Fundraising in your area throughout May

Throughout May NDCS will be door-to-door fundraising in the following areas:

Swansea
Bristol
Swansea
Bristol
Derby
Manchester
Wolverhampton
Northampton
Newcastle
Carlisle
Stoke
Nottingham

Fundraising for NDCS?

If you are fundraising for NDCS, firstly thank you very much! We are lucky to have some very committed supporters who raise a vast sum of money.

Next week is Deaf Awareness Week . This is an opportunity for you to perhaps use this as a means of raising awareness about the charity and raising funds for NDCS.

Possibly you could think about how deaf aware your shcool, office or home is:

Do:

Speak clearly and naturally. Try to use an expressive face.

Get a deaf person’s attention before speaking. Try waving, knocking a table or tapping their shoulder lightly.

Face a deaf person when you are talking.

Use visual cues.

Stand with your face to the light.

Ask a deaf person to repeat what you’ve said, if you are not sure if they understood.

Don’t

Speak too slowly or shout – this will distort your lip patterns.

Move your head or walk around while you’re talking. Speech movements can easily be missed.

Stand with your back to a window – this can turn your face into a shadow and make it harder to lipread.

If you are thinking about raising money and how to pay, you can set up a JustGiving page very easily.

They made it to the Pole!!!

Pole position…

As our explorers reach the North Pole, see our live diary for more information, I’ve been thinking what it must be like out there on the ice. Other than chartering your own exploration out to the North Pole a possible way of gaining some understanding might be to following in the footsteps of polar explorers through books.

Fiona Thornewill, explorer and wife of our exploration leader Mike Thornewill, gives some suggestions:

Catherine Hartley – South Without a Beard
Mind Over Matter – Ranulph Fiennes
Captain Scott – Ranulph Fiennes
A Life of Aspley Cherry – Garrard
Shadows on the Wasteland – Mike Stroud

I’ve also searched amazon under the search Polar exploration…

Of course you might fancy more of an adventure and if so Mike and Fiona’s company Polar Challenge International are more than equipped to take you to both the North and South Pole.

Access all areas, or not in some cases…

Been out with a deaf friend today, who is in a wheelchair. We had a great day in London but two issues that I wanted to share and find out if there was anything I could do about. Firstly the roads, pavements and accessibility in the City is not great. We went From Liverpool St to St Paul’s, over the wobbly bridge, through to Southwark Cathedral and back over London Bridge. The uneven paths were a nightmare, I’m not sure who or how I can change things but I thought bringing it up here might help.

Secondly on two occasions today there was access to the buildings we wanted to go to but the signage to point us in the right direction was just not there…

The site I came across with the best info was www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ouch/

There must be more so are there any campaigns I can sign up to or discussion groups where I can find out more and help to campaign about this?

Change the world 9 to 5

I’m sure there are plenty of people who, like me are thinking what can I do to get more out of the job I do and get to know the people I work with?

Always keen to look at ways of making the time we have at work more interesting suggestions here at Planet NDCS include:

Share your lunch with someone you don’t usually work with
Finding out about other team’s jobs
Praise your colleagues when they do something extra
Raise money for charity
Going to the pub
Have a dress down Friday or EVEN a dress up Friday, have themed days…

A good website to visit www.wearewhatwedo.org

Of course we’re not the only ones with ideas anyone who has any more send them through!!

If you are part of a team in the office you might want to join in one of our corporate events, with NDCS Challenges . There are some really exciting challenges that we have on offer and you will be helping deaf children at the same time.

Events include, Three Peak Challenges , 24 Peak challenges and even skydiving.

For our team events , you will need between five and seven walkers at the start of each mountain, plus two drivers per vehicle. You’ll get to see the most beautiful scenery in the UK, and have the experience of a life time.

NDCS Challenges are run responsibly and carefully, in accordance with the Code of Practise for Outdoor Fundraising in the UK.

North Pole diary

This exclusive Arctic expedition aims to make a surface crossing of the Arctic Ocean between latitude 89N and the Geographic North Pole at 90N. Known as “The Last Degree”. Our team will be undertaking a foot journey of 60 nautical miles (approximately 70 statute miles). Among those taking part is the first deaf person to make it to the North Pole.

Our intrepid explorers are Mike Thornewill, Carl Morris, Ian Berry and Oliver Westbury. For more information why not meet the team.

