Winter in Sydney

It’s really hard to take. Fleece for 5 mins and then it’s off. Excuse me Merran but where is your team shirt? I hope it’s in the wash.

Today we participated in an assignment for Meghan Rogers, daughter of Pauline who is walking all-the-way with us, for her Event Management degree which she doing at the International College of Management, Sydney (ICMS). Her task was to create a small fundraising event which would encourage local participation and support for the Kiss Goodbye to MS campaign.

For a gold coin donation walkers could join her for a short walk along the  beautiful Manly foreshore. Dogs and blokes were welcome.

Here’s Mike Hemingway giving it a go with Peter Molloy.

And Ruby, Denise’s dog, joining Merran and Tansey.

The ICMS campus is situated on Sydney Harbour’s North Head on St Patrick’s Estate overlooking Manly Beach.

And this is the view looking north towards Palm Beach.

The historic site is surrounded by 20 hectares of parklands and has extensive campus facilities.The building which houses ICMS was originally built in 1885 as St Patrick’s Seminary, Manly.

The building is made from stone initially quarried from North Head with the finer stone coming from Pyrmont by boat. The College stands at four storeys high with a six level central bell tower and covers 60,000 square feet.

Without further ado thank you Meghan for giving us a wonderful day to showcase our beautiful northern beaches. Manly is just a quick ferry ride from Sydney’s CBD from Circular Quay ferry terminal. And thank you for supporting your Mum in her efforts to reach her fundraising target. We have nearly reached our original fundraising goal but we are all keen to push on and raise as much as we can. Our aim is to continue until there is a cure. If you haven’t donated yet please do. Your donation may be the difference between finding a cure and assisting the 3 million worldwide currently living with MS to regain their quality of life. Or not. Don’t be a not.  Click DONATE now.

Thank you so much.

We will walk 300ks

Of course we will. And here is why. This video was produced at no cost to us by Bruce Stephens and Associates to whom we are greatly indebted. We are definitely not flaky tarts. We are committed fundraisers for MS research because we want to rid this world of one of the most misunderstood and invisible diseases which wreaks absolute havoc on the lives of those who must endure it. 3 million people worldwide currently live with MS and we are working hard to give them HOPE and renewed vigour that a cure is not far away.

Short of time view our two minute highlights version here

Have the time to be impressed and wished you’d joined us. View the full version here. It includes a  great final panorama of our gorgeous Sydney harbour – and yes we may have butchered a song along the way but as they say it’s all in the name of charity. Who said fundraising couldn’t be fun?

We hope you like our video and thank you greatly for your support of our efforts to find a cure for MS by walking 303kms across England over 12 days starting on the 30 August

To help us get our story out there on social media please share these video links with your friends or post our video, currently residing on vimeo, on facebook or twitter or any other social media avenue you prefer.

Thanks for your help in sharing as widely as possible and pretty soon we’ll be on our way …..

And remember it is never too late to DONATE. Select the DONATE icon and select your favourite fundraiser or DONATE to our team page here.

THANK YOU so much for your support.

Ceilidh (kay-lee) today

Our cake stall today at Coles Asquith had a Scottish Gaelic flavour to it. Not in the baking but the company. Seems the store double-booked the charities and while we sold aplenty the Hornsby RSL Pipe Band blew to their heart’s content. See the kilt in the background querying the store manager as to why we were there. But we were very nice and let them share the stage.

Ceilidh (kay-lee) is the Scotch Gaelic word for a “visit” – a party or celebration. The party involves dancing, music, drink and food… and usually that nasty haggis. But how appropriate. After we finish Wainwright’s Coast2Coast MS Walk some of us will be heading to Scotland itself and I’m not shy in saying I like the stuff. It’s only oatmeal soaked in…

But do you think the Pipers could play our theme song? Never they replied sacrilegiously. What are they on about? I thought our theme song 300ks (formerly known as 500 miles) was written by identical Scottish twins, Charlie and Craig Reid. Well, we’ll shortly give you a rendition the Proclaimers will be proud of. There’s more to us girls than just walking, baking and fundraising.

Today special thanks goes to Kendy Drummond for her divine cakes, Carolyn Reeves for her lovely slices, Sally Hawthorne, one of the team who drove across Sydney to deliver goods and keeps us suitably caffeine-hydrated. And last but not least, Pauline Rogers and Liz Melchior who kept me company this morning. Thank you Coles Asquith for allowing us to fundraise outside your store.

There were plenty of requests today for more goodies. Gluten Free, chocolate, banana, scones and lemon slices were all requested. If anyone would like to assist us please email us at c2cmswalk@gmail.com or bring your goods clearly labelled and packaged to Coles Asquith on Saturday 2 August 2014 when we will be hosting our second cake stall.

We are getting very close to reaching our $150,000 target and really appreciate everyone’s assistance and support. It definitely feels like a matter of when, not if, a cure will be found and we are thrilled we are well on the way to Kissing Goodbye to MS forever.