July 9th fundraiser!

I'm holding a fundraising event in memory of my husband Andy who passed away in April 2010 of a heart condition.

As you'll no doubt already be aware, I'm climbing all 19,342 feet of Kilimanjaro in September and aim to raise as much money for the British Heart Foundation as possible; my target is £19,342.00 to be precise - that's one pound for every foot that I climb.

I have 200 tickets available, and you can buy as many as you like for £12.50 each. Included in the ticket price is a glass of bubbles on arrival and there will be a light buffet too, along with a raffle, an auction and music throughout the evening. If you'd like a ticket, contact me directly or request a ticket via this blog or tweet me. To keep things as simple as possible, please send me the pennies and I'll post you the tickets!

I'm hoping that this will be a sell-out, so please ensure you have your ticket before coming to the venue!

BHF's garden at the Chelsea Flower show

I recently went to the RHS Chelsea Flower show and saw British Heart Foundation's award-winning garden. The garden was built to help celebrate our 50th anniversary and raise funds for our Mending Broken Hearts Appeal.

It reflects how amazing and precious the human heart is. It also symbolises the need for our Mending Broken Hearts research programme that could begin to literally mend broken hearts in as little as ten years time. Read more about it here.

A message of encouragement

A mighty wind blew night and day.
It stole the oak tree's leaves away,
Then snapped its boughs and pulled its bark
Until the oak was tired and stark.
But still the oak tree held its ground
While other trees fell all around.
The weary wind gave up and spoke,
"How can you still be standing, Oak?"
The oak tree said, "I know that you
Can break each branch of mine in two,
Carry every leaf away,
Shake my limbs, and make me sway.
But I have roots stretched in the earth,
Growing stronger since my birth.
You'll never touch them, for you see,
They are the deepest part of me.
Until today, I wasn't sure
Of just how much I could endure.
But now I've found, with thanks to you,
I'm stronger than I ever knew".