progress with the walk

Ok, so blog number 2.

Well things are slowly starting to build up towards the walk, we have had a front page on the hartlepool mail, which was fantastic and highlighted perfectly what we are doing, we also had an article done on ppsf which is an online magazine, if you haven't seen it yet here is the link http://www.ppsf.co.uk/nick-banks-organises-ha-ha-hadrians-wall-charity-walk/, take a look, big thanks to howard for doing the article. We also now have our website up and running which has the links to the just giving page, where we are going to be performing and what acts are on etc etc, so take a look at this also for all the info http://hadrianswallcharitywalk.weebly.com/. Huge thanks to mark for the website.

Over the next few months the publicity machine will be slowly cranking up, so if you have read this please do me a favour and share this with as many people as you can, the more people see it and talk about it the more money we can raise for the CHILDREN AND YOUNG PERSONS KIDNEY FUND. Also still looking for a main sponsor of the walk, after sending out countless amounts of email, no one has even bothered to reply, pissed me off a bit like, cos even a email to say sorry we cant would have been appreciated. The first fundraiser we are doing has all been confirmed now after Keith Adams of stand up for charity has  agreed to do one of his charity comedy nights for the fund, so on 16th sept at the aerodrome club in thornaby, stockton on tees, Pat Monahan will be headlining, and all money raised will go towards our total, so huge thanks keith.

All the acts barring 1 are now confirmed, so massive thanks to all the guys taking part, i truly believe this is going to be an amazing 6 days, and we will be posting vlogs and constant updates as we go along the wall, sorry there isnt to much to tell you all as i made a decision to slow it all down after the initial launch, just wanted it out there, another month or 2 and like i say i will be contacting every media source on the planet, and  if people want to help share the story please do.

Ok so there is the update, so please check the website out, share this blog with people, and thanks for taking the time to read this.

Many Thanks

Nick

HADRIANS WALL WALK

So it has been suggested to me i should probably start doing a blog, what i will write about i have no idea, but heh ho let's give it a go.

So, about 4 weeks ago i decided i would put on a charity event for easter next year, the event would be to raise money for THE CHILDREN'S AND YOUNG PERSON'S KIDNEY FUND at the newcastle rvi, why this charity? well my best friend michael's 2 year old son harry has been dianosed with chronic kidney disease, and the care and support the rvi have given my mate and his family has been amazing, so i just wanted to say thank you to them and try and raise as much money as possible.

So the challenge i set myself was to get a group of comedians and walk hadrians wall, but with a bit of a difference, we would walk the wall in 6 days and put 6 gigs on along the route, but first i had to find some comedians, i thought that would be challenging to find comics who would be willing to give up near enough a week of there time to walk from bowness on solway (cumbria) to wallsend, but i had no problem and have been blown away by the amount of people that agreed to help me in this little project.

With in a week i had 22 comics agree to walk the wall with me, a week later i had all the venue's confirmed and today i have done the first bit of press, with more coming up in the next week or so, i couldn't have imagined how this would have got people's juices flowing and the attention it is slowly starting to build.

So what comedians are involved in this i hear you ask, well my first point of contact was to ask my mate Pat Monahan if he would be interested in headlining a night, he politely turned me down and said he would compere the whole bloody thing, if you aint met pat he has to be the nicest human being i have ever met.

Then i approached one of my best mates in comedy Adam Rushton, who being of a military background and just generally being a nice fella agreed straight away, then he hooked me up with some great comedians who he knew would be interested. I asked a few comics from the north east, namely my team est compadre's Fran Garrity, Carl Gillespie and Al Mcwilliam who agreed straight away, cheers boys.

Then it was the task of finding headliners and openers and again i wasn't let down, and i have to say a massive thanks to them all for agreeing to do this, i will post a list of who is doing the walk at the bottom of this blog.

So that was the acts, venue's sorted and the press starting to get involved, all that was left was one final meeting with the guys from the RVI to confirm a few things and get a just giving page all set up, that being done we can now press on full steam ahead and plan this EPIC week. Over the coming months i will be looking for business's to sponsor us, individuals, companies the list is endless, i want to raise as much money for this fantastic charity as is physically possible and i will work my little ass off to achieve this.

Just a quick thank you as well to go out to Anna Lyttle of Shakey Ape Events who has and is being a massive help on arranging PR and stuff over in cumbria.

So what will the money do, that we raise to help the charity, well it's going to help in the following areas

Children and Young People's Kidney Fund The unit provides treatment for over 1,800 children each year with referalls from all over the North East of England as well as Berwick, Cumbria and North Yorkshire. Funds raised are used to support:- New and innovative medical equipment Enhanced staff training Patient entertainment and activities Christmas treats and festivities Research projects So as you can see the money raised from this project will be a massive help and hope fully make a difference, to the staff and to the kids. (font has changed no idea why, can't change back so apologies) So as promised here are the acts that are taking part in this event, which i have forgotten to say is taking place from the 28th march 2013 to the 3rd april 2013. Myself Al Mcwilliam Carl Gillespie Fran Garrity Adam Rushton Kate Mccabe Freddy Quinn Pat Devine Hayley Ellis Dan Bland Simon D Heaven Russel Bland Harriet Dyer HEADLINERS Sully O'Sullivan Martin Mor Ian Cognito OPENERS abi roberts joe bromehead ruth e. cockburn kai humphries COMPERE Pat Monahan Words will never be enough for how grateful i am to all of these guys for agreeing to take part, so on behalf of myself, my mate michael his partner louise and little harry THANKYOU. So thats it for my first ever blog, it probably aint much kop, but as i get used to it it will improve, oh and one more think and prob the most important here is the just giving page for the event, share it, donate to it tell all your friends about it, AND LETS RAISE AS MUCH MONEY AS POSSIBLE. http://www.justgiving.com/Nicholas-Banks0 Thanks to you all for taking the time to read this, and i shall blog again soon Nick