Day 58: Cows about Cambridge

Between 28th June and 4th September 2021, residents & tourists could enjoy a bit of cow-spotting around the city of Cambridge! Cows are a familiar sight in public spaces such as Midsummer, Stourbridge and Coldham’s Commons and the meadows in Grantchester and Newnham. However, the Cows about Cambridge didn’t need a grass diet (with some obvious advantages!) This was a sculpture trail around the streets, parks and some indoor spaces around our beautiful city.

There is a serious side to the art project. Cows about Cambridge has been raising money for the children’s charity, Break. They’ve done this by producing a fundraising pack with sponsored event ideas, setting up a text-to-donate facility, and, perhaps most excitingly of all, they’ve organised a charity auction! On 23rd September 2021 at 7pm, 43 cow sculptures will be auctioned to raise money to support vulnerable young people and families across Cambridgeshire.

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Day 35: FoodCycle Cambridge

I have vivid memories of being a young girl growing up in the affluent city of Cambridge, not being able to understand why there were so many people sleeping rough, barely surviving. It didn’t seem right or fair, and that helpless feeling stays with me today. That childhood memory, and what I’ve subsequently learned about the plight of the homeless and the disadvantaged, along with an inherent aversion to food waste, compelled me to attend my first FoodCycle session in 2012. 

After a break from volunteering while our children were very young, I rejoined the team in September 2017 for Day 35 of #100DaysNoTV.

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Day 28: Macmillan Coffee Morning

The last couple of months have been all about spinning plates – this post has been sitting on my To Do pile since September…my bad. I’ve been looking forward to writing it, because it’s about two important things in life: cake 😉 and charity. On Day 28 of #100DaysNoTV I hosted a Macmillan Coffee Morning at my place.

Macmillan Cancer Support held their first ever Coffee Morning way back in 1990 and since then they’ve raised a whopping £138 million. Little wonder it’s known as the World’s Biggest Coffee Morning! If you’ve never been to one, look out for one local to you next September; it’s easy to search using your postcode on their website. There are bound to be a few near you run by local groups, or you could host one yourself!

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Fitness: Race for Life

Training begins in earnest. In just over 10 weeks I’ll be taking part in the Race for Life, an annual fundraiser in aid of Cancer Research UK. It’ll be my fifth time taking part in the event, but the first time doing the 10k. In fact, it’ll be my first 10k race ever – I really wanted to push myself this year.

So, what’s my motivation?

My first Race for Life was in 2001. At that time I didn’t have any close family or friends who had experienced life with cancer. The motivation then was to raise money for a charity focused on an illness which surely would affect people close to me in the years to come.

Sure enough over the intervening years, that became the reality.

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