40 Challenges B4 40 – in aid of Myeloma UK

I’ve left this page up as a summary of what I did in advance of my 40th birthday back in 2015. An age I wasn’t sure that I would ever reach when I was diagnosed with myeloma in 2009. Whilst watching the X-factor one night, I suddenly had the idea of doing 40 challenges before I hit 40…40 challenges in my 40th year! Originally, I had wanted to raise  £4,000 (even I had to accept that £40k would be unachievable!!). In the end we raised over £17,000!! With having 2 young kids and a job to manage, we decided the list would be a good mix of some fun things to raise awareness, and some tough things that will make me work hard for the fundraising money. So, Nick and I put together a list of things to achieve in this time! I started on my 39th birthday and we came up with more than 40 challenges just in case one or two become impossible…..although I’m not one to give up – as those of you who know me will know! 40 were achieved in total!

My 40 (+) challenges!

1. Find 40 people to do one challenge each in aid of Myeloma UK- possibly to raise £4,000 between them all? Achieved but please keep taking part as every penny counts and many people were due to the Ice Bucket Challenge!

2. Climb 40 floors in a building – Achieved 25th May

3. Give up drinking alcohol,  and eating crisps and nuts for 40 days – Achieved 20th March 2014

4. Read 40 books – Achieved 24th January!

5. Run 40km in 4 (non-consecutive) days. Achieved (40km in a 5 day period! One rest day!)

6. Do a pub crawl round 40 pubs in 40 hours – Achieved – over £550 raised.

7. Eat 40 brussel sprouts (in 4 minutes?) – Achieved (in 4.5 minutes!)

8. Get 40 friends to be sponsored to give up something for the 40 days of Lent (or equivalent). www.justgiving.com/teams/lent – Achieved 20th April – over £5,000 raised!

9. Tell 40 people who don’t know anything about myeloma, what it is. Achieved

10. Get ingredients donated to make 40 cakes/ 40 cakes donated and sell them at a cake sale or two! Achieved 8th June – over £500 raised

11. Persuade 40 businesses to donate a minimum of £40 each – Achieved and raised over £2000!

12. Sell 40 roses in aid of Myeloma UK – achieved – thank you to Hire Heaven 🙂 Over £200 raised

13. Do 40 lots of 20 second planks in one day (or the equivalent)! Achieved 6th January

14. Eat 40 types of fruit – Achieved

15. Iron 40 items of clothing in 40 minutes – Achieved

16. Try 40 different bottles of wine. – Achieved

17. Buy a complete outfit for £40 – Achieved

18. Swim 40 lengths

19. Write 40 entries into my blog – Achieved 24th January

20. Get 40 shots  through the net of a netball post in 4 minutes. Achieved 25th April

21. Get people to make 40 Myeloma Buddies Achieved

22. Get the revised Myeloma Diagnosis Pathway taken to 40 different GP’s/ health professionals Achieved

23. Play 40 different sports (looking for contacts to help with this?)

24. Get a group of people (40 if possible) to do a total of 10,000 taekwondo kicks in one day Achieved 14 June – over £220 raised

25. Have a party for at least 40 people. – Achieved 24th January

26. Get 40 people born on the same day (January 25th) to send me a 40th birthday card!!! – Achieved 23rd January

27. Get 40 famous people to tweet/retweet about my challenge Achieved

28. Make £40 at a car boot sale. Achieved 13th April 

29. Look after a dog for 40 hours

30. Learn to knit and knit 40 rows (minimum!) Achieved 14th May 

31. Stay awake for 40 hours

32. Stay in bed for 40 hours – Achieved

33. A sponsored silence for 40 hours – Achieved 4th May 

34. Make 40 cups of tea in a day – Achieved 8th June – over £500 raised

35. Visit a zoo and see 40 animals – Achieved

36. Make and sell 40 greetings cards. Achieved

37. Drive 40 different cars

38. Get 40 people to conga through West Wycombe Park – Achieved

39. Get 40 signatures from Famous People – Achieved

40. Receive letters from people from 40 different countries. Achieved

41. Sell 40 Myeloma UK trolley keyrings – Achieved

42.  Try 40 different types of cheeses – Achieved

43.String a necklace with 40 beads/ stones.

