Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page. 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. So please dig deep and donate now. 

Now a little bit about the challenge. The London Marathon (around 26.2 miles running distance) is one of the biggest running events in the world and one of the five top world marathons. Why am I doing this?

 ‘’The life of a man consists not in seeing visions and in dreaming dreams, but in active charity and in willing service’’ -  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 

With your help and kind support I am trying to make a small effort in remembering 4 very special people of Bedford who did 'active charity and willing service' the above quote talks about.

 

They did an amazing charity work & service for many Sikh charities including Guru Gobind Singh Gurdwara, Kempston (Beds) & Guru Nanak Gurdwara, Bedford. It was a big shock for the entire local community especially the Sikh community losing our dedicated community workers in the recent years.  

Mr Raminder Singh Gill (24/12/35 – 06/02/11), Mr Lal Singh Gill (09/12/32 - 12/02/12), Mr Bhajan (Bill) Singh Sohal (06/10/60 – 02/12/2010) and Mr Manjit Singh Gill (27/03/55 – 02/02/09). All 4 worked tirelessly to support the local community.

 

Mr RS Gill & Mr LS Gill were the key founder members in setting up the first Sikh charity and a community centre in Bedford around 40 years ago. A series of major back operations followed by severe disabilities did not stop Mr RS Gill from carrying on his good work and supporting the charity. Mr LS Gill played a leading role in setting up the first Punjabi Language (Free School) in Bedford. He retired as a school teacher (Beds LEA) and gave a huge input first at Guru Nanak Gurdwara and then Guru Gobind Singh Gurdwara. Both Mr RS & LS Gill served on the management committees covering a wide range of responsibilities. They spent a significant time together discussing the community issues and helping the Sikh charities in making significant progress and with many fund raising campaigns.

Bill and Manjit both played a key role in extending the services of the Sikh charity to the wider communities in Bedfordshire. They played a leading role in establishing a community centre in Kempston which offers a wide range of facilities to the youngsters and the elderly. All the staff and the workers associated with this charity offer their services absolutely free of charge - all unpaid voluntary workers helping the local communities as well as other charities in line with the basic principle Guru Nanak Dev Ji (the founder of the Sikh religion) gave to this world -  ‘Sewa’ - Free Community Service ‘Kirat’ & ‘Naam’ Honest  Earnings while remembering the Lord and 'Wand kay Shako'  – Share with Others.

Why am I requesting for your kind support for Papworth Trust? The Trust is almost 100 years old, started in 1917 as a tuberculosis settlement, Papworth Trust has always worked with disabled people. For the last 50 years, Trust’s work has focused on providing disabled people with employment support, accommodation, care, advice and other services.

Papworth Trust is supporting over 20, 000 disabled people each year and is part of one of the largest disability charities in the East of England. The main services include offering accessible housing and adaptations so people can stay in their homes, supporting vocational training, leisure activities and social enterprises, enabling people to live independently, rehabilitation programme to people who have acquired a disability and supporting people to find jobs

Mother Teresa once said ‘We can do no great things, only small things with great love’

Every £1 you donate to Papworth Trust, 93p is used directly supporting disabled people.

Why your support is so important? There are around 11 million disabled adults in the UK – around 18% of the population! So your contribution can help many directly or indirectly. 

Your local businesses, employers can also play a very important role. My employer ‘The Environment Agency’  Brampton Office first became involved with Papworth Trust  through offering work experience  opportunities to disadvantaged people on an employment programme. This resulted in a number of people gaining permanent positions. The staff also got involved in a number of fund raising events and this is how I found out more about the Trust and their amazing work.

I would like to thank you for visiting my page and any kind amount you could offer to support the Trust, will be greatly appreciated.