I never donate to cancer charities, there are cures for certain cancers, but the cures are 'banned' substances and substances that cause cancer are widely avaliable

Curing cancer won't make the big companies billions every year

Ebola doesn't make much money because people die too fast, so within 3 months ebola is cured!

I have done work for Bvgari jewlers in London, one day when a colleage was working there they closed the doors for 1 lady to shop uninterupted. She goes in a couple of times a year. She spent over £200k in 15 mins

After she left my colleage asked the manager who she was, she was one of the top bods for 'cancer research UK'

 

Very much full-time, MB.

 

Well it's just after 6pm and I've had two glasses of wine and a large gin and bitter lemon.

 

you are way ahead on me

but still four hours to go

 

Got through breakfast.

 

Morning JT our new placement arrived yesterday she's a lively little thing.

 

Morning, Dave. That's lovely! What's she called?

 

Hollie and she is a character.Gone shopping with Mrs Y at the moment,that should be an experience !

 

Bless her. Hope she settles in ok, Dave.

 

Hey guys, you should be very proud of yourselves for keeping distance from something as dear (to you) as alcohol; at least for a month. It takes a lot to resist something that you really enjoy. Respect.

About fostering, great cause but I don't think I can hack having a child living with me, looking after him/her as mine and then letting them go to another mummy and daddy or some random hostel/care home. That would break my tender heart. I have tremendous respect for the ones that are brave enough to do so.

I wish there weren't any children in this world who moved from place to place; family to family. I wish they all had stable homes, stable parents, stable care and stable lives in general. I know it's not always possible what we wish.

 

We dont have any stables but she has a nice bedroom.

 

Opps - not happening in my house....

 

One down, thirty to go.

 

Easing in to day three. No cravings, no DTs, no sweats. I don't think I'm an actual alcoholic, which is nice. Can you afford 10p per day? If so, please stick £3.10 in the jar on the front page.

 

One week down - easy.

 

Saw something a few years back on the subject, one particularly well known charity managed to get a whole 20p in the pound to the worthy cause it was collecting for, which is apparently quite good.

If you think charities are bad you should take a look at the people that work for private pension schemes, they're in a whole different league when it comes to spending other peoples money.

Opps forgot to add; Well done JT, I manage the odd week from time to time, but I always make sure I don't drink every day, which can be difficult as I tend to like a beer after a bit of graft, pint of water usually does the trick though.

 

Gave up drinking on 9th July, feel better for it

Good job, JT.

 

Thanks, lads.

 

I could set up a charity today and as long as 15% goes to 'good causes' everything will be fine

So, I could have a charity bucket in the street and get £1,000 at the end of the day. As long as £150 goes to a 'good cause' everything is fine and I can pocket the other £850 as wages/expenses

Not a bad days work!

 

Three weeks down! The other day we went for lunch in our favourite pub that happens to have one of my favourite ciders on tap - no problem (although I did salivate a little at the prospect of the sharp, appley goodness complementing my steak). We've raised £650 now for The Fostering Network, so if you'd like to chip in just a few quid we'd be terribly grateful. God bless.

 

Good work JT, that's a good sum. My partner and I are putting every cent we have into IVF at the moment so we can't donate right now but we do contribute to fostering supporting organizations over here as we may foster a child in the future.

Good luck for the next week!

 

I understand, buddy. I'll pray that IVF is successful for you and your partner as it was for my brother and sister-in-law. If there's a different outcome and you choose to adopt you'll be giving a fantastic gift to the child or children. Thank you very much for the encouragement, too, very much appreciated.

 

good luck from me too

 

Thanks Hodgy! Thanks JT!

On the fostering thing, there are a lot of kids out there who need help, that's for sure.

We started the process earlier in the year to be trained up and eligible as foster parents. My partner is a licensed marriage and family therapist and has done a lot of therapy for kids in the system. We'd love to eventually help a kid have a better quality of life and, in quite a lot of circumstances here in the US, help give the real parents the time to get back on track to a place where they can look after their biological children again.

The only problem for us is that we have to wait for Courtney (my partner) to go into a different field of work. Reason being that there are a very large number of situations where some of the biological parents are just messed up and throw complaints at foster parents. This would then be lodged against my partner (as she is a mental health professional) and she could lose her license to practice! Crazy, huh? (no pun intended).

JT, with a week to go on the charity effort, I hope you get all the donations that you deserve for such a good cause! (and of course as it can be bloody difficult to not have a pint!!)

 

Well done so far
Only 2 more weekends to go

 

Torquemada talked about fostering in his #51, not adopting. Fostering and adopting are two different things.

 

Yes, I noticed that. Sorry, Swati.

 

Actually, you're both right. The stuff we were doing was where you foster, then eventually adopt. So, we'd help heal kids and get them back to their families, then also give a new permanent home and be the new family for a child in need of love and stability. :-)

Anyway, back to you, JT. How's the not drinking been? How's the fundraising going since last check in?

 

That's fantastic! I actually had this conversation with the Welsh Fostering Network and one of the many things they do is teach foster parents basic fostering techniques which, quite unbelievably, aren't in place at the moment. They have funding for 1500 parents to receive training before 2020 and are hoping to raise more funds to train the 2500-3500 more.

https://www.thefosteringnetwork.org...._questions.pdf

If you and your partner are trained in therapy you'd be offering a massive advantage to young people with very difficult backgrounds.

Not drinking's easy; raising a significant sum is less so. We're setting aside the four grand we're hoping to raise to go toward publishing a quarterly magazine that's specifically for the kids. Putting together the magazine is funded by the Welsh government, but the actual publishing lacks funds. We need an additional £350 by the close of this month to stay on target so we really need that to keep the momentum going. Sometimes I get a little impatient and feel all Bob Geldof.

 

good for - I have the utmost respect for people who foster/adopt

I have often wondered, if mine and my wife's circumstances were different, whether we would have adopted

I think/hope the answer would have been yes