The sole sponsors for this trip are Transam

Organisers of the event are:

Polar Challenge International – www.polarchallenge.org/
Bull Precision Expeditions – www.bullexpeditions.com

Thank you to all our runners

A big thank you to all of our runners who took part in the London Marathon this year. You've raised over £50,000 to help deaf children.

If you were inspired by this year's run and would like to run next year, please sign up here. I’ve added the names of all of those who took part, it would be great if they could give their times and a couple of lines about how they felt the day went, by commenting below.

Katy Adams Sophie Addison Kasia Al Thani Laura Ashworth Derek Boyd Jason Bridges Sarah Chapman Robert Chevin Thomas Coggan Christopher Collins Beth Cooke Mark Crossan Sarah Davies Ross Deacon Mike Durham Kate Firkins James Foley Paul Gaffney Joanne Gallagher Gianpiero Garzelli Jason Geraghty Faye Glover Gary Glover Linda Grover Jon Haddrell Grace Imina Walter Kent Andrew Kilbey David Kilbey Rick Lucas Madeleine Maishman

Jamie Martin Nathan Martin Sean Martin Clifford Middleton Natasha Mills Marco Moruzzi Julie Mowbray Lindsay Nicol Ian Noon Peter O'Kane Marc O'Malley Patrick O'Neill Andrew Parkinson Alec Phillips Steven Preston Simon Pugh Jennifer Rogers Barbara Roope Glenn Sedgwick Karen Sheerin Andrew Smith Martin Spilsted Robert Stiles James Sumpster Sam Surrey Sandra Titley Kate Whitton Peter Whitton Karl Williamson Scott Withers Steven Wynne

Not so sure about running the marathon? We have a number of shorter runs that you might want to start with. In London we have the London 10K and the Royal Parks Half Marathon. 

Other running events include the Adidas Women's 5K Challenge in Liverpool, Birmingham and London. Those looking further afield we have places in the Berlin Marathon and the New York Marathon.

Taxi anyone?

Transport for London has made arrangements for free travel on the Tube and DLR for all runners and officials on race day from early morning until 17:00 (just show your race number or your officials’ course pass or tabard).

Even if you aren’t running, you can still follow the action by:

* Tube at the 11/12, 13 and 22, 14-21 and 22-24 mile points. Improvement works means you can’t change lines between Bank and Monument, except between the DLR and the Northern line
* DLR – with trains running as frequent as every 2½ minutes
* Bus and River bus

Alternatively, why not try walking or cycling to the marathon? These convenient and low-cost ways to get around London let you fit exercise into your daily routine.

Visit the TFL website for more information

Of course if you are not running the marathon this week but might be interested we have a number of shorter runs that you could try including the London 10K and the Royal Parks Half Marathon . Of course for those outside London we have the Great North Run and Adidas Women’s Challenge . For runners wanting to run further afield we also have places for the Berlin marathon and New York too.

Run Forest Run – the best running play list ever…

With the London Marathon on Sunday (13 April) we thought this week we would have a list of the tunes people might have on their Ipod while pounding the streets of London.

Two brave runners in our office have been kind enough to share their suggestions with us:

Sarah Chapman

Miles one to 10
Cinematic Orchestra – Breathe
Nicole Willis and the Soul Investigators – Keep Reachin’ Up
The New Mastersounds – Stay on the Groove

Miles 10 to 20
Random Heroes – C’Mon and Get It
zeroDB – Anything’s Possible
Elektrons – Don’t Give Up

Miles 20 to 26
Shy FX – Shake It
Quantic Soul Orchestra – Pushing On
4Hero – Better Place

Support Sarah through her Justgiving page

Ian Noon

A golden olden: Bryan Adams – Run to you

One that I listen to cheer me up and keep me feeling sunshiny when I’m running for hours in sub zero temperatures with grey clouds all around is Deee-Lite’s Groove is in the heart

Finally, a cheesy classic – S Club 7 – Don’t stop moving

Support Ian through his Justgiving page

Please note that the songs selected may not reflect the musical taste of those individuals but are there to get them through the 26 miles or so…

Of course if you are not running the marathon this week but might be interested we have a number of shorter runs that you could try including the London 10K and the Royal Parks Half Marathon . Of course for those outside London we have the Great North Run and Adidas Women’s Challenge . For runners wanting to run further afield we also have places for the Berlin marathon and New York too.