I was browsing the web this evening when I came across this article which talks about how people find it easy to relate to Cancer Research UK as a cause, and how this encourages people to help with fundraising for them. Have a look and see what you think.

 

 

Come and support us in Cardiff on 30/31 August, and help raise money to carry on the search for a cure.

We now have an event page set up (very kindly!!) by Simon. It’s at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=13327966161&ref=nf. If you have a Facebook account, go and have a look and then tell us you’re coming, and then register a team!

I’m looking forward to telling you more about what will be happening at Relay For Life Cardiff over the next few weeks, as we confirm more details. For now, remember, if you are in, or could be in, the Cardiff area at the end of August, bring a team and take part in this event. Just think, a sleepover in the Millennium Stadium - how often do you get that opportunity?!

Yesterday, Simon and I went around Cardiff city centre for the first time, visiting businesses and hotels to distribute posters and leaflets advertising Relay For Life Cardiff 2008. We managed to get to quite a lot of the bigger offices, and have a few things to follow up on now, such as e-mails and printing more posters etc.

So, with that our recruitment drive is underway, and we’re looking forward to sending out team information packs to the teams as they register with us. If you are in the Cardiff area and interested in getting involved, let us know. Or if you don’t feel that you can be involved on the day but would like to help with the promotion of the event in your workplace, get in touch and we can send you out some posters and other information to circulate. You can e-mail us at relayforlifecardiff@hotmail.co.uk, or leave a comment here and one of us will pick it up and reply to you.

I’m pleased to be able to announce that the Cancer Research UK Relay For Life Cardiff will be held on the weekend of 30/31 August, in the Millennium Stadium! Please, if you will be in the area on that weekend, register a team and help raise money for this worthwhile cause. If you want more information, please feel free to contact us at the e-mail address on the side bar. If you can’t be with us on the weekend but would like to support us, please visit our page on Cancer Research UK’s Relay For Life website and maybe you could dedicate a Candle of Hope, or recommend the event to a friend.

If you are interested in taking part in Cancer Research UK’s Cardiff Relay For Life, please contact us. Even if you’re not really sure what it’s all about, have a vague interest or just want to know more to pass on the information to someone else, leave a comment or drop us an e-mail and we’ll get in touch with you. If you aren’t in the Cardiff area, but are interested in finding out more about this event including whether there’s one near you, visit www.cancerresearchuk.org/relay/, which is the official website and should answer most of your questions.

Our first proper committee meeting after we were all recruited was a couple of months before Christmas. We all arrived with loads of ideas, including some thoughts about various venues, people to invite, activities on the day and fundraising ideas. The meeting probably lasted about two hours - most of them have been about that long - and we were constantly just throwing ideas back and fore.

By Christmas we still had plenty of ideas to contribute, but were starting to wonder how long it would take to hear from any of the venues we had contacted. In January we met our new AVM - Andrew Penny - and still had no news from our first choice of venue. And that is how it stands now. We are beginning to think that we will have to choose a cut off date, and try a different venue, or else there will be no Cardiff Relay For Life in 2008!

My side of things - team recruitment - is looking quite hopeful. Andrew Penny has been contacted by a couple of people looking to set up teams, and I think all of us on the committee know at least a couple of people each who want to bring a team to take part, so with a bit of luck we should hit the ground running once we get our venue confirmed. This now though, is the time for sitting and worrying, imagining how much work we will have to do once we have a date to work with. I’m trying to sort out tech stuff and spreadsheets so that it’s all set up ready. I’m sure that all the other committee members are gearing up mentally at least for the few months of manic activity which await! Anyway, as soon as we have news about the venue, date and time, you will be able to read it here. We’ll be positively throwing information at you! Stay tuned…!

My Relay For Life ‘experience’ began last June at Race For Life in Cardiff. I went up to the volunteer stand to put my name down for some stewarding at 10k events through the summer and autumn, and Andy Nakonecznyj, the Area Volunteer Manager at the time, told me about this new event that Cancer Research UK were trying to set up in Cardiff. I said I was interested, and Andy told me he’d get in touch when the first meeting had been organised. I didn’t hear anything until October, when I was invited to a meeting to find out more. Two hours later, I left the cafe having met the four other members of the committee, watched the DVDs brought by Andy and having signed up to be Vice Chair and responsible for Team Recruitment! We all came out brimming over with ideas, and I spent most of the next few days thinking of nothing else. We had our first official committee meeting a couple of weeks later, and we spent the evening discussing venues and bouncing ideas around. Once more, I left feeling very excited and enthusiastic about the event preparation in the coming months. We kept in touch in between meetings via Facebook (Andy set up a CRUK Cardiff Relay For Life group), instant messaging and e-mails. Simon, our Chairman, sorted out the venue application forms, and we settled down to wait for responses.

The other committee members were recruited in similar ways to me. Simon got in touch with Cancer Research UK to enquire about voluntary work, Danielle (our Ceremonies co-ordinator) was already working for Race For Life through the summer and so was contacted through that, and Sarah (Cancer Awareness) was ‘discovered’ at Race For Life after taking part, like myself. We are really lucky in that we all get on really well, and also lucky that there are almost enough of us to cover the main jobs (although more volunteers would always be welcomed!). Then, at our January meeting, we were able to welcome Shazia into the committee to take on the Media and PR role as well as share the Logistics with Simon. So, for a first year Relay, we have a good sized committee, covering a reasonably wide spread of the community. As none of us really knew any of the others before we started with the committee, we’re hoping that this will work in our favour with regards to recruitment as we will all have different bases to tap for potential volunteers, Team Captains and also cancer survivors to be our guests of honour.