Morrison’s Bag Packing Success

Morrison’s Supermarket Bag Packing and collection day 16.10.09

 

Well what a day…

Even as we were setting up the stall, at the entrance to Morrisons, money was being thrown in to the buckets and collection tins, a trend that was set to continue throughout the day.

From tots to teenagers to the more senior customers of Morrisons, donations were made and often stories shared of how they had been affected by cancer.

Just as we were cleaned out of ribbon pins and stickers the gorgeous team of bag packers arrived fresh from a hard day at school! What a great job the girls did, they cheered up weary shoppers and were in big demand from the check-out staff…THANK YOU GIRLS YOU DID A FABULOUS JOB.

Three generations of my family were out supporting this event and this was only made possible because of charities who are working hard to win the battle against breast cancer. We were overwhelmed by people’s generosity and raised £448.22 for Breakthrough Breast Cancer.

A special thank you to MORRISONS of STOCKTON HEATH.

Submitted by Audra Selley

Banbury Rugby Club invaded by pink ladies!

Non-stop Matchday action at Bodicote Park
Club News | Wed 7th Oct 09
Posted by Simon Grieve

The ‘Muddy Marvels’ washed cars, Team Attitude at Altitude added a touch of glamour, the U8’s played tag ….. Oh, and the Bulls beat Huntingdon!

On a Saturday Matchday afternoon bathed in glorious Autumn sunshine, Banbury Rugby Club put on a show of non-stop action at Bodicote Park.

First up the Under 12’s – the Muddy Marvels – washed over 40 cars to raise money for their forthcoming tour to Yorkshire. Later this month the team will take on reigning Yorkshire Champions Otley, plus County runners-up York.

Next up was Team Attitude at Altitude who are raising money for the Breakthrough Breast Cancer charity. The team is committed to raising £20,000 and their efforts culminate next September with a 9-day trek to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro.

There was merchandise on sale in front of the grandstand plus a bucket collection at half time. Buzz from Banbury Sound helped get the crowd digging deep into their pockets and the girls raised over £200. This was topped up by a £50 donation from the Muddy Marvels car washing exploits.

Before the Bulls v Huntingdon Midlands 2 East (South) fixture Banbury’s mighty Under 8’s gave a demonstration of their tag rugby skills. The budding rugby superstars then formed a guard of honour as the players took the field.

For more information, or to make a donation to Team Attitude at Altitude, please click here:

http://www.twin-peaks.co.uk/in..

For more information on the Breakthrough Breast Cancer charity, please click here:

http://breakthrough.org.uk/..

For more information on Banbury Sound 107.6fm, please click here:

http://www.banburysound.co.uk/..

Attitude at Altitude’s support team!

New Tricks for us 4pinkbras

Below is a copy of the Blog posted by our trainers ‘New Tricks’ – www.newtricks.co.uk

It is not every day that we get to deliver a course aimed at four pink bras!  But today we did just that to an awesome foursome with a mad mission in mind!The ladies in question (in the photo below) are Deb Hunt, Helen Taylor, Annemarie Smith and Audra Selley. Their story starts (ironically) on April Fools’ Day 2008 when Deb was diagnosed with breast cancer. After a mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiotherapy she is well again and decided to do a skydive to raise money for Breakthrough Breast Cancer. After that amazing feat, the others, three of her friends, decided that they wanted to do something in support. They became a sort of Three Musketeers to Deb’s d’Artagnan – the self-styled “Four Pink Bras” and they have embarked on a challenge to raise £20,000 by way of a sponsored climb to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro. Naturally they are looking for cash but were also asking seeking sponsorship in kind. The Four Pink Bras, Deb, Helen, Annemarie and Audra At NewTricks we know how vital it is for speakers going out onto the networking circuit – in order to raise funds – to deliver a cracking presentation. However great the cause, nobody wants to be bored out of their mind at 7:30am! And so with that in mind we offered one of pur Powerful Presentation Skills training course for the “Four Pinks Bras”… and what a great day we enjoyed with them all. Four nervous ladies arrived at Bloxham Mill Business Centre – who kindly donated the use of one of their conference rooms – and four far more confident ladies have departed. In our day together we concentrated on putting together a talk with a good structure and explored the ways in which they could hold an audience’s attention. We then focused on how to make the presentation memorable and achieve the objectives that they have set themselves. Some time was spent on ways to overcome nerves and on delivering a presentation with real flair. Finally (and vitally) we looked for alternatives to the dreaded bullet points in PowerPoint… see our twitter post on that very subject! Good luck to the ladies with your fund raising (you can make a donation – dosh or services via their splendidly titled (or is that tittled) Twin Peaks website) and we are looking forward to hearing all about it when they return. That’ll be another presentation then – we’ve already booked them in to The 729 Club in Chipping Norton! All for one and one for all!

