Up in the big smoke & raffle news

Some more exciting news to fill your boots with...

Carl Constanza (@stanzabodybuild) has kindly donated a raffle prize. The lucky winner will receive 1 months free personal training!

To counteract all that fitness, we have some scrummy chocolates from chocolatier Charlotte Brunswick (@Cbrunswickbath)

Here is a list of the amazing raffle prizes we have so far:

7 Night stay in an apartment situated in the beautiful old town of Kotor, Montenegro 

£250 to spend in Duo Boots

Hot air balloon ride in the Bath Building Society balloon

Make over by Maya Makeup

Pc service from Bath PC Repairs 

1 free nights camping and a discount of 30% for Longleat - Pitch Perfect

Signed books from Marian Keyes, Jill Mansell & Freya North

Limited edition HarryB beach towel

£10 voucher for Craft & More in Bristol 

Plus the personal training and chocolates mentioned above!

Now, don't try and tell me you don't want a ticket?!

To purchase a raffle ticket (£1 each) -  either speak to me in person (if you know me!) 

Or donate here  (you can split the donation between the two amazing charities) and send me an email at katiejanegroves@gmail.com with your name and telephone number. You can also choose pink, green or peach!!

The raffle is being drawn at our Send Off Event in Kingston Parade nr the Abbey on 3rd November 12pm. Come down to support us, eat cake with Velvet Teas and see if your ticket gets to see the light of day! 

In another news... Myself and Ella travelled up to London on Wednesday and met Katie Piper!

Everyone that speaks of Katie always says how lovely she is.. And she really is! She was able to give Ella some great tips at dealing with questions about her scars and how to stay positive. 

This meant so much to Ella and also to myself. To see Katie doing so well and being so positive gives me great hope for Ella's future. Katie has also announced that she is pregnant! I am so happy for her - what an amazing lady. 

This day highlighted what the foundation does best - giving hope and positivity to burns survivors. They are such great support. If you haven't done so already, I urge you to take a look at www.katiepiperfoundation.org.uk to see how worthwhile they really are. 

www.justgiving.com/teams/walkingforella 

Velvet Teas and B&Bs

I had a phone call from Ella the other day - a call to say how well she is doing in her Maths. I nearly fell off my chair! Not because I doubt she can do well in Maths, but that she was calling me with something positive about school!!

You see, she finds school quite tough, what with lots of things going on schoolwork wise, trying to fit in like all teens and then dealing with her burn injuries. She is the most inspirational 13 year old I know and I think it's about time I started to share that with her abit more! Anyway, lets hope this is the start of things to come and she becomes the next great mathematician! Or just keeps saying positive things about school! Either way, I'm happy. 

I have had confirmation that I am allowed to hold the Send Off Event in Kingston Parade by the Abbey in Bath!! This is amazing news - just need to rally up support now so I can sort the public liability insurance and also the risk assessment (Eek!).

I met up with Emma from Velvet Teas ( www.velvetteas.co.uk ) tonight to talk about the Send Off Event. Emma has kindly agreed to be our first sponsor and have a scrummy cake stall. We had a really good chat and I can honestly say that Emma is such a friendly and lovely lady. I only wish I discovered Velvet Teas back when I was getting married in May. 

I've also been sending emails like a mad woman and have all but one nights stay donated on our walk down to Cornwall. I'm pretty chuffed about this! Here is the line up..

Glastonbury - The Little House of Art

Taunton - Premier Inn

Bampton - Heron House

South Molton - Northam House (Updated!)

Torrington - Eastmond House 

Bude -  The Grosvenor 

In other news, the boots are still being "worn in" - much to the dismay of my right foot. 

I must now pop off to get my beauty sleep - I am taking Ella to London on Wednesday to have lunch with Katie Piper so I need my rest...

...yes you read that correctly!! How exciting! 

Onwards and upwards...

We have now changed our route and reduced the miles. We are still walking to Cornwall. We will be walking for 6 days straight - first day 26 miles followed by 5 days of just over 20 miles. This is still going to be a huge challenge for us, seeing as our 14 mile walk the other day floored us. 

We are off out walking tomorrow with Alfie Dog - we are going to take him through the Two Tunnels which is a revamped old railway line. www.twotunnels.org.uk We have only ever cycled through the first tunnel but thought it was pretty cool, so I'm looking forward to that.

I'm really happy to say that the very kind owners at Hereon House

 ( www.stayhereonhouse.co.uk ) have donated a nights stay. The lovely B&B is located in Bampton in Devon and will be our third stop. 

Another amazing raffle prize has been added today by www.harry-b.co.uk. We now have a limited edition HarryB beach towel to win! Check out the website to see some nifty children's towelling shorts, handy pompon wraps and fun beach towels. 