44. Play 40 consecutive games of cards – Achieved

45. Ride for 40 minutes on a horse

46. Travel at least 40m down a zip wire Achieved 30th April (160m!)

47. Pull 40 pints – Achieved 1st May – thank you to the George & Dragon, West Wycombe – Raised £180

48. Get 40 prizes for a raffle (if possible non-location specific please)  Achieved

49. Get 40 people to donate money to Myeloma UK instead of giving Christmas cards – Achieved & raised over £500

50. Get 40 people to sign up to the Myeloma UK sponsored events

I’m going to pop an update for some of the tasks below. So where I have to get 40 people, or read 40 books, you can see what I’ve done!

1. Deborah, 2. Sandra L (Quilt), 3. Geri W (Ebay) 4. Ceri? 5. Diane Curtis (Quilt)  6. Jeff Crawford (EBay) 7. Nicki Howard (3 Peaks) 8. Jo Wainhouse-Wells 9. Sarah Bickers 10. Geri Purkiss (Netball Tournament) 11. Emily Wainscoat-Grant (Netball Tournament) 12. Jo Wainhouse-Wells (no 2! IBC)) 13. Charlie Moran (IBC) 14. Liam Moran (IBC) 15. Catherine Carlton (IBC) 16. Carly Bull (IBC) 17. Emma Copley (IBC) 18. George Grayburn (IBC) 19. Brad Wharton (IBC) 20. Deborah Wharton (IBC) 21. Nathan Wharton (IBC) 22. Jake Wharton (IBC) 23. Danielle Thornton (IBC) 24. Helen Colechin (IBC) 25. Kirsten Dourish (IBC) 26. Sam Gascoyne (IBC) 27. Rebecca Gascoyne (IBC) 28. Mark Colechin (IBC) 29. Nigel Odd (IBC) 30. Natalie Ellis (2014 Gold Challenge) 31. Tracy Lazenby (IBC) 32. Carol Stallword (1/2 Ironman) 33. Annie Donvan (Wine Evening) 34. George Bull (IBC) 35. Sue Byrne (IBC) 36. Leon Byrne (IBC) 37. Mark Hynes (IBC) 38. Stephen Russell (IBC) 39. Jackie Smithies (IBC) 40. Andy Smithies (IBC) 41. David Boyde (IBC) 42. Yasmin Maria Smith (IBC) 43. Peter Clegg (IBC) 44. James Bull (IBC) 45. Kathy Mair (IBC) 46. Cath Henshall (IBC) 47. Josphine Barnett (IBC) 48. Isla Barnett (IBC) 49. Annie Barnett (IBC) 50. Caroline James (IBC) 51. Matthew James (IBC) 52. Abi Wheeler (IBC) 53. Rob Crane (IBC) 54. Pete Fraser (IBC) 55. Chris Ratcliffe (Cake Bake) 56. Keith Wainhouse-Wells  Those in bold have completed their challenges!

4. The Passage, 2. The Thread, 3. The Little Bookshop of Kabul, 4. Opposed Positions 5. Defying Hitler 6. Lamb 7. The Shining Girls 8. The Garden of Evening Mists 9. The Perfume Collector 10. The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed out of the Window and Disappeared. 11. The Kabul Beauty School 12. Just a girl, standing in front of a boy 13. Fasting, Feasting 14. I am Legend 15. The Brutal Art 16. Cutting for Stone 17.Wife in the North 18. Thirst 19.Elegance 20. The Debutante 21. Pigeon English 22. Dear Thing 23. Little Face 24. The Telling Error 25. Hurting Distance 26. Songs of Willow Frost 27. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly 28. A memoir (Lynda Bellingham) 29. The Letter 30. The Confession 31. To The Wedding 32. The Hundred-Year-Old Man who climbed out of the window and disappeared 33. Of Mice and men 34. Double Indemnity 35. The Catcher in the Rye 36. Simplify 37. The Pigeon 38. The Five people you meet in heaven. 39. The First Phonecall from Heaven 40. Guy and the Flowering Plum tree

