Curry and Quiz is on!

Feeling down in the dumps and want to do something to cheer yourself up, then buy yourself a ticket the hottest event this side of the spring. 

I am holding a fundraising curry, quiz night, raffle and much more on Friday 1st March 2013, raising money for MacMillan Cancer Support. If you don’t like curry then not to worry, there will be an alternative or two you can have instead.

I would love it is you were able to come along, it will be held at Hem Heath Cricket Club, Trentham Lakes, Stoke on Trent. Tickets are £13.00 per person and includes poppadum, choice of starter and a choice of curry with rice and naan bread and an evening’s worth of entertainment.  There will be a vegetarian option available and if you don’t like curry there will be at least one other option, but please inbox me so I can collect the numbers to cater for.

There are two ways to buy your tickets; either in person with me (drop me an email) or the easiest option would be to go to my fundraising page and add the cost of the tickets as a donation and the comments box type in curry and quiz and the number of tickets you would like.  Also if you can make your email address visible then I can email you your tickets. My page is http://www.justgiving.com/KirstenJOwen

Thanks everyone for your support and here’s to a great night

2013 One week in

It has been a  great 1^st week into 2013, with some annual leave I haven’t been to work since 27/12/2012 and it feels like forever :) Unfortunately that is all about to come to an end as tomorrow it is off to work I go, despite me having numerous chances to win the lottery things didn't work out :(

Oh well you can’t have everything, the extra few days have helped me get ahead of the curve on the college front and I am about 80% through my 3^rd assignment for antimony and physiology and this time it is all about the cardiovascular system and the respiratory system, which again has been very interesting .  On the sports psychology I have done some reading but officially we have not been given the assignment but I am going to do some more reading up on the formation of teams, team motivation and dynamics which should be fun. 

The training for the Virgin London Marathon is going well; I had a running MOT by Brian Cole, Sport Injury Specialist (check it out http://www.colestherapy.com/) and it looks like I am good to go, his take on things I have a good style (well I did wear my best shorts and Nike T) and I am pretty much in alignment only a couple of tight hamstrings and quads which he sorted me out for.  I have also booked in for a monthly sports massage just to make sure I stay in shape – as they say prevention is better than cure. My only worry now is raising the required amount; I have a good few different ideas in the pipeline but at the moment I want to allow people to get over Christmas so I am using this time to plot my strategy and get arranging some fundraising events here are some of my ideas;

• Coffee and Cake Morning
• Finish time sweep
• Curry and Quiz night – February 2013
• Sponsor a mile
• Pick my fancy dress costume (keep checking back for my options)

What do you think? 

I promise to keep you updated and for anyone local to Stoke on Trent and wants to come along to the curry and quiz night just let me know via email using the button on the right-hand side.

Better go, take care and look after each other 

Busy busy busy

Gosh it has been a while since I have blogged anything, there are couple of reasons for this and is mainly lack of time, but on a positive note I have out running, so not everything has stopped

This September I signed up to a part time HNC course in Sport and Fitness, which is great fun. I’m loving learning all this new stuff about anatomy and physiology and sport psychology but it’s a struggle to fit it in with working full time, training 4 days a week, fundraising for MacMillan Cancer Support and being a full time girlfriend.  It definitely feels like a 3 Weetabix day but at the moment the plates are still spinning, they are getting a little wobbly at times but they are still up there!

I have kicked off my fundraising set up my fundraising page started talking about it on Facebook and Twitter and so far I am up to 9% of my total which is good, I have more ideas for fundraising and I just need to kick these off, but I think that there is a fine line between how often you can talk about fundriasing, else you run the risk to annoying people, but hope to get the balance right, but if you want to make a small donation just click on the just giving sponsor me button on the right hand side :o) ---------->

I have just finished my last major run of the year, the Great Birmingham Half Marathon; it was great fun but tinged with sadness as a runner died just after he finished the race. He was a young, only 36, years old, I am not sure what the cause of death was and my thoughts and sympathy go out to his family, he ran his last race.  

There are a number of local races, either 10k or 10 miles, I could enter before the year ends; but I have not signed up to anything which does feel a little strange, perhaps it is because I have my studies to occupy my mind and races due consume a lot of the weekend which is valuable study and assignment time. 

Perhaps is also that my mind is already thinking about my first ever marathon London in April 13 and thinking about how to train.  I am struggling to find a suitable training plan; I am currently running 4 times a week, my long run is normally in excess of 13-14 miles and putting in 35-40 miles a week, the plans I have found so far seem to be going back to the beginning and really lowering my mileage, which is something I don’t want to do.  I am going to have to do a bit more research and see what I can find.

Let the search begin...

Only gone and done it!!

I am in!

In the London Marathon for 2013, unfortunately I was not successful through the ballot, however I did have a number of back up plans and one of those came off.  I am running next year’s Virgin London Marathon for Macmillan Cancer Support, to tell you the truth I would have been raising money for them anyway if I had got a place, as it helps to have something to give me the virtual kick up the bum when it is cold and rainy outside and I don’t want to train. The fund raising target is a little steep at £2,000 but I think I will be able to pull it off, there will be a series of events and fundraising going on over the next few months. 

As this is a new (ish) blog it may be worthwhile giving you a little bit of history about how cancer has touched my life. 

Me & Dad 1974

My own story is that of my dad, a nice chap someone you want on your side, always willing to help you out and can turn his hand to anything and everything, although navigation is not one of his strong suits ;). 

It was during the end of 2010 and he beginning of 2011 that he got the devastating news he had bladder cancer, his and our world started to crumble.  THE BIG C, this was the first time it had hit our family in such a direct way. I did what I do best and that was research, research research and the MacMillian Cancer support site provided me with the information and access to real people who were going through or had been though something very similar to ourselves.  It was reassuring to get good, easy and readable information about what was going on and real people who were living testaments that life goes on.

It is hard to believe that barely a year after the news my Dad had has his chemo, had his operation and now is back to his old self again getting on and enjoying his retirement, annoying my mum and getting lose where every he goes.

I know we are the lucky ones and ours is a positive story, there are others who have lost loved ones and friends before their time.  Macmillan Cancer support is there for all and provides a much valued service and support for people when they need it the most.  

The reason I am running to raise money is because I can, I am fit and able to put one foot in front of the other, there are plenty of people who would love to but can’t so for them I am running!