Charities are recruiting for Durham Big Ride

Local and national charities are looking to ‘gear up’ for this year’s Durham Big Ride and Beast.

The events, on the first and eighth of September this year, are a great way of charities and worthy causes to get together and raise some money while having a great day out at the same time.

Colin Wilkes, Director of Durham Big Ride believes this is a prime example of the events becoming more and more part of the community in the Durham area: “The Durham Big Ride and Beast are there for everyone to get involved and to become a part of.  Local charities are always looking for fund-raising ideas and with our varied distances, there is a route for all ages and abilities to bring money in for their favourite cause.”

One such cause has already started recruiting for Durham Big Ride on September first.  Rainbow Trust is a national charity that has care teams across the country supporting families of life threatened and terminally ill children. The care team based in Durham supports families across the whole of the North East.

Emily Casson is Fund Raising Manager base in Durham City: “It’s great to be associated with the Durham Big Bike Ride as it is a great way for us to promote what we do to people in this area and to raise vital funds for our work. If you are interested in taking part and want to ride for Rainbow Trust, please get in touch.”

Indeed, one of the charity patrons, Kevin Whitfield, has taken part in the past two Durham Big Rides and will be on the line again this year promoting the cause.
Durham Big Ride does not have a ‘nominated charity’ encouraging riders to raise money for their own personal causes.

“It is great to see Rainbow Trust getting more involved this year” said Colin Wilkes, “and we would encourage other charities to log onto the website to see how they can use this great local event to help them in their efforts.”

For more information on Rainbow Trust and their team, contact Emily Casson 0191 386 4400 and for the Durham Big Ride and Beast, go to the website www.durhambigride.co.uk

Durham Big Ride is on Sunday Sept 1 2013 from County Hall Durham

The Beast is the following Sunday Sept 8 from Sniperley Park and Ride

More information from www.durhambigride.co.uk

RAINBOW TRUST

Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity provides expert social palliative care to families when their child has a life threatening or terminal illness. Offering emotional and practical support, assistance is available for families 24 hours a day.

Rainbow Trust is a national charity with a care team in Durham supporting families across the North East with individually tailored high quality care from diagnosis through to treatment and, should a family become bereaved, the charity will continue to support them for as long as they are needed. Rainbow Trust relies almost entirely on voluntary donations and through the outstanding generosity of its supporters is able to help over 1,300 families a year throughout England. However, this is just 12% of the families that could benefit from its help. The charity’s vision is that one day all terminally ill children and their families will have access to a Rainbow Trust Family Support Worker.

Virgin Money London Marathon 2013

I know, I know,  I should have done this last week but I have been ‘ a bit busy’ with catch up stuff and making sure that my hound knew who I was that I am NOW getting round to putting my Virgin Money London Marathon thoughts down on paper – well on screen!

First I will talk about Boston.  Much has been said about it and in a far better way than I ever could.  We all got to know via twitter and the likes on the Monday night as a lot of the marathon ‘team’ are part o,f and have friends who work on Boston run.

Events like that certainly put things in perspective and made us all work that bit harder and be that little bit more vigilant.  The silent pause before the race was a fitting tribute to Boston and we had three runners who ran Boston on the Green start line with their Boston t-shirts on. One of them was from Newcastle – just goes to show eh!

But the week went as well as they ever do down in VMLM press office with a whole raft of people making sure it is all planned out, leaving the likes of me an easy job of ‘shouting at snappers’ for a few hours and getting the various elite athletes, fancy dress runners and our delightful celebs to smile at the aforementioned snappers.

New people this year included: Andrew Strauss, along with his delightful wife, Kelly Sotherton – who kept saying: ‘It’s a bit different from running a few times round a track!’ and Amy Childs who was very impressive during the press interviews and who really enjoyed the marathon experience.

Among the regulars who were back for another jog round the capital were James Toesen, who knocked around 15mins off his personal best this year, Mike Bushel from BBC sport who was wearing the t-shirt of the TV Times leukemia and lymphoma research charity, made popular by another one of the gang, Tony Audenshaw who again told me he was looking for ‘around 3.30’ and came in around 3.10. Amanda Mealing, who I had the delight to chat to a lot last year was back for more and  it wouldn't be Virgin Money London Marathon without Iwan Thomas supporting, once again, MacMillan Cancer Care.

Race day came and my first job was to make sure Michele Roux Jnr got to the start early for an interview on TV. Although it was his twelfth London marathon (I think) we had never had the time to chat for more than 2 minutes.  Let me say that he is as quiet as he seems on the telly but is a great conversationalist – even at 6.45 in the morning!  One of the things we spoke about, and I can’t remember how it came into conversation, was when his sous chef Monica Galetti saw snow for the first time!

