Charities
FARA Foundation is a registered charity both in the U.K. and Romania. Since 1991, when the appalling conditions of Romania's state orphanages first came to the attention of the world media, we have worked tirelessly with some of the thousands of orphaned and abandoned children who had been locked away in them. - We care for abandoned children in family style homes - We provide education for children with special needs - We assist families in extreme poverty and marginalised Roma children - We offer training and rehabilitation to young adults with learning difficulties FARA's main aims are to ensure that children and young people grow up feeling safe, happy and loved, and to furnish them with skills which will enable them to become integrated, valued members of their society. We are small, we are efficent and we don't receive as many donations as the big charities - over 90% of all funds raised in the U.K. go directly to our projects in Romania.
CLIC Sargent helps children and young people with cancer and their families with the trauma of diagnosis, the often long journey through treatment and continues to support them afterwards. Every day 10 families are told that their child has cancer. Diagnosis often comes as a shock. Treatment usually starts straightaway and can last up to three years. CLIC Sargent is there with clinical, practical and emotional support, every step of the way.
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Essex to Asia Charity Cycle 2010
This summer, James Keable and Linton Nightingale need your help in achieving something special, for on the 30th June 2010 the two of us are planning to cycle for charity from our homes in Essex to the continent of Asia. The trip will be a truly amazing experience for both of us and we hope to make the trip even more amazing by raising £5,000 for CLIC Sargent and FARA, both of which are wonderful charities. CLIC Sargent are our main charity and they aim to ease the burden of childhood cancer on children, young people and their families (http://www.clicsargent.org.uk/Home). The other charity, FARA, who will be receiving 20% of all the money we raise, have worked with orphaned and abandoned children in Romania since 1991, when the deplorable conditions of Romania’s state orphanages were first revealed. The charity currently funds two vital refuges for children in Romania, one of which we plan to visit en route (http://www.faracharity.org/).
The trip itself will begin by the two of us cycling from Braintree to Harwich (2 days after Glastonbury - oh dear), catching the night ferry to The Hook of Holland. From there on in we will be relying on pedal power alone heading south-east from the Dutch coast towards Germany. Here we will continue in a south easterly direction crossing the Czech border, heading towards Vienna (Austria) and Bratislava (Slovakia), where we will meet the River Danube and follow this into Hungary and its capital Budapest. Bearing east out of Hungary and onto the Transylvanian plains of Romania we will climb over the mighty Carpathian Mountains before rejoining the Danube close to where it enters the Black Sea. On reaching the coast we will cycle south in the direction of Bulgaria and our final resting place in Istanbul, where we’ll cross continents from Europe into Asia. It is though going to be a race against time as we have a flight on September 9th booked for our return. To make this we need to be averaging around 400-500 kilometres a week and given the terrain we will face at certain points of our journey this will be a real challenge.
We do feel though that we are both up to this immense challenge (just) and feel very lucky to be doing something so adventurous and exhilarating. However we have a lot of hard work ahead of us before the trip even begins to push our fundraising total up towards our ambitious £5,000 target. To achieve this we have set out a course of action to gain awareness of our trip and promote fundraising, including the following:
- Gaining local newspaper and television coverage
- Strategically placed fundraising buckets and posters across the county
- Support and sponsorship from local businesses
- Personal donations from friends, family, colleagues and associates (anyone who wants to donate)
- Creating business style cards that we can give to people on our journey so that the money continues to roll in throughout the trip
- Updating our blog with stories, photos and videos so you can see how we’re getting on and continue to donate
- We will also be receiving invaluable fundraising support from both charities and JD Wetherspoons
Obviously we need as much help as we can in achieving our goals so please be as generous as you can afford to be and help us hit our target as soon as possible!
Also, if anyone wants to hold any fundraising events or has any fundraising ideas for us then we would be eternally grateful and your efforts will not go unrecognised.
Thanks for taking the time to read this and keep an eye on our blog page (coming soon) and our Facebook group (Essex to Istanbul Charity Cycle 2010) for regular updates from the road.
