Bonjour!

Thanks a million for visiting my JustGiving page !  Well, the 7^th of March, Half Marathon Day has come and gone, and I’ve completed the 21km through the streets of Paris.  Beautiful scenery, pity I cannot say the same for the weather, which was arctic !  Very happy to say it’s over now, and all that is now left to do is to collect in the last of your very generous donations and hand over to Concern Worldwide so they can allocate the funds to their Haiti relief programmes.  When the final donation tally is counted, I will be posting a breakdown of how Concern Worldwide will use all we have raised, so you can get a grasp of where your money actually goes.

Just a quick note on Concern Worldwide for those less familiar – I volunteered with them in London last year, and was very impressed by how efficiently they are run, which is why I have chosen them above all for this donation programme.  Just 13% of funds are allocated to admin, which means that far more of your money reaches the people most in need than is the case with many other charities.  Also with 16 years of experience in Haiti, they have the skills, local knowledge and connections to get real work done, and fast.  Your donation will go to projects to provide water and other most basic services to the earthquake survivors.  For more on Concern's relief efforts, please check out:   http://www.concern.net/blogs/haiti-earthquake-coverage

On a personal note, I have been overwhelmed by your generous sponsorship so far, with people chipping in amounts from all over the world, from Afghanistan, San Fran, Singapore, IRL, UK, France, Germany, Saudi, Zambia and more.  The sense of achievement I felt coming up to the finishing line, knowing that not only had I completed a personal goal of running a half-marathon before I turn 30 (!!), but had also raised such a huge amount for such a deserving cause was very touching.  What can I say – it was emotional!

I will leave the donation page open for another few days, for those who have not yet had the time to check it out.  We're on £1,935, so just a little more and we'll hit the 2k mark !  Targets are made to be broken afterall !!

Lastly a very special thanks to CityJet (www.cityjet.com) for sponsoring my flights to Paris.

A bientot!

HELEN

 

 

 

P.S.  For those interested, here's the route: http://www.semideparis.com/2010/fichier_pdf/SMP10_planParcours.pdf.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.