Yes #8: Boat Show 2014

After having such a success in getting so many donations at the Ski and Snowboard Show, me and Shannon were invited back to help out at the Boat Show in January. This was at ExCel London.

Boats didn't really interest me, but I was more than happy to go and help out to raise awareness of our charity and get donations.

 

At the Ski and Snowboard Show back in October, we met Barbara and Stewart Lees who own a company called Fosy Originals where they create Faux Fur Accessories. They also own some apartments in a place called Zell Am See in Austria. At the show they offered us these apartments to take some children to Zell Am See for a week to learn how to sail on the beautiful lake, therefore, this is what we were promoting and raising money for at the Boat Show. Despite this, our stand was very well presented.

 

 

 

Our stand at this show was right to the side of the hall, in a corner and very out of the way which means not many people were walking past us. Also, people at this show were very different to people at the Ski and Snowboard show and getting donations proved extremely difficult.

 

The show mainly consisted of big pretty boats that were being sold for thousands or even millions. Some of the boats you were also able to go on and walk around so it was fun sitting in the drivers seats pretending they were yours (no matter how sad that is..).

 

 

During the week, on one of the days, James Corden visited to buy a boat. He started off by doing a talk to a crowd of a few hundred visitors before announcing the boat he had bought. Now I love James Corden, a lot! There were several opportunities I could have walked up to him to meet him and get a picture but me being me, I chickened out and I will never forgive myself for that.

 

 

He wasn't the only celebrity we saw in the week. On our way out of the venue during the week, we bumped into Lil Chris from The Only Way Is Essex! He was so so lovely and was really interested in what we were there for. He also said that he would tweet about our charity when he got home and charged his phone, but he never did, though he did retweet my tweet later on.

 

 

In one of the evenings, we took a trip to Canary Wharf for dinner. We walked around the shops for a while before sitting in a small chicken place to have dinner. When we were done, we went back outside and found an ice rink which we had a go on. It was quite big and had a little road track you could follow round a little Christmas and winter scene before joining back onto the main rink, it was actually a lot of fun!

 

                               Shannon, me and Calum, another mentor.

We stayed in the hotel which we stayed in for the Ski and Snowboard Show, which meant we were right next to the Italian restaurant again. My 17th birthday was two days after I had got home from the show, so for our last dinner, Shannon and Ian had organised with the restaurant for a little birthday surprise for me. Once we had finished our dinner, we sat and waited. I was a little bit confused because most nights we went on to have pudding, but this night no one mentioned pudding. After a little while, all the waiters come to our table with a giant tiramisu with candles in and everyone started singing happy birthday. I didn't expect this at all and I almost started crying I was in so much shock. I wasn't too pleased with the tiramisu because I didn't think I liked it, but I tried it and it has become my favourite ever desert, apart from cheesecake..

 

After this, the waiters bought some little lemon shots out to us which I tried. It burnt my throat more than anything and Shannon managed to get quite and amusing picture of me drinking it but unfortunately that picture has gone missing. 

 

As much as the boat show wasn't of much interest to us, we still had a good week and the things we did were really fun!

 

Don't be afraid,

Say Yes!

Yes #7: Telegraph Ski and Snowboard Show 2013

After 3 amazing trips with the Caring Cancer Trust, I was asked by the chairman and hon secretary, Ian, if I would be interested in going to help out at The Telegraph Ski and Snowboard Show in October. Funded by The Telegraph, the Ski and Snowboard Show is held every year in October in Manchester and London and is a big exhibition which promotes top ski brands, resorts, tour operators and more as well as holding talks and shows where visitors can learn more about their hobby.

 

I was honoured to be asked and agreed to go. Shannon was also asked, and also agreed to go. At the show, we stood by the Caring Cancer Trust stall promoting the charity, getting people to fill in a leaflet to win a free ski holiday in Pila, Italy, our next holiday destination and sold raffle tickets where visitors could win a signed painting of Olympic skier Graham Bell painted by Johnny Midnight.

 

The first show was in Manchester held at Event City where we were joined by Alex, the director of the ski school in Pila.

Me, Alex and Shannon on our stand.

