12 months ago we lost a good friend to cancer, a brain tumour to be exact. Simon, in his early 30s, left behind a wife, parents, band of brothers and saddest of all, a 2 year old daughter, it's utterly tragic. Simon's daughter Scarlett is Lola's, my eldest's, best friend

Simon experienced first-hand what it was to "need" care, he spent his last weeks in a hospice and really understood where resources were needed. So he pledged that any future donations by friends should go towards his chosen charity of The Royal Marsden Cancer Campaign in order to aid research into the specific form of cancer he suffered from, which continues to destroy families.

You may know I have made this charity the official charity of the Social Media Mafia for this year, and 10% of all SMM money raised will be sent to the charity, as can be seen here:

http://socialmediamafia.com/events/

In addition, and this is where you come in, I and some of his mates, are running a half-marathon in his memory, and to raise some cash in the process.

I am actually a runner already, amusingly I operate a very infrequent Running Man Radio show, where I blurt into a mobile recorder on my runs, coughs, grunts, pants, rants the lot:

http://runningmanradio.com/

You will see a widget on the right hand side, and I am asking for you to consider making a donation, no matter how large or small for a very good cause. You can click on the widget and donate, also leave a message stating you are from the Social Media Mafia if you do please.

Please do help.

Thanks in advance and do listen to some of the runs, YES, I know, it's slightly wacky, slightly "out-there", but you know what, it's damn fine therapy too!

Chris

Technorati Tags: marathon running running marathon

This is a post which I picked on from from Thayer and as she tagged and made me accountable I had to oblige.

I like the idea of stating a few random things about, the indulging with you, and sharing, so here we go:

1. I'm not a fan of dogs. It might be selfish, it might not be, but I don't "get" the whole dog-love thing. Why would anyone wish to be tied to taking a dog for a crap every day? What's the return, what's the benefit?

2. I love to run. I have run all my life sometimes miles and miles a week, though these days I tend to go about 3 times a week and about 5 miles at a time. I did start recording many of my runs recently and called it Running Man Radio, though I'm getting bored of that and I'm enjoying my own space again without you listening.

3. I use to play rugby semi-professionally. Yeah I know, rugby, real mans sport!

4. I do most of the cooking within my own family. This comes from having a VERY good cook in own my mother and sister (both amazing) and also having lived in Italy for a total of about 5 years, where eating is a religion, and eating slowly with friends.

5. I've been working on the web since about 95, and would consider myself very conversant at using tools to build a virtual community, that's been my core business since 2000. Social media has been what I've done for that long.

6. I've played guitar in many bands ranging from punk to jazz and some candy pop in between, I also love my nylon string hand-built Spanish guitar.

7. Whilst I speak some practical Italian I excel at swearing in the lingo and I'm a dab hand at Italian gesticulation too.

8. I'm not very hairy and it is all dead straight.

And there you go.

As I've enjoyed that I will repeat the process, do enter your email address and subscribe to get my blog musings in your box as and when.

UPDATE: Here is where I tag people, chop chop now your turn, and leave a comment when you#ve done it!

SAMISMAIL
Eaon Pritchard
Jason Jarrett
Nicholas Butler
Julie Joyce
Gary Day
Julia Roy
Doug Haslam

Technorati Tags: facts guitar italian jazz me punk random rugby running spanish swearing random facts me running rugby guitar jazz punk spanish italian swearing