NO ALCOHOL JANUARY..

Last year I raised £160 for Cancer Research UK by not drinking alcohol during January.

This year I'm signing up again to their annual DryathlonTM and have set the target at £200 like last year. I suspect it might be a little harder this year as there's a limit to how many times you can ask your facebook friends to donate. It's not fair to keep digging the same people in the ribs and asking them to cough up money.

So, if you donated last year do please consider whether you can do the same again this year. If you can't it is not a problem. If you don't want to, again it's not a problem.

We all have our favourite charities that we give to and everybody is different in that respect. I do this one for Cancer Research as the scientific programmes that are run in the UK are world class and deserve to be supported. I also give a little bit each month to the Royal National Lifeboat Institute here in the UK too. I am from a coastal town and have had experience of the good work they do (not me airlifted out of the sea, my brother!).

Here's a link direct to my JustGiving donation page - entirely free, the money goes direct to the charity. If you click and donate, thank you.

If you want to do it the easy way, from a UK mobile phone you can simply text like this to 70070. You choose the amount - £2 is just my example!

Finally, if you want to know more - here are some links to the Dryathlon pages, twitter and facebook etc

CANCER RESEARCH UK

January. That time when everyone flails around trying to stick to New Year's Resolutions.

I've been here before. I'm sure you have too?

This year is different though.

I noticed on my facebook page that a few people had been joining up to a new drive by Cancer Research UK called the DryAthlon. Simple idea. For the month of January, Go Dry. No alcohol. Get friends to sponsor the effort and maybe ask people in your local or out and about for donations.

I'm in.

Here's my page

Polko's Dryathlon

A good idea. And this year I will stick to my resolve. The support from the DryAthlon team is brilliant - earning badges for sticking to the plan. Regular emails to keep the momentum going - the first weekend is nearly over and I'm happily drinking lots of tea. Discovering new ones in fact. And happy to be away from the alcohol for at least the month.

I set a modest target of £200 and I'm 59% of the way there. I suspect it'll get harder as the month goes on but I'll be posting to facebook and twitter regularly to nudge a few people - some may call it pain in the bum, I call it money for a good cause!

So, I'll update soon.

For now, many thanks to those that have already seen fit to donate.

And just in case you want to - follow the link above or simply text to 70070 (free) with the following format in your SMS message:

POLK99 £x where x is the donation amount. I'd be happy with a £1!

If you want to join in, here's the Cancer Research UK Dryathlon info page

P