Completed Challenge 30# - The Last One!

Ahhh this is a great feeling! The last one. I can't believe it. It has been such an amazing experience and a fantastic way to turn 30. There has been so many highs (and few lows!) but for all it's taken out of me, I've got 10 times as much back. I've had 30 great challenges and formed some new friendships along the way.

I'll update next week with a final total as I'm reliably informed a few more people want to donate. If that's you and you're reading this - www.justgiving.com/30before30sense (just a little hint!)

So onto the last challenge which was to publicize the challenges and the charity SENSE. This has been ongoing throughout and I've really enjoyed chatting with people about the charity and making people aware of the work that they do.

Every challenge has contributed towards this but in addition I have worked hard on this blog, received some press interest and taken part in an afternoon tea to publicize the challenges. I also carried out some of the challenges at the two schools I've worked in during the challenges to publicize the challenges and charity to my students.

The afternoon tea was a huge success, lots of people who had been involved in the challenges came a long and we all ate a lot of yummy cake. My fantastic mother had made a PowerPoint of all the challenges with some videos which was a great talking point. I brought leaflets, posters and balloons to show people and also information on what the charity does and where the money can go. One of my challenges was to produce a map which had been mounted beautifully and I found out the challenge was expanding even further to be lit at night which was a fantastic feeling.

I was lucky to have some short articles in local press at the beginning of the challenges and was even more pleased to have two large articles towards the end. One was in my local paper the Matlock Mercury and the other published on my actual birthday was a double page spread in the Derby Telegraph. This really meant a lot to me as I could reach I wider audience about SENSE and hopefully inspire them to do some challenges of their own.

Last but certainly not least I publicized the challenges through this blog. At first I found it quite hard to write and it can feel like you're talking to no-one. But then I got more and more hits and I began to really enjoy the process of documenting my challenges and taking stock of what I had achieved. The hits went up daily with the more humiliating ones attracting a lot of attention. The winning post was ballet dancing at 189 hits! As this was an unusual thing to do for my 30th and something that has consumed my life for the last year you can imagine my delight when I post the total hits this blog has had.

Thank you so much to everyone who has helped to promote the challenges and the charity SENSE. This has been a real team effort and I could not have done it without you!