Up at the green start we had our usual ‘gaggle of snappers’ of around 60 and most of them had been at the hotel for photos during the week. They were all there to make the most of the early sunshine and get as many clebs photographed before they got all hot and sweaty doing 26.2 miles on the roads.

All the runners were up for it as well, far too many to mention individually but the  BBC News reading girls all looked as if they had been ‘doing the hard miles’ so they could enjoy the atmosphere of the day.

When the race starts, our team have a 300 metre dash to get to the special buses to get us to the finish as quickly as they can.  Once there we all have a half mile walk up The Mall to get near the finish line to see the wheelchairs and then the elite runners coming across the line.

A while after they elite come though all my ‘friends’ from the Green start come into view.

As said before Jame Toesen did a very respectable time of just over 3 hours with Tony Audenshaw not far behind.  Could go on about them all but it is easier to say that all of them came in over the next few hours – in various states of tiredness, and were more than happy to cross the line as some of the pics show.

That evening all of the media team try and get out for a final meal together before we all go our separate ways. I am just a small cog in the media wheel at the event but the whole team are great to work with and very good company when out in the various bars and restaurants at St Catherine’s Dock.

Happy days until next year.

More orders, more customers means more jobs

Due to the continuing success of a Durham business, they are looking for more workers – now!

Workwear Express, based on the Belmont Estate on the outskirts of Durham City, is seeing its order book going from strength to strength and is now looking for staff to expand the current roster of 55. They are the UK’s leading supplier of customised Workwear, uniforms and promotional leisurewear and supply businesses, clubs, individuals and organisations all over the UK and abroad.

“We have invested in new machinery and I.T. that are making our jobs more efficient and also enables the staff to complete orders quickly, keeping the customer happy.” Said MD of the company Andrew Ward.

Workwear Express have been in the Durham City area for 22 years and over the past year have grown by over 30% in the last year and are on course for the same growth this year. 

National clients include: Aston Martin, Greggs PLC, 3 Mobile, and Tesco while they still keep close to their roots supplying local companies with workwear and promotional wear.

 “Our sales teams are doing a great job; in fact we are looking to expand the teams that are already in post. We are looking to take on eight new office- based sales staff to handle inbound sales enquiries and provide excellent customer service and twelve more production staff to work in our 24 hour factory.”  Said Andrew “All in all, in these times where a lot of firms are looking shed jobs, we are in the fortunate position of not only keeping the 55 staff but looking for more.”

 Anyone interested in working for the company can get in touch with us at careers@workwearexpress.com

Scrooged! This Christmas

Just a few lines as we all have better things to do than read about me and my ramblings - I hope!
Working at home, I tend to have the telly on - for news, sport, Jeremy Kyle !  Over the past couple of days I have noticed that the Charles Dickens classic has been 'done to death'.

First one I saw was the Kelsey Grammer ' all singing, all dancing ' version.  Now, I like the bloke in Cheers and his spin -off 'Frasier' but he can't sing!
He couldn't even get away with the Rex Harrison ' talking and singing thing' that he did in, well, all of the films he did that required singing.  Story was fine and a few good one-liners.  there was also a bit of 'star watching' as a fair few of the cast were familiar faces to the British TV screen.  But, and this is the point where I couldn't have sat and watched it, EVERYTHING was sung! get right on your nerves after about 15 minutes.

Next, on the same day I have you, Patrick Stewart in almost a word-for-word version of Christmas Carol.  this was well worth a watch -even when you expected him to say: "computer, pause hologram".  Not that I am an expert on Dickens or even this story, but I did like the way it kept close to the feeling of the book.  I know this because I downloaded the book to my new tablet FOC as a try out and started to read it.

Missed the Muppet's Christmas - although I did catch Alan Shearer on MOTD with more hair on his chin than his head along side ' that bloke who was an average footballer who danced a bit and has become a BBC favourite' name escapes me. Probably doesn't count!

Not long before the classic Alistair Sim version of the story ( Christmas Caroll not MOTD).
That one has all the atmosphere and great acting but the one I am looking forward to is the Bill Murray version, which, if you have ever worked in the media (Mirror group take note) the characters are all too familiar!

Anyway, enjoy the festivities and I will write a bit more in 2013 as I have a nice few 'things' coming up.  as they say: WATCH THIS SPACE  

Big Ride makes a difference

One of the areas we at Durham Big Ride look at is the impact the event has on the wider community.  To this end we have a trophy we present to groups or charities who take part in the events to further their money or profile.

This year the recipient of the Bramwell’s Business Challenge trophy is Taylan’s Awesome Son-Rise Journey.

David Horsley was on hand with some of the volunteers to take hold of the trophy recently and was very pleased to accept it on behalf of the group.

Please read the story below that gives a nice view on the charity.

