, and the biggest rowing event of the year takes place in May. We decided to organize a BBQ down at the river on the very last day, where more than 15,000 people come down to watch all the Oxford colleges competing against each other on the water. Yet again, the student body at St Edmund Hall supported us by sponsoring all of the food and drinks, so every single £ worth of burgers and beers we sold went straight to our fundraising! This event was by far our single biggest fundraising event, and we raised more than £1,500 in a single day!
3) To be able to document our road trip, Freddie has stocked up on photo equipment. Partly to practice and improve his photo skills, and partly because we realized it would be another way to raise money, we’ve sent him out to take photos of various events around Oxford (summer parties, debates at the Oxford Union, rowing, and dinners). Collectively, we’ve raised more than £500 this way!
While the above accounts for a big portion of our current tally, it doesn’t account for all of it. We could not have reached our goal without the support of our friends, families, the Teddy Hall community, and everyone else who’s deemed us and our story worthy of their support. We are incredibly grateful for your support and we will continue our fundraising until we reach Ulan-Ude – so stay tuned!
And pssst: if you haven’t donated yet, there is still time – have a look at our JustGiving page.
Comentários