 

Our stand was in a really good place. The venue had an ice rink, with real ice, which visitors could skate on for free! All they needed to do was book a place in a time slot, turn up at that time, put some boots on and have fun. This meant we were in one of the main places of show and thousands of people were seeing our stand as they walked by or as they skated and it bought us a lot of donations.

 

As we were right next to the rink, every afternoon when the show started to get quiet, me and Shannon would have half an hour on the ice and by the end of the 4 days, we were pretty good skaters.

 

The show in Manchester lasted 4 days, Thursday through to Sunday. After this, we packed everything up and took a 4 hour drive down to London.

 

When we got to London we met up with Carole, the owner and director of ski company PilaSki. She was staying in a hotel room with Ian and Alex whilst me and Shannon were booked in to stay in a hostel across the road. After me and Shannon were told we were staying in a hostel, we weren't too sure about it after reading reviews but went ahead with it anyway. When we went in there, firstly there were men walking around drunk with their private parts hanging out, secondly the receptionist was the rudest person I have ever met, and thirdly, when we got up to our room, there was a pile of rubbish in the middle of the floor, crumpled up dirty bed sheets and a shower which was green and black and disgusting. Within two minutes of being in the room, we walked out again and were booked into a room in the hotel everyone else was staying in. This hotel was luxury and was just a 5 minute walk from the venue. 

 

After that cofuffle, we dropped off our suitcases and headed for the venue where we picked up our exhibitor passes and headed to set up our stand. We weren't in the best of places this time, but still a place where we could grab lots of visitors. Our stand was also next to Johnny Midnights stand so it was great to meet him and see all of his paintings.

 

At the end of the hall, there was a fake ski slope where people could have beginner lessons and nearby this was the ice rink, but this one was slightly bigger than the one in Manchester.

 

The London show lasted a hole week and during this show, we didn't use the ice rink every day but we did have a few goes on it and we were able to look around the rest of the stalls at the show and see what was on offer.

 

 

The hotel we stayed in was right next to an Italian Restaurant which we ate at every night. They served massive portions, but it was the nicest restaurant I've been to and the staff were so lovely!

 

On the Thursday in London, we had a big reunion where all the children from the previous ski trip and their families came to the show to meet up again. They were able to look around the show and have a go on the ice rink and the ski slope. This was quite fun because my mum and sister were quite jealous that I had been skiing and they hadn't, so it was good to see them have a go on the fake slope.

 

Fake ski slope (left)    My mum ice skating (right)

During the reunion, we all went into a presentation room where each of the children who came on the ski trip were presented with their ski awards. Other awards were also given out such as awards to our camera guys, to our ski instructors and even to me, Shannon and another of our friends Jimmy for being mentors.

 

 

The reunion was really good and it was lovely to see everyone again.

 

The ski show was a really good experience and I loved every minute of helping out! If I got the opportunity again, I would definitely say yes, and also take money with me to actually buy some ski stuff!

 

Don't be afraid,

Say Yes!

Yes #6: Summer in Morzine

After going snowboarding twice with Caring Cancer Trust giving me the most amazing time of my life, I was then invited back again for a third time! This time, it was for their summer trip, and it meant going back to Morzine which I loved! This was just a few months after going to Morzine to snowboard so I was excited to see how differnt it would be without snow.

This was the first time I had been on the summer trip with the chartiy so I was quite nervous as I didn't really know what to expect. However, when I got to the airport, I was greeted by some of the people I had met on the winter trip so this made me feel so much more relaxed! Shannon and Kirushni from Morzine in the winter were two of the girls and I was so glad because they were such lovely girls!

Kirushni, me and Shannon

We didn't stay in the same chalet we stayed in when we came in the winter. This time, we stayed in a lovely little chalet in the back streets of Morzine owned by a man called Darren and his company Great Escape. The chalet is one of the nicest I have ever stayed in! Inside it is so big with so many different sized bedrooms, a sauna and steam room, a kitchen area, an area where everyone can sit together at tables to eat and a bit living area to just chill. It's such a traditional kind of style of chalet and it makes you feel so at home!

In the chalet, there were two people who worked there who did all our cooking and cleaning. Their names were Emma and Miles. As well as doing their best to look after us in the chalet and make sure we all had a great time, they also came a did a lot of the activities with us which was really great fun! Having a good bond and friendship with chalet staff is one of the things that make you feel right at home. 