Team Attitude at Altitude aka 4pinkbras(on Twitter) attending a presentation skills training course

Networking virgins make good

Tonight, 3 of us attended our very first networking event, at Bloxham Mill Business Centre.  We went to observe how these things work, to make notes on how to present well and to listen to a local MP give a talk about local business and the economy.

Well, that’s what we went for. What actually happened was that before the evening got started, said MP – Mr Tony Baldry, MP for Banbury, came over to chat to us – no doubt thinking we were local business women. We explained what we were doing there and that we were planning on climbing Kili next year to raise £20,000 for Breakthrough Breast Cancer. We chatted about the training and he suggested that we get people to sponsor us by the foot eg £5 per foot up the mountain. Rather cheekily, Helen enquired if he was offering to sponsor us and that’s when he put his hand in his pocket and came out with £20! ‘There you go, that’s a fiver for each of you’. Now, following the MP’s expenses debacle we thought it would be prudent to offer him a receipt, at which point we all fell about laughing! 

We obviously struck a chord with him because he opened his talk with a big plug for the team, something we certainly were not expecting. Half an hour later and his speech all done we were then dragged up to do a speech of our own!

We were totally unprepared, totally unaware that this would be happening. Ray Avery told the audience that Bloxham Mill are committed to ensure that we will reach our total and that the business centre will do everything possible to make it happen and then asked us up to explain what we were doing and why! 

So there we were, Annemarie and I, stood in front of 70-80 business men and women, legs shaking and expected to perform!

Rather amazingly we managed to make them laugh but we still got our message across. I think the opening line about me being diagnosed with breast cancer last year certainly got their attention! By the end of it we had a queue of people wanting to offer help and advice and some amazing contacts that will be really useful in helping us reach our goal. It was a fabulous evening and big thanks are due to Ray Avery at Bloxham Mill for throwing us into the lions den, sometimes it really is worth taking the sink or swim approach.

This may have been our first networking event but we’ve no doubt that it won’t be our last – our legs are still shaking though!!

Cancer and Beyond

My name is Deb Hunt, I live in Oxfordshire, England with my husband Martin, two teenage children and a horse sized Labradoodle dog named Bailey. It was on April 1^st 2008 that I discovered I was to become one of the 46,000 women in the UK that are diagnosed with breast cancer each year. April 1^st , ‘April Fools Day’, a day when jokes are played – unfortunately for me it was no laughing matter! At the age of 43; wife; mother; part-time charity worker; dog walker; taxi service etc etc,  juggling life and trying to keep all the balls in the air on a daily basis, as we all do, I decided that I was not going to become a ‘victim’ and that I would tackle this challenge head on.

A mastectomy quickly followed, then 18 weeks of chemotherapy and 5 weeks of daily doses of radiotherapy, with the weekends off for good behaviour!

Black humour got us through and smiling and laughing really was the best medicine. When I went in for my surgery I hung a picture of that famous David Beckham Armani ad on the end of my bed with the strap line ‘only doctors this good looking need stop here!’ It worked like a dream, all the doctors and nurses had a smile on their face as soon as they entered the room and it immediately banished any gloom.

I can’t pretend that the chemotherapy was fun, believe me, having one tit and no hair doesn’t do a lot for a girls confidence! but with the support of wonderful family and friends and more laughter than I have ever had in my life, we made it through. I say ‘we’ because being diagnosed with any sort of cancer doesn’t just affect the individual, it has an impact on all those around you.

So, what are my top tips for getting through the biggest challenge of your life?