My mum received a letter today from Fab Club inviting Ella to the national jamboree camp in October. This was exciting news, however the day Ella will be coming home is the day we are having our Send Off Event and our first day of the walk! What are the chances of that?! 

We are hoping to arrange for Ella to get picked up on the last night so she doesn't miss anything. If that's not possible, I think it's important for her to go anyway. After all, this is why we are fundraising!

Lets keep our fingers crossed that things move quickly from now. I'm still waiting to hear about booking a space in Bath for the Send Off Event. I have chased this but I have still not received any response! In the meantime, a marquee is still desperately needed. If anyone happens to have one, toss it my way please! 

Katiejanegroves@gmail.com

New boots and bad moods

So it's a disheartening day in my Fundraising Land. It's sad for me to write a negative post however I guess in the interest of keeping it real...

Me and Steve both work full time and like many couples, don't get to see that much of each other. We've had just over a week off together, which has been amazing. Cornwall was lovely and it was a good chance to get excited about walking down there.

It was our last day off together today and I thought I would try out my new walking boots. So we started off on our walk with quite a few hills, perks of walking in Bath, and I started off very positive.

After 10 miles I was in agony at the front of my feet just above the ankle. Oouch! We continued our walk and ended up back at home after 14.22 miles. I literally couldn't take another step. 

We treated ourselves to a nice meal. We sat there with our amazing dinner feeling very disheartened. What have we agreed to do?! Why did we choose such a distance?! I honestly never realised how hard walking could be, I mean its just walking right?!

We will be continuing our walking, building up our distance and see how we get on, however I'm not sure we can honestly walk 200 miles.. I still need to walk to Cornwall, however I'm thinking maybe not right at the bottom! 

On another bad note, the kindness and generosity we experienced from Glastonbury has not been seen from anywhere else I have contacted. It's a hard one as we have raised around £265 for our chosen charities. If we have to pay for our B&B's along the way we are looking at £500-£600 that we could have donated straight to the charities without taking time off of work, without purchasing expensive walking bits, without walking in agony, without a mamouth amount of time organising everything. 

On the brighter side, looking at the raffle prizes people have donated and all the retweets I have been getting on Twitter, I know we have amazing support which I am very grateful for. 

I need to rest my weary body and wake up on the right side of the bed.. 

Please click here if you would like to donate  

Cornish sunsets and more books!

Having just come back from a lovely time in Cornwall - cut short for grandad Frank's 80th party - I've realised that my love of Cornwall is instrumental in completing The Walk. It's quite exciting knowing we will be crossing through beautiful Devon and ending up in our favourite place.

I've shared quite a few important moments in my life with Cornwall. Mine and Steves engagement. My 21st. First time with a surf board! 

Now that I'm rejuvenated from all that sea air I can continue planning all things fundraising.  

I've been thinking and rethinking our route down.. As I've mentioned before I am asking kind B&B owners if they would donate a nights stay. We have been very blessed in Glastonbury with 4 people offering help! We have taken The Little House Of Art ( www.littlearthouse.co.uk ) up on their kind donation and this will be our first stop!  I'm having a little trouble finding help at our next stop. Hopefully a kind offer will come soon.

Ive had a thought that scared me a little - I've realised that we will be walking for over 20 miles per day. This is why it's so important for us to have a nice bed to sleep in at the end of a long day (and a cold bath apparently, Brrr!) I hope we can find kind souls willing to donate a night to us. 

In other news I am still waiting to hear back from Bath BID regarding booking the location for the Send Off Event. It's going a little slower than I was hoping for so fingers crossed we will hear something soon.  

Raffle prizes are still coming in, with my favourite authors helping. I've now also received signed books from Marian Keyes ( www.mariankeyes.com ) and Jill Mansell ( www.jillmansell.co.uk )These will go with the signed Freya North book I already have. Why oh why can't I keep them?! Oh yea..

..because I'm so excited to be raising money for two amazing charities!  

If you haven't already, please take a moment to swing by these websites so you can see what the charities are about.

www.Katiepiperfoundation.org.uk.  www.fabclub.org.uk

Perhaps most excitingly, my brother in law has agreed to dress up as Peppa Pig for the Send Off Event!  Just need to find Peppa now. 

I have also set up text donations. So now it's easy peasy to donate. 

Text KPFD77 £1, £2 or £3 to 70070

Text FABC77 £1, £2 or £3 to 70070

Must dash .. Off to try and find 

6 nights of donated stays at B&B's.

Peppa Pig

Raffle prizes

Marquee

Walking clothes 

Food stalls......

You don't ask ladies and gentlemen, you don't get.