We are very proud to have won an award for innovative fund raising at the first Justgiving Awards.

The JustGiving Awards were fantastic. They were held at the Royal Institute of British Architects and it was a grand setting for a grand evening. All of the JustGiving team were brilliant, and helpful, which is hardly a surprise, given they’re a team that help people to make the world a better place. Prior to the awards there was pretty excited people on Twitter and there have been a few posts since with links to pictures and blog posts under the #JGAwards hashtag.

After a wee drinks reception with a chance to mingle (and for us to meet Andrew and Samantha Smith in person for the first time, which was nice), we gathered into the main hall for the ceremony itself. Jon (now back on the cheese) was an excellent MC. Zarine, JG’s CEO kicked off the evening, welcoming us to the awards, and saying a little about JustGiving. She set up JG about 10 ten years ago, with a mission to make fundraising as easy as possible for everyone. And what a success it has been! Over £600 million raised for over 8,000 charities from 10 million pages. That’s right, as a rough sort of average, about every person in the uk has put a tenner through a JustGiving page.

We were then given an inspirational talk by Major Phil Packer, who was injured in the line of duty last year, losing the ability to walk. He talked about how regaining walking isn’t always the end of it, for example, he no longer has the ability to control the temperature of his right leg properly, and it goes to show, that whilst things can visibly look great, there can often be other unseen complications that most people forget. He has ambitious plans for the future, helping young people who are dealing with disabilities of their own.

After that, it was time for the awards themselves. These passed in a bit of a blur after we had won, I must admit. However, it was an honor to be a nominee amongst so many other fantastic people, and I’d like to highlight each of them to you.

Please have a look at each of them, and be inspired. Don’t feel bad because you can’t get a single to the top of the charts, or raise over a million, because you can do something, and it will help. Set up your own page, or pop a couple of quid (or more) on one.

So here are some amazing people doing amazing things. Be amazing, read their stories, visit and donate if you can afford it, or forward the link on to an affluent friend. Or both.

First up, we have Colin. I totally thought he would win. I was in awe of the guy, those that have followed me for a while know I’ve done marathons and such, but this man rowed the length of the Thames, swam the length of the channel, and cycled the distance of Lands End to John O’Groats at his local gym, as aprt of his 365challenge – raising money for 365 days of the year, with a goal of £3,650. He founded the 1% club, encouraging people to donate 1% of his target – just 10p a day. He’s doing it again this year, but has upped his game to 36.5 marathons in a year. He took his 365challenge to Cancer Research UK who loved it. Others have their own 365 challenges, perhaps, dear reader, you would like one too? He’s already raised over £8.5k, or over £26k if you include all the people that took up a 365challenge. He did this because he lost his sister to the awfulness that is cancer. I can’t imagine losing one of my brothers. Check out his twitter and website.

We were also up against Tracy and Jon Morter. These guys thought it would be a great idea if some decent music (I know that’s a subjective statement) got to the top of the chart instead of the latest factory line pop of the X Factor. And they did. And they raised over £100k for Shelter as they did it (the page is still open, dontcha know, and it’s still cold at night http://www.justgiving.com/RATM4XMas). They also inspired Tom Morello to donate his royalties to Youth Music. They’re also lovely. Having done so astoundingly well, it was also quite a surprise that they didn’t get the award. They were also nominated for Most Popular Fundraiser.

Sophie Atay won the Most Popular Fundraiser category (and was a nominee for Most Succesful Fundraiser). She couldn’t be there that night as she was receiving her treatment for stage four neuroblastoma. Combined, this treatment gives Sophie a staggering 80-90% of survival. The huge downside of this is that the only place in the world that offers this treatment is a hospital in New York called Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital. The cost for this treatment alone can be in excess of $500,000. Thankfully, they raised enough, and it’s great that Sophie is receiving her treatment.

Alas, Robyn Higgins is in the same position as Sophie was. She was a nominee for Most Successful Fundraiser. She is still £140,000 short of her target. This is a lot, but if everyone out there can put a little bit in, they can hit there target. So please, this is the site: http://www.justgiving.com/robyn-appeal go there and donate what you can.

Phil Packer was nominated for Most Popular Fundraiser, and won the Most Successful Fundraiser for Phil’s Million. Having heard of Robyn’s plight he used his acceptance speech to encourage everyone to donate, and pledged £100 himself. This is a man that’s come back from spinal injury to do the London Marathon and row the channel, please do as he asks! That site again: http://www.justgiving.com/robyn-appeal

The Incredible Achievement Award was up for public vote

The winners were Ride to Recovery. 24 rugby lads cycled through England, France and Switzerland to raise money for Spinal Research and Aspire, to the tune of £78,000. They chose he charity in response to one of the team’s brothers, Oli, being the victim of a knife attack, that has left him with minimal movement below the neck.

Sarah Hope (who btw, is still short of her target, the page is still open) is raising money for the Limbless Association. Her daughter lost her leg in an accident, and Sarah has had a major op herself. She was raising money by taking part I nthe Run to the Beat London half marathon and the Great South Run.

Last, but by no means least, on the list of these wonderful people is the lovely Alice Halstead who has a rare form of diabetes which means she essentially lives in a hospital. Despite all this, she’s raised thousands for Rays of Sunshine (she too has a JustGiving page that’s not hit its target yet). She’s organising a ball at the end of March, both Simon and I will be there, and it would great if you, dear reader, could make it too, you can find all the details you need here.

After the awards we got to mingle with loads of lovely people, too many to mention (I’ll only leave someone out if I try and list you all.). Suffie to say, being in a room of aweinspiring and lovely people is great, and I heartily recommend it (maybe in March at a ball?). We were also whisked off for an interview (it made me feel a little bit like a celebrity), by the lovely Heather (back from fundraising adventures herself).

All in all a great evening. If you’ve got this far, and haven’t already, can you please sponsor at least one of the above pages, or, if you’re broke (like me) forward a link on to one, or indeed many, of your friends and family. Or indeed, set up your own page, let justgiving, and the world, know about it. You might get on their blog, the newspaper, or tv, you never know.

I'll finish with a big thank you to JustGiving!