1. Smile, smile, smile – don’t let it get you down. If you smile, those around you smile too and I believe looking at the funny side of things really helps.
2. Write a diary (mine’s called ‘My Right Tit!’) – Write down the good things, write down the bad things, write down how you feel. When you really don’t feel like smiling it’s a good way to vent your anger and frustration at the down right unjustness of the disease and why it’s chosen to inflict itself on your life.
3. When you go in for surgery get David Beckham (George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp – the choice is yours!) on the end of your bed, it works a treat!
4. After surgery aim to wear your ‘normal’ clothes as soon as possible. Girls, get your lip gloss and mascara on before the docs come round, celebrate your eyelashes – let’s face it you are gonna be without them for a while so make the most of them while you can!
5. Get your ‘new hair’ sorted as soon as you know you will be having chemo. Take your wig to the hairdressers; get it cut to a style that suits you. Wigs usually have about 40% too much hair in them, having it styled makes it look more realistic. I was so pleased with mine I wore it out to lunch that day and I met people during my chemotherapy that had absolutely no idea what I was going through – that was a massive morale boost. Having a good wig (or several if you prefer) also gave me the pleasure (?) of shaving my hair off as soon as it started to fall out. I was in control of it, not the chemo and I didn’t even cry until I saw it disappearing up the hoover nozzle!
6. Acupuncture helped me too. I had a weekly session and it really helped control fatigue and also kept my blood counts high, preventing any delays in the chemo cycles.
7. If your chemo is on a 3 week cycle by the third week you usually feel reasonably good. Plan something for each of those weeks. Get out to lunch with your girl friends, do something fun, do something ‘normal’.
8. If it’s possible carry on working. I was lucky in that I had an office based job. I had one week off after each chemo cycle and then went back to work for two weeks before starting the process again. It keeps a sense of normality in your life and certainly makes the weeks go by faster.
9. Welcome all the treatment they throw at you. Accept the chemo as a friend not an enemy. The side effects may not be pleasant but at least you know it’s doing something!
10. Eat chocolate, drink wine, read magazines, laugh with friends, make the most of life and don’t let the shear damned inconvenience of having breast cancer change the person you are.

So, there you go. Deb Hunt’s top tips for getting through all the bull!

I finished radiotherapy last November and looking back the whole experience now seems to be a bit surreal. As I left the hospital for the last time I suddenly felt as if I had fallen into a vast void. What now? No more routine visits, no more doctors feeling your boobs (oops, sorry I meant boob!), no more monitoring your every move. I needed something to focus on and in a moment of madness decided that I would do something that I would never have considered doing before; a skydive!

Five months later I threw myself out of a plane (strapped to a good looking instructor of course!) and raised £2500 for Breakthrough Breast Cancer, the UK’s top breast cancer charity. It was an amazing experience and made me realise that anything was achievable. I have never felt more alive than during those free-falling seconds before the parachute went up and by the time I had landed on the ground I was a different woman.

The old cliché that ‘life is for living’ is so true. Cancer is a wake up call. With the great research that is taking place, around breast cancer in particular, more women are surviving the disease but having gone through it puts a new perspective on your life. Before breast cancer I was drifting. It has given me a new focus and I am now determined to help in the fight against the disease in the hope that none of my family or friends have to go through what I have been through. Great research doesn’t come without a cost so following the skydive, and a few too many glasses of wine, myself and three great friends decided that we would do something ‘big’ to raise a few more pennies for the cause.

It was a pretty fateful evening that night in the pub, because by the end of it we had decided that we were all up for a massive challenge, something that was way out of our comfort zone, something that would mean that we would have to train hard to be fit to do it and something that would be impressive enough to enable us to raise the target we had set ourselves of £20,000. That challenge is the Kilimanjaro Summit Trek in September 2010! At 5,892metres Kilimanjaro is the highest point in the African continent and the tallest free standing mountain in the world. Now if I could just put things into context, all four of us get out of breath running up the stairs, so you can see we have quite a way to go before we tackle the summit!

This adventure has already completely changed my daily life. We all decided that we would fund the trip ourselves so that all the money raised would go to the charity (Breakthrough Breast Cancer) and have tried to approach the challenge in as business-as-like fashion as possible. We started off by getting ourselves into the local paper and from there we were offered a free fundraising website by a local web-design company, Web-Right of Chipping Norton. Having our own website (www.twin-peaks.co.uk – get the pun, twin peaks!!) has made a tremendous difference and it’s now attracting quite a bit of attention – We even have an American sponsor ; Susan Beausang, the President of 4women.com is going to be supplying us with branded pink ski hats for the trek!

