The end is in sight…Grab a Gold while you can!

Its time to make that Gold Medal yours…..

We are now into the home straight and the last few days of the Paralympic Games – the closing ceremony on Sunday 9th September marking the end of a hugely successful and inspiring 2012 Games. What a summer it has been – lets hope for even more Golds in these last few days!

There is still time for your Gold Medal!

If you want to join in on this summer’s Gold Rush, you can still get your own Limited edition Gold Challenge medal, all you need to do is hit these fundraising targets by Sunday 9th September! If you aren’t sure how far you have left, look at all the fundraising targets on our website.

To help you over that finishing line, we have got a few quick and simple fundraising ideas, don’t forget more can be found in the fundraising section on our website…..

• Send out a final reminder to all your friends and colleagues with your fundraising page link
• Share what you are doing on twitter and facebook – include your charity as they might help re-tweet you too!
• Update your page with any offline fundraising (cash or cheques)
• Ask your employer if they offer matched giving for any money you have raised
• Send any cash or cheques you have to your charity (don’t forget to include your name and details!)

What has been your most inspiring or motivating moment of the summer? We would love to hear from you all about what has helped keep you going with your Gold Challenge… Share with us on Facebook and Twitter your moment of the 2012 Games!

Good luck in the final stretch…..

You can rub shoulders with Team GB Athletes during the Games!

We have secured 20 places INSIDE the Team GB House for our Gold Challengers who will be treated to a Tea Party and Medal Ceremony surrounded by Team GB Athletes.  Winners of our competition will be granted PRIVILIEGED ACCESS to the Team GB House where  Athletes such as Tom Daly, Mo Farah and Jessica Ennis will be relaxing during the Games. 

To be eligible all you have to do is fundraise £500 (or above!) between now and the 20th July and your name will be entered into the ballot.

So if you’re a team on 10 its only £50 of fundraising each! Or if you’re doing it solo – it’s only £22 a day!

For more details http://www.goldchallenge.org/teamgbhouse

Cats Protection and Breast Cancer Campaign – Our Charities Of The Week

We have two fantastic charities of the week – so we’d like to take some time to tell you more about them!

First up is Cats Protection. From humble beginnings in 1927, Cats Protection has grown to become the UK’s leading feline welfare charity. They now help more than 215,000 cats and kittens every year through their network of over 250 volunteer-run branches, 29 adoption centres and one homing centre.

One of these cats was Dally.

Dally was dumped and left to die in a tattered cardboard box. Fortunately a kind dog walker heard Dally’s faint cries and brought him to Cats Protection just in time. Donations from our supporters enabled our volunteers to save this beautiful cat. He was immediately fed specialist high-protein food and rehydration medication. He was given antibiotics to fight an infection and treated for fleas, worms and earmites. Volunteers closely monitored Dally throughout the night, hoping he would have the strength to pull through. Thankfully, Dally’s spirit was still strong and he gradually started to show signs of life. Dally is now in a loving new home.

To support cats like Dally, and the fantastic work that Cats Protection does, why not pledge to raise £500 for the charity today. Not only will you be helping a worthwhile cause, but you could also see yourself receiving a medal at Team GB House during the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The Breast Cancer Campaign has a mission to beat breast cancer by funding innovative world-class research – to understand how breast cancer develops, leading to improved diagnosis, treatment, prevention and cure. They are a unique community of scientists, supporters and people touched by breast cancer – and they come together to run, walk, cycle, climb, wear pink; whatever it takes to make Pink Science happen.

If this is a cause you’d love to help support, then we urge you to pledge £500 to Breast Cancer Campaign through the Gold Challenge today. And again – if that isn’t reason enough in itself, your fantastic fundraising efforts for this inspirational charity could see you attending your own medal ceremony at Team GB House during the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

There you have it – two great charities looking for your support. Now it’s over to you.

YOUR chance to win a visit to Team GB House with Gold Challenge

This is our most exciting competition yet!  The British Olympic Association are hosting a Gold Challenge Medal Ceremony and Afternoon Tea Reception at the Team GB House during the London 2012 Olympic Games. On Wednesday 1^st of August, twenty of our lucky fundraisers will be presented with a Gold Challenge Medal in this fantastic venue, which will be followed by a sumptuous Afternoon Tea.  Overlookingthe London 2012 stadium and aquatic centre, the Team GB House will be a hub of activity during the Games used as a private area by athletes as well as the Team’s operations centre.  It will be an extraordinary Olympic experience for our competition winners.

All you have to do is fundraise £500 (or above!) between the 20th June and the 20th July and your name will be entered into the ballot.

Here is what you need to do!

