Two friends who have heard all about Ellie and Ellie's Fund got together one night over a drink or two and came up with an amazing idea - 12 months of fund raising, to raise £12 000 for Ellie's Fund, ending in 2012. They aim to finish with a bang - completing the London Marathon.
Their year kicks off officially today, even though a couple of events have already started; including a sponsored week of NO TV, video games, computer etc for Sarah's son Jack, and a 24 hour fast for Louise's cousin, also called Jack.

Their fund raising page is www.charitygiving.co.uk/elliesyear

Sarah has started a blog. In this first entry she introduces the two of them...

''Louise was the first one of us to get the ball rolling. She had heard about Heather because of all the fund raising she was doing and through a friend learned about Ellie’s song which, encouraged her to find out more about Ellie.

 

Inspired by Ellie and a friend who had died from a brain tumour two years before, she wanted to do something positive to raise awareness and money so, decided to run the London Marathon in Ellie’s name ( as you do!)

 

A girlie night in at our friend’s house brought us two fitness freaks together and before I knew what was happening, Louise had my name down for the marathon and we were out training in the rain & wind – thanks, Louise.

 

Unfortunately just as we’d got up to about ten miles, Louise sustained ligament damage, tendonitis and a sprained ankle but being the trooper (stubborn sod) she is kept on running. It wasn’t until she had to stop running in agony that she finally listened to sense and agreed to rest it.

 

But, we’re not the type of women who are happy to sit around for 6 weeks & wait for Louise’s ankle to get better so we decided to bike until she was well enough to run again.

 

Not content with running the marathon, it inspired Louise to want to cycle 40miles for Ellie’s fund and I (in a moment of genius/madness) decided to make it a hundred miles. Not willing to be outdone by me, she suggested we cycle to London. As a compromise we agreed to bike across the country to Blackpool in a coast to coast cyclathon.

 

So, this is where we are now, 12 months away from the 2012 marathon and at the start of planning our cyclathon. We’d really like to thank Heather for all her support and for setting up our fundraising site.

 

St George’s Day marks the start of Ellie’s Year: a series of events and feats of athletic endurance that will hopefully see us raise our target of £12 000 by the end of our marathon.

 

This is where you come in. Please help us smash our target by: sponsoring us; getting involved in our charity events and telling everyone what we are doing and why.

 

Ellie is our inspiration. She made such a positive impact at such a young age and was determined to help others and make a difference. Help us do the same too......''