This challenge is also a journey of self development, something that we didn’t anticipate. We have found ourselves giving press and radio interviews, meeting with business executives, learning marketing and PR tricks, all skills that will no doubt help us in the future. It’s also amazingly good fun thinking up different fundraising ideas and innovative ways to get people to part with their money as charities in particular are finding it hard in the present economic climate.

We are producing a cheeky 2010 calendar featuring all local business men; we have called it ‘Chaps for Baps!’  They are advertising their business with a tongue in cheek pose, a cheeky smile and very little else! All the photos are in black and white with a pink bra somewhere in the scene. They have all been very game and I’m sure the calendar will keep people smiling throughout next year! Having the website has enabled us to be able to sell them online (please check it out!) and we are hoping that this will be a good fundraiser towards our total.

So you see, there is life after breast cancer. If I’m being totally honest I think it’s fair to say that there is a better life after breast cancer. I enjoy and appreciate my friends and family much more than I did before (and that was quite a lot!); I try to see the funny side and the positive in everything; I don’t take things for granted, like the beautiful countryside that I live in or a clear blue sky. All these things have new meaning when you become a ‘survivor’. At the end of the day, none of us know how long the Earth will be graced with our unique presence, so let’s make the most of it while we can and make a difference whilst we’re here.

If you would like to help us achieve our mountainous mission please check out our website www.twin-peaks.co.uk

Banbury Rugby Union Football Club show their support

Matchday action at Bodicote Park – Saturday 10th October
Club News | Tue 15th Sep 09
Posted by Simon Grieve

Bulls v Huntingdon at 3pm, Members Lunch at 1pm, Team Attitude at Altitude and ´Buzz´ at half-time …… plus have your car washed from 12noon!

 

In addition to the Bulls fixture against Midlands 2 East (South) rivals Huntingdon, there will be plenty going on at Bodicote Park on Saturday 10th October.

Arrive from 12noon onwards and those mischievous ´Muddy Marvels´ will wash your car! This season the Banbury RUFC Under 12´s are touring Yorkshire to play County Champions Otley, plus runners-up York.

As well as raising funds for their own tour, the players will donate a proportion of their takings to ´Team Attitude at Altitude´ who are raising money for the ´Breakthrough Breast Cancer´ charity.

Team Attitude at Altitude team is committed to raising £20,000 for this charity and their efforts culminate next September with a 9-day trek to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro.

There will be merchandise on sale in front of the grandstand plus a bucket collection at half time. Please give generously.

As if that wasn´t enough, ´Buzz´ from Banbury Sound 107.6fm will be in attendance to get the crowd, er, buzzing………

For more information, or to make a donation to Team Attitude at Altitude, please click here:

http://www.twin-peaks.co.uk/in..

For more information on the Breakthrough Breast Cancer charity, please click here:

http://breakthrough.org.uk/..

For more information on Banbury Sound 107.6fm, please click here:

http://www.banburysound.co.uk/..

‘Chaps for Baps’ Calendar available to pre-order!

12 hunky men, doing their bit for breast cancer! A charity 2010 calendar not to be missed, it will keep you smiling all next year. It will be available to buy online on our website www.twin-peaks.co.uk from mid-october or you can follow the link (http://bit.ly/2EiSRL) and pre-order your’s today.

All profits from the calendar will be donated to Breakthrough Breast Cancer, the UK’s leading breast cancer charity.

Get your order in quick, we don’t think the printer’s will be able to print them fast enough!

One month on!

Our website www.twin-peaks.co.uk has been live for one month! Wow, what a month it has been. We have had approx 900 unique visitors to the site and it has attracted plenty of interest from the business community. We have also reached the amazing total of £5336 on the fundraising (26% of our target) in this time, thanks to all our fabulous supporters. Check out the website to see who is doing their bit for Breast Cancer.

One of our fundraising ideas was a calendar of local businessmen. That has taken on a life of it’s own and we have had to turn some away there were so many keen to get in on the act. The calendar has been titled ‘Chaps for Baps!’. It’s a very tasteful, if tongue-in-cheek, view of their businesses. All the photos are black and white with a pink bra secreted somewhere in the scene. They will certainly keep you smiling throughout 2010!  Check out the website, they will be available to buy online from mid-October.

