Really shouldn’t be attending this as was released from hospital the day before the event following my first lung ablation procedure!

This was a long burner; my dear friend Joe had come up with the idea of combining an Ideal Hardware reunion with a charity fundraiser. Another dear pal, Simon, had mentioned this to me on our February ski trip, and I had thought it might be a good idea. After a “meeting” in a local pub sometime early summer to discuss the idea, we agreed on a plan, whereby most of the actions fell to… yours truly!

Since I’m now technically a “workshy git who just plays golf and watches daytime telly’, its clear my mates feel it appropriate to saddle me with anything that needs organising. I’m very lucky to have these friends. Its good for me, they tell me.

Just some context – Ideal Hardware was a distributor of computer components (or bits and bobs and bolt on bits, as a very soon-to-be-fired employee once described it), that I worked for in my twenties. To say this was the greatest time of my working life is an understatement – we really had a ball. One of the main reasons for this enjoyment was the incredible people that were employed there, and the ongoing deep bonds of friendship that were made during that time. As such many of us stay in touch, and we have had the occasional reunion. Therefore, the idea to see all the old faces and raise some money as a consequence was a good one.

We scoured our social media platforms and managed to sell 100 tickets to the night. We laid on food and drink, and the evening in question drew near. The only problem was I had to get my bloody lungs sorted out. Which I did, and being the stubborn sod that I am, came out of hospital and went to the party. I simply couldn’t let 100 people down!

As expected, we had a great night, made special by the people in the room. You could really feel the love, it was utterly overwhelming. And we raised over £4k for charity! Not bad.

I am proud to say, that over the course of the year I’ve managed to raise over £30k for the three charities I support. I hope it helps.

I’m planning on stepping it up for 2020 so watch this space…