8. Me, Sara V-B, Clare M, Kelly H, Belinda S, Sue T, Catherine C, Debbie F, Kirsten D, Elaine R, Tracy C, Kate C, Claire O, Heidi Y, Karen M, Lisa S, Justine H, Dawn F, Nick G, Sue D, Jude S, Dave S, Lisa C, Helen F ,  Jo H, Christine P, Karen B, alison P, Sarah B,  Joan Smyth, Vicky R,  Rav. S, Natalie E, Archie R, Hawa S, Rebecca G, Helen C, Anna S, Helen W, Paul H-L, Isobel T, Louise A, Sarah M, Preeti, Amy B, Nick H, Katie A, Alison M, Henry M(48 – bold are 100% definite). Over £5,000 raised 🙂

9. Kerry Downs 2. May Yee 3. Hilary Chng 4. Pauline Bexon 5. Rebecca Goulding 6. Lynne Flinders 7. Zoe Linkson 8. Josie Brears 9. Elizabeth Atwell-Dickie 10. Phillipa Lootz 11. Deborah Slater 12. Jean Marie Hutson 13. Nicole Marie Hutson 14. Rob Steward 15. Jeanne-Marie Richards 16. Francesca Revel-Chion Childs 17. Faisca Nago 18. Emma Maunders 19. Rene Thomsen 20 Marion Fryer 21. Robiin Hester 22. Mark (Hester?) 23. Matt Horn 24. Patty Horn 25. Dick Gay 26. Nora Gay 27. Steve Topper 28. Laura Beth Topper 29. Rob Kuhbach 30. Sherrell Andrews 31. Ellen Moore 32. Carol Morris 33. Dale Morris 34. Abbey Beaumont 35. Susan Hardie 36. George Hardie 37. Mel DiGiacomo 38. Dillo Williams 39. Caroline McNiff 40. Alex Hadden 41. Ruth Seymour 42. Rachel Potter 43. The WIngs 44. Tracy Cleeter 45. Ray Cleeter 46. Emma Hunt 47. Rakhee Rudki 48. PLUS all the people from various challenges who had never heard about myeloma before.

11. Jo H (TBC), 2. F.B Smyth& Co, 3.Yvonne and Nigel, 4. DCS Construction Products Ltd, 5. www.be-unrivalled.com 6. Ruth Wheeler Physiotherapy 7. WING 8. Hire Heaven 9. Leigh James of High Wycombe 10. The HR Department, South London 11. Ebury Hotel, Canterbury 12. Hyundai 13. Jo & Keith 14. Blandine 15. Tailormade 16. Free Your Space 17. The Monkey Puzzle Pub, London 18. The Heron Pub, Paddington, London  19. AD Slade Carpentry & Building Services 20. Aurum Solutions 21. Sturmark Construction Services 22. PR-HR Limited 23. MR Evans 24. Just Thermostats 25. Colourpoint Litho Ltd 26. AMS Accountants 27. Surrey Beds 28. Oxford Plumbing Services 29. Lets Cook 30. Independent Living Consultants, Downley 31. Tabard Theatre, Chiswick 32. Diving Services UK 33. R2 Studio Architechts 34. Axis Architechts 35. J Rock Investments Ltd 36. Jepson Holt 37. Purple Flame Media 38. One to Three Marketing 39. Red Kite Ergonomics 40. Brandon James Ltd

12. Achieved thanks to Hire Heaven donating the roses – over £200 raised 🙂

21. Meriel Buglass x 9 . Claire Fryer x 3 . Angela Donovan x 4 4. Sandra Lodwick x17  5. Megan Carter x14 6. Caroline McNiff x 3 (48 total)

