Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

As some of you may know, I'm off to Costa Rica and Nicaragua in Febuary 2010 on a Raleigh expedition for 10 weeks. While I'm out there, I will be volunteering with local communities to help improve basic living conditions.

I have a fundraising target of £1000 to pay towards the charity and the work we will be undertaking out there, as well as sponsoring local young people. I have already contributed £200 to the fund myself, and now I'm looking to all you lovely people to help!

So... having pondered what on earth I can do to get you all to sponsor me, I decided I would do something that I REALLY HATE... I'm going to run... in a race.... and it is going to be horrendous. I've had to change location from the original idea, but I'm now doing the Tatton 10k, in Tatton Park, Knutsford, on the same day, the 13 December 2009.

10km of cold, probably rainy, humiliation.... so PLEASE PLEASE SPONSOR ME AND MAKE MY SUFFERING WORTHWHILE!!!

If 100 people sponsor me £1 a kilometre... I'm there!! So go on... please? Pretty please?

PLEASE REMEMBER TO GIFT AID YOUR DONATION AS THEN RALEIGH CAN CLAIM BACK 28% MORE ON EACH DONATION FROM THE INLAND REVENUE!!

If you want to know more about Raleigh international, see below:

Raleigh is a youth and education charity. Since 1984, their expeditions have inspired 30,000 people from all walks of life, nationalities and ages to be all they can be, helping them develop new skills, friendships and make a difference to communities and environments across the world.

THE PROJECTS
At Raleigh we aim to ensure that all our projects are worthwhile, appropriate and sustainable. To achieve these aims all Raleigh projects are identified, planned and implemented with local
partner organisations. We work with our partners to gain an understanding of the developmental needs of the country so that our projects compliment the national development strategy.

Our partners help us to identify the communities or areas where Raleigh can make a real difference. They help us to select projects that: meet a real development or environmental need in that country, are appropriate for the location and valued by the local community, and projects that the local community or organisation will continue to benefit from after the Raleigh expedition has ended.

In Costa Rica/Nicaragua we work with INRECOSMAR (the Institute for Coastal and Marine studies), SINAC (the national parks section of the Ministry for Environment) and local
communities and NGO’s.

Community Projects
Previous projects include:
• construction of a community hall, school hostel and seed-store
building.
• working with rural as well as indigenous communities,
constructing a 12km aqueduct to provide clean water.
• development of sustainable eco-tourism.

Environmental Projects
Previous projects include:
• initiatives in one of the most famous Costa Rican national parks, La
Amistad, assisting in environmental research and eco-tourism initiatives.
• biodiversity surveys and the construction of an artificial reef in Curu Bay.

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So please dig deep and donate now.