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Ponteland Online News has a number of contributing authors, all of whom will add their own posts on various aspects of village life, from the housing market to events and public meetings. If you are involved in a business or organisation, be it a school, church or a club in the Ponteland area and would like to contribute to the blog on a regular basis or just from time to time please email Ponteland Online Admin You must put the story title in the email subject line and the story itself in the main body of the email, add any picture attachments and send as normal.

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Friday, September 24, 2010

Please Support Alastair with his Fundraising Swims

Hi,
Having done all the training (ok – most of the training) and having looking forward to the Great North Swim in Lake Windermere for months which was due to have taken place on the 4th September,  it was a shock to say the least that the event was cancelled due to a blue green algae in the lake. I went over to the lakes for the night as I had pre-booked accommodation and really I don't know what all the fuss was about. The blue / green algae was certainly not at all obvious although the weather / water conditions had changed overnight due to high winds.
I had not got round to setting up a page on JustGiving.com for this years event so perhaps in hind site that was just as well! 
However, I have now committed to do two events before the end of September.  The first one is the British Gas Great Salford Swim this Sunday on the 26th September which is one mile open water swim. My only two previous open water swims have been around the 27 minute mark so I'm hoping to slightly better than that. Link for the event is http://www.greatswim.org/Events/British-Gas-Great-Salford-Swim/  
The Salford Quays swim could possibly be in more dodgy water than the cancelled Windermere swim but it is more of a point to point course. I will perhaps be looking out for shopping trolleys rather than fish.  The finish is approximately a seven minute walk back to the start at the end so I will need to find an old pair of slippers which should be a good look with a wetsuit. The other swim is a small event on the 30th September that takes place once a year in my Ponteland Leisure Centre and sounds much more arduous than the Salford mile. It is to swim as many lengths of butterfly in an hour as I can. Thankfully it is done in a relay (I hope) with a small team of 4 swimmers in each lane. even so, I think the cold of Salford is somewhat more appealing at the moment. The butterfly event is specifically in support of a fellow swimmer who has raised money for the Teenage Cancer Trust since the loss of her teenage son.
So, rather than do a door to door traditional sponsorship appeal last minute, I have come round again to setting up a JustGiving page which has worked so well over the last couple of years. Having collected over £4000.00 for the NSPCC since the 2008 Bupa event, I am happy to take a year out from that and support another very worthwhile charity, this time the Teenage Cancer Trust. The below web page will be open for donations until December.
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 today.
Many thanks
Alastair