22. 1.Riverside Surgery (High Wycombe), 2.Queen Mary Practice (South Woodford), 3.The Elmhurst Practice (South Woodford) 4.Southdene Surgery (South Woodford) 5. The Shrubberies Medical Centre (South Woodford) 6. Marple Cottage Surgery, 7. Wilmslow Osteopath 8. Marple Physiotherapy 9.The Glebelands Surgery (South Woodford) 10. Danebridge Medical Practice, Northwich 11.Central Medical Bundaberg, Australia, 12. Monifieth Health Centre (Monifieth), 13. Springfield Medical Practice (Arbroath) 14. Erskine Practice (Dundee) 15.Picton Medical Centre New Zealand 16. Physiotherapy dept, Stepping Hill Hospital, 17. Glenfield Surgery, Leicester 18. Malthouse Surgery, Abingdon 19. The Kingfisher Practice, Luton 20. Larkside Practice, Luton 21. Stopsley Village Practice, Luton 22.Latham House Surgery, Melton Mowbray 23. Twyford Surgery, Berkshire 24. Park Surgery, Horsham 25. Riverside Surgery, Horsham 26. Orchard Surgery, Horsham 27. Village Surgery,  Southwater 28. Bury Knowle, Oxford 29. Marston, Oxford 30. Manor Surgery, Oxford. 31. Tower House Surgery, High Wycombe 32. Moat House Surgery, Redhill 33. Amersham Health Centre, Beaconsfield 34. Mill Barn Medical Centre, Beaconsfield 35. The Misbourne Practice Chalfont St Giles 36. The Calcot Medical Centre, Chalfont St Peter, 37.  The Hall Practice, Chalfont st Peter 38. Atos healthcare pip centre, Doncaster 39. Harborough Medical Centre, Market Harborough 40. Cross Keys surgery, Princes Risbourough 41. Hughenden Valley surgery, High Wycombe 42. Village Surgery, London Colney 43.Three Shires Medical Practice, Bristol 44. Clover Health Centre, Woolwich 45. Belmont medical centre, Uxbridge 46. Hampton Park Medical centre Ottawa, Canada 47. Another Canada surgery!

23. 1. Archery 2. Quad Biking 3. Netball 4. Running 5. Parasailing 6. Snorkelling? 7. Walking 8. Taekwondo 9. Sailing 10. Fishing 11. Crabbing (is that a sport?!)

26. Gilli Campany (1946)

27. 1. Adil Ray  2. Nicole Appleton 3. Loo Archer 4. Natalie Appleton 5. Nicole Waterman 6. Christine Hamilton 7. Katharine Merry 8. Tamzin Outhwaite 9. Dick n Dom 10. Lisa Ray 11. Tara Palmer-Tomkinson 12. Beverley Turner 13. Ian Botham 14. Ross Hutchins 15. Jade Richards 16. Graham Roberts 17. Micky Dumoulin 18. Steve Parrish 19. Kristina Rihanoff 20. Sheila Dillon 21. Jo Jo Moyes 22. Richard Osman 23. Stephanie Millward 24. Greg Searle 25. Debra Searle 26. Kate Thornton 27. Shaznay Lewis 28. Chas Newkey-Burden 29. Amy Rosenthal 30. Mike Bushell 31. Linda Robson 32. Christopher Biggins. 33. Niki Evans 34. Teri Dwyer 35. Leon & June 36. Leon Taylor 37. Tom Fletcher 38. Mario Falcone 39. Lisa Faulkner 40. Paul Chuckle 41. Barry Elliott

