Blessings everyone

On the 22nd of March, it's my 51st birthday, which will mean I am now closer to a century than not - wow times flies huh !

For my birthday this year I will be climbing up Mount Etna with my love/life/play partner Laura. Due to this crazy feat (or should that be 10,922 feet!!) I am wanting to raise money for those less fortunate.

Luckily, I have a lot to be grateful for: living in the part of the world I do, my truly amazing wife and I run our own successful business, we have two beautiful fur babies to keep us on the go and many amazing friends and family just like you to keep me on this path to a great love / life / play adventure. However, many people on this planet are not so lucky, and live with hunger, poverty, illness, or violence.

As a well-off person living in a rich country (according to the how rich am I website) I have recognised that I/WE have a huge opportunity to help these people. There is a limit to how much difference one person can make, so I want to do an experiment: how many other people can I convince to donate a small (or large) amount to charity?

My two chosen charities are ones that are recommended as part of the Giving What We Can website who chose charities that have the most impact for everyone's pound / dollar / Euro etc that is donated.

GiveWell - Top Charities Fund
The Top Charities Fund seeks to improve global health and well-being by supporting the highest-priority funding needs among GiveWell's Top Charities, which are evidence-backed, high-impact, and highly cost-effective opportunities to save and improve the lives of people living in low- and lower-middle-income countries.

Against Malaria Foundation - Bednets To Prevent Malaria
AMF's bed net programs protect people from malaria by distributing and ensuring the use of long-lasting insecticidal bed nets in regions with the highest burden of malaria cases. AMF has been a GiveWell top charity since 2009. GiveWell estimates that it costs approximately $5 USD to purchase and distribute one net to a household, which makes AMF particularly cost-effective. Each distributed net protects an average of two people from malaria for about two years and 100% of public donations go towards purchasing nets.

If we only used the stats from the AMF if we could raise £250 between us that number could help provide 50 nets which would help on average 100 people....a £5 donation could help protect a household for 2 years.....multiply that if you donate £10, 20 or more, and hundreds of people could be helped. (For an equivalent price of a daily Starbucks / Costa drink !)

To those that see this request, I am sure you are also blessed with what side of the planet you live on, so I ask you to look in the mirror and decide if your next impulse buy is a waste or is it going to be a potential live saver.

With love to you all whether you donate or not xxx