After 3 months of training and a 5am start, the day had finally arrived. A stress free coach journey and arrival in Greenwich Park led to a number of us from the running club and village to the start of the London Marathon.

The following 26.2 miles were the most amazing and humbling experience, with children and adults of all ages handing out food, water and support that reinforce your faith in human nature. The atmosphere was quite simply inspiring.

Luckily I had a marathon to run and concentrate on, otherwise I may have spent more than 4 hours being highly emotional over the causes and memories people were running for. You can never know the feeling of running in the biggest charity raising mass event in the world without taking part.

We knew we had friends and family at mile 17 to help us on our way and push us on for the last 9.2 miles (along with the 2 million cheering spectators!). We also knew that friends and family were tracking our progress on the Marathon app, so the pressure was on!

We all finished and did so in respectable sub 5 hour times (Nigel – 4hrs 17min’s); what a great day.

It was all made that bit easier knowing that we were running for charity, namely Aspire (Charity number SC037482) in conjunction with Brewery Tearoom pledging £3,000-00 to Cancer Hair Car (Charity number 1145258). Having reached the £2,000 target for Aspire we now move onto our golf day on 13^th May 2016 (spaces still available); the proceeds from which will be donated to Cancer Hair Care.

It is difficult to do justice in thanking all of you who supported and donated towards these great causes; the breadth of support has been nothing short of amazing. We have even had total strangers making pledges and offering their support….

So a massive thank you to all of you that have helped, we should all feel proud.

Nigel, Sarah and the Brewery Tearoom team.

x

More than 80 novice dancers attended our first ever “Charity Lindy-Hop Dance Night” last Saturday evening. The new school hall in Walkern played host to professional dance teachers Debbie and Paul, who demonstrated some excellent “Jitterbug” moves and then invited attendees to participate. There was a lot of enthusiasm and laughter and some “natural-born” dancers.

During the interval, dancers were treated to a buffet whilst the charity raffle was called. First prize of a ticket to Twinwood Vintage Festival in August was claimed by Tansy and Molly.There were spot prizes of complimentary dance lessons for two lucky couples Brenda and Demetri, and Alison Borthwick and husband, awarded to the most enthusiastic or skilful dancers of the evening. There were also spot prizes of beauty treatments (kindly donated by Louise McCormick of Herts Beauty Boutique) won by Jan Geggus and Tansy and Molly (again) for their best authentic “vintage” outfits.

The second half of the evening was a Charleston Master Class, which again caused much hilarity but was mastered after a half an hour’s concentration and determination.

Thanks so much to everyone who came and joined in the fun. We raised £1,208.00 towards Nigel’s £2,000.00 target for his Aspire Charity Placement in the forthcoming April London Marathon. All funds go to Aspire and Cancer Hair Care. Thanks to everyone who donated a raffle prize, to Brewery Tea Room helpers and also to Walkern Primary School who very generously allowed the use of their hall.

Dancing was the easy part; now Nigel has the hard part, to run 26.2 miles, fuelled by all your support and generosity.

Thanks again and keep dancing!
Sarah x
Please sponsor Nigel at https://www.justgiving.com/Nigel-Strongitharm

Photographs and videos of the dancing are on https://www.flickr.com/gp/136421129@N05/SeEiDM