Peace,
Linton and James
We'd like to thanks the following for their help with fundraising and support:
JD Wetherspoons (http://www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk/)
FM Litho (http://www.fmlitho.co.uk/)
Missing Link Cycles (http://www.missinglinkcycles.com/)
Mountain Warehouse (http://www.mountainwarehouse.com/)
Recent donors
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Dave Doleman £40.00 (+ £11.28 giftaid) 30.12.10 Congratulations guys |
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Braintree Rugby Club Charity Box £49.25 (+ £13.89 giftaid) 23.11.10 Well done guys, an inspirational effort... truly heroic!! |
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Staff at St. Michaels School £60.00 14.11.10 With thanks to Jill, Edna, Sandy, Karen, Michal, Emma, Anne, Chris, Lorraine, Annabel, Mandy and Andy.... Cheers guys! x |
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Rob D £30.00 (+ £8.46 giftaid) 01.11.10 Hi James n Linton, well done gents ... |
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Mum, Dad, Piers, Pam, Ian, Sue & Mick. £300.00 (+ £84.62 giftaid) 31.10.10 Well done boys. A tremendous achievement, we are all very proud of you. |
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Eryn Bayes £50.00 (+ £14.10 giftaid) 30.10.10 Well done guys. Sorry I havnt done this sooner, im terrible! You have both done brilliantly and hope your proud of what you've achieved!! Hope this helps achieve the goal and sorry I cant donate anynmore. Well done again xx |
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Helen G £20.00 (+ £5.64 giftaid) 26.10.10 Excellent work guys! |
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Siobhan £10.00 (+ £2.82 giftaid) 25.10.10 Sorry I am so late i sponsoring boys! Hope you reach the target x x x |
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Richie £20.00 (+ £5.64 giftaid) 24.10.10 Well done guys better late than never, sorry for the delay!!! x |
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Chris (Nath's flat mate) £10.00 23.10.10 Well done lads! Chris |
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Angela and Ivan Moore £40.00 23.10.10 Well done boys. (also thanks to Christine Barker and Jenny) |
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Wendy and Mel £20.00 15.10.10 Well done guys. xxxx |
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Tricia Nightingale £50.00 (+ £14.10 giftaid) 10.10.10 Well done Linton and Jim on an amazing achievement. Linton - I'm really proud of you little bro! |
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The Friends of St Michaels School £250.00 30.09.10 We are pleased to support one of our ex pupils in his charitable efforts for children and adults not as fortunate as ourselves. Well done! |
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Linton and James £631.00 30.09.10 Many thanks to everyone who supported our recent Essex to Asia Quiz Evening. It was great fun and good to see you all again after our journey. Thanks again. |
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Gill Robertson £25.00 30.09.10 Well done - what a fantastic achievement - love Gill |
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Jean Miller £50.00 30.09.10 Congratulations to you both on your achievement. love Jean |
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Robbie Bobby the Ozzy £10.00 30.09.10 Great to meet you in Istanbul guys. Here's to a few beers in London sometime. |
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Stephanie and Mick Boyce £100.00 28.09.10 Congratulations guys. We told many people about you trip - a great conversation starter! x |
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Rob & Trudy £100.00 (+ £28.21 giftaid) 28.09.10 Well done the two of you - have you finished the web site? Fantastic to have James and Erin as overnight guests. |
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Nathan Moore £10.00 26.09.10 Well done boys...... Moosey x |
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Colin (the Canadian) £10.00 (+ £2.82 giftaid) 24.09.10 Forgot to do this earlier - congrats on finishing (and great idea for a trip!) |
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Anonymous £60.00 21.09.10 Well done James - lots of love from Grandma. XX |
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DAVID KEABLE £10.00 20.09.10 Congratulations on your achievement - Kitty and Peter North |
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DAVID KEABLE £40.00 20.09.10 Well done guys - love from Kate Parsons, and Vicki and Ben Farrell |
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DAVID KEABLE £85.00 20.09.10 Congratulations from Greg & Margrit Strathearn, Mr & Mrs Keeble & Ruby, Tina & Ivan Attwell, Sandra & John Ashton, Jane Young and Dave Reynolds |
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Dave Keable £17.00 20.09.10 Thanks to the kind people at Luton Airport arrivals who parted with their money when we were welcoming Linton & James |
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Mark Olley £20.00 (+ £5.64 giftaid) 15.09.10 |
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Rob Walker £10.00 11.09.10 Well Done from Rob! |
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Harmer Family £50.00 (+ £14.10 giftaid) 11.09.10 Well done to you both! |
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Teresa & Dave £15.00 (+ £4.23 giftaid) 11.09.10 Well Done Both. Now put your (smelly) feet up! |
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Anonymous £10.00 09.09.10 Well done to you both from Mr & Mrs Keeble and Ruby at St Michaels school, Braintree. |
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Anonymous £10.00 09.09.10 Many congratulations James on achieving your goal from Margrit and Greg |
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Val Butler £20.00 (+ £5.64 giftaid) 08.09.10 you must be mad but what an achievement! |
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George £20.00 (+ £5.64 giftaid) 06.09.10 |
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Sumie Namba £150.00 03.09.10 It was great running into guys as decent as you two & Martin, all the best for the rest of the current + future adventures! |
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Mairead and Colin Woodward £20.00 (+ £5.64 giftaid) 29.08.10 Very well done and good luck with the rest of the journey! |
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Wes £20.00 (+ £5.64 giftaid) 22.08.10 Keep it up guys! the blog is 'cracking' :) |
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Lily £20.00 22.08.10 Well done I have heard you speak on the radio and will be listening again tomorrow love Lily xx |
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Julie Flint £25.00 (+ £7.05 giftaid) 21.08.10 Good luck for the rest of the ride!! Well done |
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Gill Harrison £10.00 (+ £2.82 giftaid) 20.08.10 Almost there now- 'break a leg' (but not really!) love Gill, Richard and Ollie |
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Anonymous £40.00 18.08.10 The staff at Bond TeamSpirit organised a raffle for a box of 8 bottles of premium lager. By pure luck James' Dad (who works there) won the prize!! Being a kind chap he has decided to present the lagers to the boys on their return - well done boys! |
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Anonymous £25.00 (+ £7.05 giftaid) 15.08.10 |
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Doug Arnold £20.00 (+ £5.64 giftaid) 12.08.10 Doing a great thing.. glad I met you guys.. |
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Ben and Steph £20.00 (+ £5.64 giftaid) 09.08.10 Sorry it's taken so long boys! |
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Diana £20.00 (+ £5.64 giftaid) 05.08.10 Fantastic achievement! |
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Rosemary Kelly £10.00 (+ £2.82 giftaid) 05.08.10 |
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Anonymous £20.00 04.08.10 We are please to support your chosen children related charities. Keep peddling. Joan and Ken Akers (Green Akers Garden Club) |
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Jenny Walker £10.00 03.08.10 £5 from Helen and Gordon McDougall and £5 from Jeannette and John Baines! |
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Anonymous £5.00 03.08.10 We are pleased to support such a good cause. Good luck Joan Brassett, Green Akers Garden Club |