39. Adil Ray 2. Prunella Scales 3. Jimmy Tarbuck 4. Kevin Whately 5. Stan Boardman 6. Tony Dalli 7. Berni Flint 8. Robert Powell, 9. Lisa Goddard, 10. Eric Carte, 11. Gary Mavers, 12. Ben Nealon 13. Robert Plant 14. Pasha Kovalev 15. Rick Stein 16. Tom Kerridge 17. Francis Rossi 18. Rick Parfitt 19. Denise Lewis 20. Romain Grosjean 21. Aled Jones 22. Sophie Dahl 23. Jamie Cullum 24. Lesley Joseph 25. Vicki Michelle 26. Sharon Stone 27. S.J. Watson 28. Leigh-Anne (Little Mix) 29. Gary Barlow 30. Mark Owen 31. Howard Donald 32. Jason Orange 33. Joe Root 34. Nick Mason 35. Andrew Strauss 36. Greg Searle 37. Hugh Quarshie 38. James Martin 39. Richard Osman 40. Alexander Armstrong 41. Jane Robbins 42. Kelly Hoppen

40. 1. Germany 2. Spain 3. Australia 4. Hong Kong 5. UAE – (Abu Dhabi & Dubai) 6. Finland 7. Maldives 8. Malta 9. New Zealand 10. South Korea 11. Thailand 12. India 13. Andorra 14. Barbados 15. The Cook Islands 16. Qatar 17. South Africa 18. USA 19. China 20. Ireland 21. France 22. Romania 23. Canada 24. Holland 25. Egypt 26. Switzerland 27. Greece 28. Italy 29. Ghana 30. Oman 31. Singapore  32. Portugal 33. Jordan 34. Denmark 35. Belgium 36. Poland 37. England 38. Norway 39. Czech Republic 40. Scotland 41. Cuba

48. 1.Two tickets to Charlie & the Chocolate Factory (London), 2.Limited edition Quentin Blake print, 3.Set of Roald Dahl books, 4. Three GRAZE boxes (www.graze.co.uk) 5. VIP trip to Anthropologie’s Flagship store inc Champagne breakfast 6. Nirvana Spa at Home Gift set 7. Sue Pozzoni Designs necklace 8. Mandara Spa Gift Set 9. 70cl Famous Grouse 10. 1l Famous Grouse 11. Box of After Eights 12. Bottle of Red wine 13. Bottle of white wine 14. £100 Hand & Flowers voucher & signed Tom Kerridge book 15. Pizza Express voucher 16& 17. Two x Indulgence Hampers from Viking Direct 18. Traditional Afternoon Tea at the Compleat Angler 19. Chiropody & Warm Wax treatment from Total Foot Care 20. Mary Kay hand cream 21. Twinings Large Gift Box 22. Signed Denise Lewis book 23. Wycombe Heights 4-Ball 24. Apollo Photography Voucher 25. 2 x London Wetland Centre family tickets 26. Lavazza Coffee goody bag 27. Chocolate hamper 28. Chocolate hamper 29. Ladies indulgence hamper 30. Teddy hamper 31. Teddy hamper 32. Reindeer hamper 33. Black zebra Scentsy warmer 34. 6 Bottles of red wine 35. Hive on the Hill honey 36. £25 cineworld voucher 37. 2 x ‘Spot the Hog’ hog roasts 38. One night at the Ebury Hotel, Canterbury 39. 3 course meal at Hudsons House 40. Japanese Pen set 41. Tea set.

49. Elaine, Tracy C, Caroline M, Clare M, Clare H-L, Sue B, Me, Lorraine S, Steph D, Sarah E, Dawn, Tracy E, Jo D, Jo & Ben, Nick H, Lucy D, Rachel L, Camilla S, Gianna, Phil K, Tamara, Emily, Christine P, Sharon M, Mark G, Anon, Anon, Anon, Ruth W, Mish F, Karen B, Jo and Andy S, Adrian R, Diane Curtis, Judy & Martin K, Michelle F, Ian P, Karin P, Claire & Adam, Dawn, Fran, Rachel, Angela, Rachel & Phil G, = 44!! First Challenge to be achieved – thank you everyone 🙂

50. Sarah Mackenzie 2. Henry Mackenzie 3. Diane Curtis 4. Amy Curtis, 5. Holly Plumley 6. Mel Marinano 7. Helen Colechin 8. Sarah Jane 9. Karen 10. Lili 11. Chantal 12. Gill 13. Viv 14.