Unfortuantely, I don't have a picture with Darren, but he was the best host we could have possibly asked for. He did everything he could to make our holiday the best it could have been and he arranged all of our activities for us and took us there every day.

There was one day when we had a thunder storm which meant we werent able to do white water rafting which was planned for that day because it was too dangerous. Instead of just leaving us, Darren spent the whole day figuring out something for us to do. 

During the day, we took a trip into the village to do a bit of souvenir shopping whilst the rain was a bit calmer. It was really interesting to see what everything looked like without snow and see some of the slopes we had skied and snowboarded down only a matter of a few months before. It was a nice trips into such a beautiful little village but on the way back, we got VERY wet!

When the thunderstorm finished in the afternoon, he took us down to a foresty walk with his dog. At first, the idea didn't sound great, but he made it so much fun. Throughout the walk, there were little gym type obstacles which he made competitions on which were really fun! For an impromptu activity, it was such a good one! Darren's imagination is one of a kind.

However, as much as fun as this activity was, the activities on the days that it was sunny were just mind blowing! The activities included:

Rock Climbing

Rather than just rock climbing on them fake walls with colourful bits to stand and hold onto, we were able to do proper rock climbing up a cliff face. Whilst one of us were climbing up the rocks, another one of us were at the bottom with their rope attatched round out waist on a pully controlling how safe they were. It was scary putting full trust into someone else but it was so worth it!

White Water Rafting

After this activity being cancelled on the day of the storm, Darren was able to rescheduel it for another day, and thank god he did! White water rafting is such an adrenalin rush and such a buzz! If you ever get the chance to have a go, definitely do it! Unfortuantely, due to the nature of the activity, I don't have any pictures of during it. But here's a picture of our team in all of our gear.

High Ropes
High ropes is a bit tree top course that includes balance beams, zip wires and lots of landing on nets.. It sounds scary, but you know you're safe because you're attatched to safety harnesses and it really is such a fun thing to do! It does take a lot of energy though.. 

Zip Wiring

One of the days we went to do a zip wire, and it wasn't any normal zip wire, it was the Fantasticable! This is a zip wire that goes over the mountains around 150m high. It is split into two seperate wires, but together makes 1,257m long. You have to wear some harness which allows you to glide down the zip wire hanging on your tummy. You look so silly, but it's comfy and safe!

Tobogganing

As an afternoon activity after zip wiring, we were taking to a toboggan. I've always been a bit scared of these but it was so much fun! Well the second time anyway, the first time I got stuck behind a lady who was so scared she was moving down it as slow as a snail!

Lakes, canoes and Pedalo's

In the week, we got to visit two beautiful lakes. One of them was classed more as a beach because there was sand and the lake was so big we thought it was the sea at first, until we realised we were on top of a mountain and there would be no sea.. At the lakes, we had a chance to sunbathe and relax, play on some canoes and play on some slide pedalos!

All of the activities were absoloutely amazing! However, there was one activity that was kept a secret from us all until we arrived at the place..

Paraglyding!

None of us could actually believe it when we were told we were going to jump off of a mountain with a parachute attatched to us, but it was true! It was honestly the most insane experience of my life! It was such a good afternoon as no one missed out on the fantastic opportunity as everyone, with the encouragement and support of the rest of the group, fought the fear and jumped off that mountain!

Overall, this holiday was a chance in a lifetime and the best week I have ever had! We got to experience the most insane things and we just had such an amazing time! Everyone in this group bonded really well too and there was so much friendship bought from this trip. 

None of this however would have been possible with Darren, so thankyou Darren! What an incredible man!

I gained a best friend from this trip. Me and Shannon were friends from the winter we shared together in Morzine, but something on this holiday clicked (we believe it was the night we spent throwing sweet wrappers into a bin together) and we have been best friends ever since.

These holidays really are life changing things. For kids that have gone through such a traumatic experience, these holidays really do help to life up their spirits again and give them their confidence back. Being able to experience things like we have with people who understand exactly what you have been through and what you are feeling is something you just couldn't ask for.

I'm so lucky to be able to experience opportunities like this and meet the amazing people I have met on the way. The Caring Cancer Trust do such an amazing thing and I could never pay them back for what they have given me.

Don't be afraid,

Say Yes!