Around 6 years ago our son Taylan was diagnosed with having severe Autism. At that time Taylan was finding it really difficult to relate to the world going on around him......he was unable to communicate his needs & what is normally an easy transition from toddler to little boy was a complete up-heaval for our little man.

We never gave up hope that things would somehow improve as the years passed by. Around the end of 2009 while searching for help to make Taylan's life more tolerable we came across the Son-Rise program. This organisation has high levels of success bringing children through their state of autism. After attending a seminar in the UK, we were totally convinced by what we had seen, and like every other set of parents, we wanted our child to fulfil his potential. Without special intervention, Taylan’s future is extremely limited. The success rate of the Son-Rise program instils hope in us for his freedom from this condition. It is difficult for us to understand fully the issue of autism and reversing it in Taylan, but we are diligently trying to do so for the sake of his future.

I n October 2010 we set up a playroom in our house and we started on the son-rise program. In January 2011 I went to London for a week of start up training with Anita, Taylan's school 1:1 worker. From then until now we have worked on the principals of son-rise with Taylan and some fantastic volunteers that work with him.

We have witnessed so many changes in Taylan's life that we had only dreamed about until we started this program, all of which you can read about on his web page.

www.helpingtaylan.co.uk or search on facebook for Taylan's awesome Son Rise journey.

 

We all had a fantastic day at the Durham Big Ride and The Beast and thank you for reading about our very special boy.
Lucy & David Horsley

Brian, receives recognition for being a ‘spoke in a wheel’.

A postman from Chester-le-Street has been given the British Empire Medal (BEM) for his service to a charity he founded 16 years ago.

Brian Milner, who along with a friend and fellow postman David Patterson BEM, founded Gateway Wheelers disabled cycling group, in 1996

Brian received his medal from the Lord Lieutenant of County Durham Sir Paul Nicholson at a low key ceremony at Durham County Cricket Club recently.

“It was a great honour to meet Sir Paul and to receive the medal in my home town with good friends and family around.” Said Brian

“The British Empire Medal (BEM) was revived this year to reward community and voluntary work and so it is a double honour to be one of the first to get the medal for my work with Gateway Wheelers.”

Sadly, the co-founder passed away in 2004 and because of this, the group were even more determined to continue their work with riding for all abilities:

‘When David passed away it was a big loss, but we all rallied together, took on the challenge and have continued the charity’s success,’

Indeed, the group, based at Durham Cricket Ground, has a vibrant group of cyclists who enjoy getting out on their bikes most weekends.

Brian received his BEM for, Services to Gateway Wheelers and Royal Mail but is quick to say that it is very much a team effort with the group:

“When I first received my letter it took a few days for what I had been awarded to sink in. At the end of the day I’m just one spoke in a big wheel at Gateway Wheelers and without the support of my family and volunteers none of this would be possible not forgetting Sarah our amazing development officer

Not to be left out of a glamorous tea party down at Buckingham Palace, Brian has been assured that he will be invited down next year.

“I have been told that, because I have been given my honour ‘at home’, I will be invited down to London to meet others and hopefully the Queen!”

Current Mayor pays visit to ‘former Mayor’

A pub in the middle of Durham had a visit from the latest Mayor of the City to help pull a pint or two.

Cllr. John Wilkinson, current Mayor of the City, is helping to keep alive the name of one of the most notorious of his predecessors and helping promote a local business as well.

Cllr Wilkinson’s predecessor, Cllr Les Thompson, was one of the first to pull a pint at the John Duck pub in Claypath,  and has set the ball rolling for future Mayors to do the same:

Licensee  Andy Hughes is more than happy to see the latest Mayor come in to lend a hand:
“We named the pub after the Mayor of the City from 1680 and it was a gesture from us to invite the Mayor at the time of our opening  Les Thompson to help the launch.  As the Mayor changes every year, we felt it right to invite the current holder of the office to see how we are progressing.”

Andy added that the pub is looking to help local businesses all the time:  “We are very much a traditional pub in as much as we try and get our beers and real ales from local breweries.  This works well for both us and the brewers where we have built up a great working relationship with a number of them in the area.”

John Duck, Mayor in 1680, has a dubious background.  Indeed, there is not a lot known about his upbringing or his parents.  Legend says that he was walking along the streets of Durham when a Raven dropped a gold coin at his feet.  This was the start of his wealth – although there is evidence that he was not always on the right side of the law.

What is known is that he became one of the wealthiest men in Durham and had a mansion on Silver Street (now in City Centre) and later became Lord Duck of Haswell. 

“After working hard to establish ourselves as a pub to come and relax in during the summer months, now we are gearing up to the very busy time of the year starting with the Food Festival later this week.” said Andy

More about the John Duck pub can be seen at http://www.facebook.com/john.duck.581