Donating through this site is simple, fast and totally secure. It is also the most efficient way to sponsor me: British Heart Foundation will receive your money faster and, if you are a UK taxpayer, an extra 28% in tax will be added to your gift at no cost to you.

Circumstances have dictated that I will be undertaking 12 months of challenges between my 30th and 31st birthdays comprising long-standing ambitions, whimsical fancies and drunken agreements .  I have given it the unnecessarily grand title of 30th Year Challenges*.  The specific challenges are not set in stone but at the moment may include:

• 27 January 2008 - Tough Guy
• 18 March 2008 - Alcatraz Bay Swim
• 21 June 2008 - Three Peaks Challenge
• 20 July 2008 - New York Triathlon
• 9 November 2008 - Athens Marathon

I will be recording the year for as long as I can be bothered at 30thyearchallenges.blogspot.com. 

You can't do these things without being sponsored, not least to motivate/guilt trip me into continuing.  I am raising money for two charities - The Stroke Association (www.justgiving.com/30thyearchallenges-stroke) and the British Heart Foundation.  Please donate to one or both of them as they are researching diseases that sadly are almost guaranteed to impact on everybody's lives.  All offline donations will be split equally.

*To the nit-picking army (and I know your numbers are on the rise since Lynne Truss made pedantry a respectable hobby) I realise it is technically my 31st year but that isn't as catchy.