• £500 (or more) to be raised between 20th June and 20th July to qualify
• Open to teams and individuals
• Open to existing challengers or anyone who signs up and raises £500+ by the 20th July
• Fundraising must be logged on online fundraising pages
• Your online fundraising page must be added to your Gold Challenge MyPage
• Any stated offline fundraising will be checked and verified with charities
• Winners get 1 place at the afternoon tea and medal presentation, and their very own Gold Challenge Top Fundraiser medal.
• Winners must be aged 16 years old or over
• Winners will need to arrange their own travel and transport to London (details will be provided to winners)

So what are you waiting for? Make that final push for sponsorship to all your friends, family and colleagues, and you could be the winner of this once in a lifetime opportunity at the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. If you need any tips on fundraising, or would like to chat through this competition with a member of the team, please don’t hesitate to call us on 020 7099 8895 or email info@goldchallenge.org

Good Luck Gold Challengers!

Be our Top Fundaiser This Week and WIN a Seb Coe signed T Shirt

This week we are giving away a “money can’t buy” Gold Challenge T-shirt signed by Lord Coe – double Olympic Champion, 12-time world record holder and Chair of the Olympic Organising Committee.

All you need to do is to raise the most money from today (11th June) until next Monday (18th June).  Don’t worry about how much you have raised so far, its just about what you can raise this week.  So Facebook, Tweet, email your friends and family and ask them to support your Gold Challenge.

We will be using our fundraising leagues to check your progress, so make sure your fundraising page URL is added to your MyPage in order to qualify.

Good luck and we’ll announce the winner on Monday 18th June!

It’s 50 Days To Go

With the Olympics Opening Ceremony getting ever closer, you have 50 days left to make sure you Get your Gold before the Games!

To celebrate 50 days to go until the games, we have 5 Olympic Themed Goodie Bags to give away all you need to do is raise £50 and log it on your online fundraising page.  Winners will be drawn at random at 5.30 pm tomorrow.

WANT SOME HELP? OUR TOP THREE WAYS TO FUNDRAISE £50

1. Set up an Euro 2012 Sweep Stake- charging £5 to enter and split the proceeds between your charity and the winner. We have one already ready made to email us to receive it!
2. Email everyone your fundraising page link! Boast about it on Facebook and Twitter a well. This is a simple and effective way to increase fundraising.
3. Host an Olympic Themed BBQ or Pub Quiz – Invite your friends or charge them to come along. Your charity will be able to provide you buckets to collect donations on the day.

LOOKING FOR INSPIRATION

If you’re looking for inspiration why not check out our Fundraising Leagues and see how our top 50 fundraisers have done it so far!  Before long you might be there as well!

Remember that you can get your Gold Medal as well by reaching your fundraising target by the 27 July 2012!If you need any help with your challenge then contact us, we can be contacted via email or on 020 7099 8895.

A Dozen Desperados

This fantastic team have completed 2844km 371m and raised £602 for Maggie’s.

The team have undertaken their challenge by various methods; read below for a great snapshot of their achievement:

TEAM STAVANGER!

Øyvind Sandved  / Reidar Håland / Eirik Myrmel

Our 3 team members from Stavanger cycled and ran their way through the kilometres!  Reidar was the male winner of our team prize by completing the furthest distance of all the men.

TEAM ABERDEEN!

Dianne Davies / Zoé Tough / Paul Young / Esther Diederen / Tony Ralphs / Steve Taylor / Iain Bedborough / Rob Cargill / Suril Shah / Alan Walker / Holly McDonald

The Aberdeen team undertook the challenge and resulted in personal achievements along with support of other charitable causes.  Zoé set herself a personal goal and not only did she meet her weight loss target, she completed the most kilometres of all the girls so was the female winner of our team prize and was presented with a gift by our male and female “losers”, Iain and Esther!  Iain and Esther were also presented with “prizes” – the wooden spoons!

Dianne, her boyfriend, two friends and their 4 dogs took part in the Sport Relief 6 miles at Haddo House.  She then also competed in the Balmoral 5km with a friend and came in on 41minutes 6seconds! The remainder of her kilometres have been made up of gym visits or walks up local trails like Bennachie and Midmar Hill.

Tony was on holiday in Cape Town during the course of the Challenge.  8km of his total was spent walking up (and back down) Table Mountain – although it was much more of a scramble than a walk!!

The remainder of Tony’s kilometres have been made up of regular gym visits, clocking up the cycling and running distances!!

Alan says it was during a weak moment in November 2011 that he signed up for the 2012 Balmoral 10km race. For him, the 2012km Gold Challenge proved to be the spur that was needed to finally get his dust laden running shoes on and get down to some proper training. The weekly team “diet” weigh-in, contributing funds to a very worthy charity, recording physical exercise undertaken and friendly banter from fellow team members really helped him achieve his personal targets of losing weight and getting fitter. In the end he was delighted to surpass his personal training target of 201.2km prior to running at Balmoral and he achieved a time of just over 50 minutes!  Great result for a first attempt and he is already looking forward to the 2013 10km race!

A combination of cycling, running, swimming, rowing and walking from the rest of the team helped us achieve our 2012km target before end of April – but we’ve not finished yet!  We will continue until the Olympics start and aim to raise our sponsorship even more!