Keep checking back with us girls with attitude – we are currently in discussions with several other business people regarding potential sponsorship and events – so watch this space!

Local businesses get behind Team Attitude at Altitude

Team Attitude at Altitude (www.twin-peaks.co.uk), the four women who are aiming to raise £20,000 for Breakthrough Breast Cancer by trekking up Kilimanjaro, have received more pledges of support from local Oxfordshire businesses.  

Kidlington-based Cherwell Graphics will be printing the Team’s promotional 2010 calendar: Chaps for Baps.  The calendars will be printed in October and will be available for sale online through the Team’s website www.twin-peaks.co.uk. 

 In the current economic climate, Deb Hunt and her fellow team members recognise businesses need to benefit from supporting good causes.  As one of the benefits to business sponsors, Bloxham Mill Business Centre near Banbury has offered to host a networking event in September 2010 before the trek.  This will give all the business supporters an opportunity to see the Team off and network with other sponsors. 

 In addition, businesses sponsoring Team Attitude at Altitude will be given a listing on the ‘Corporate Sponsors’ page on the Twin-Peaks website.   Sponsors pledging £1,000 or more will also be listed on the other four main pages of the website.  Cash donations can be made online, and anyone wishing to support the Team with gifts in kind can download a ‘wish list’ from the website. 

 Team Attitude at Altitude’s website, which is sponsored by Chipping Norton Internet marketing company WEB-right, went live on 13^th August.  The site has attracted nearly 350 visitors from across the world in its first 5 days. 

 Deb Hunt commented, “The website has made a huge difference to our appeal.  It is particularly good to be attracting support from the business community and we’re working hard to give our supporters something back.  We’d have a lot of emails from well-wishers and potential supporters.  A company in Florida has even offered to help with some of our trekking kit!  I feel confident we’re going to achieve our £20,000 target.” 

-ends-

 

Notes to Editors

 

Team Attitude at Altitude is the name given to four women supporting the work of Breakthrough Breast Cancer: Deb Hunt, Annemarie Smith, Helen Taylor and Audra Selley.

 

The Team will be taking part in a 9-day trek up Mount Kilimanjaro on the Rongai Route, the hardest ascent, to raise £20,000.  To date, the total raised is £4,711: 24% of target. 

 

 

For more information, please contact:

 

Deb Hunt

Team Attitude at Altitude

Tel: 01869 340850

Mob: 07527 229739

Email: debs@twin-peaks.co.uk

http://www.twin-peaks.co.uk

What a week!

Wow, what a week it has been! Thanks to the hard work of Web-Right in Chipping Norton our website www.twin-peaks.co.uk went live 5 days ago and so far we have had 303 unique visitors (amazing!). The team is totally thrilled with the site and hope that it will continue to attract many visitors and hopefully sponsors! Our wish list was downloaded 21 times on the first day so hopefully offers of help will soon be coming our way.

A second article about the team appeared in the Banbury Guardian this week and Banbury Sound 107.6FM have been running a follow up story in their daily news bulletins, so we have had some great local media coverage.

We were so excited that Susan Beausang, an American business woman, and President of 4.women.com has offered to supply the team with customized ski hats for the trek and wrote a wonderful message of support on her blog, read it here.

Another fantastic development was the announcement that Cheshire businessman, Steve Johnson, owner of 4 Power Ltd, was to become the ‘official’ team sponsor. He has committed to supply the team with our warm weather trekking jackets and team t-shirts along with a large cash donation – he is a very nice man!!

We have also secured a printer, Cherwell Graphics, for our ‘Chaps for Baps’ calendar and are now full steam ahead with organising the men for their photo shoots – watch this space on that one.

To top the week off we have been offered a free ‘See them off’ networking event in Sept 2010, organised by Ray Avery at Bloxham Mill. All our corporate sponsors will be invited to attend the event, along with the press and radio. Who knows, we may even have the TV involved by then!

It’s been a really successful start to our fundraising campaign and that’s thanks to the hard work of everyone involved. Now that the ball is rolling, let’s hope that our mountainous fundraising target won’t be too difficult to meet!