On 23rd March, leading national charity Victim Support invited the Broadgate community to take part in the hottest challenge of the year. Nearly 60 intrepid people were trained by Survivorbility Ltd to walk on thousands off pieces of glass and then…. on fire! The evening was a resounding success and the charity has already raised over £15,000 with monies still coming in to help victims and witnesses of crime right across the capital. This is a wonderful example of how our business community can work together for a really worthy cause.  Local firewalkers and glasswalkers ranged from Henderson Global Investors to the City of London Police (still uniformed!) and from Slim Jims (in leotards and to date still raffling spa days to raise more money for the charity) to Virgin Active. Participants also came from further afield such as IPC Media, the National Fraud Authority, Liberty International Plc the Probation Services, Mazars, two London Councils, the BTP and Met Police, SSR Personnel, Baker McKenzie and of course Victim Support staff and volunteers. To cap the evening, The Fleetwood hosted party celebrations and had even specially baked 'burnt men cookies' to raise proceeds for the charity.

Michael Bull, a season ticket holder in the East Stand who has been supporting Barnet since 1975, is doing a 15 feet sponsored walk in aid of the charity Victim Support.

Not your run-of-the-mill walk this one. Michael's effort on March 23 is, in fact, a firewalk over 15 feet of embers burning at 800 degrees Celcius and he is also hoping to take part in a glasswalk as well on the same night.  Both events are being run by Survivorbility Ltd, the fire walking and lass walking experts.

A worthy effort. If anyone would like to sponsor Michael a donation can be made to http://www.justgiving.com/mikecbull

Due to popular demand we have another event planned for 2010 so far… 27 MARCH, NORTHANTS COUNTY CRICKET CLUB

 This unusual challenge requires participants to walk across a 20ft bed of hot coals under the supervision of Fire Walking Experts Survivorbility Ltd. All participants must take part in a 1hr training session to prepare for the challenge. Over 80 people have now successfully walked on coals to raise money for the MND Association including, TV and Radio Presenter Natalie Pinkham, BBC Radio Northampton's Richard Savage and Northants County Cricketers Lee Daggett, Ryan Cummings and Jack Brookes. We conquered the coals on 14 November 2009: "Fantastic! A real worthwhile experience. Left me on a high!" Emma Dowler "Amazing, a moment I will never forget" Ryan Cummings "Fantastic. Really interesting seminar. Not like anything I've ever experienced" Ed Chapman If you'd like to join them then walk this way! How can I take part? Simply contact us for an entry pack. There is a £50 registration fee and we ask that you pledge to raise £150 in sponsorship. (Please note, this event is for over 18s only) Have you got what it takes?! Contact Taryn Third on 01604 611691 or email taryn.third@mndassociation.org for more information.

SOME men might get cold feet about joining the feminists -but not Ken Livingstone.

In fact the former London Mayor joined a host of daredevils to walk over hot coals to publicise equality campaigners The Fawcett Society.

The event was held at the Docklands Sailing and Watersports Centre on the Isle of Dogs last week to raise funds and awareness for the group.

When grilled afterwards, Ken said: "Now more than ever we must make people aware that woman across the UK face inequality and discrimination.

"If it takes me walking on fire for people to notice, then I'll walk on fire."

The Docklands location for the walk was no coincidence, with the Fawcett Society keen to raise the issue of equality in the financial sector.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission recently revealed that men occupy two-thirds of managerial and senior jobs and nearly three-quarters of professional jobs.

Stereotyping of women and sexist and exclusionary practices sometimes create a climate in which woman feel undervalued and lack confidence.

And the gender pay gap for annual gross earnings in the sector is 60 per cent, with a large disparity in bonus payouts between the sexes.

The fire walk was run by Survivorbility Ltd

These funds are crucial to Fawcett and will help us bring together individual women and women’s groups across the UK to ask politicians – including Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Leader of the Opposition David Cameron – ‘What about Women?’

We will have more photos to show the amazing Firewalkers in action available on our Flicker site in the next week, please go to http://www.flickr.com/

Not all of the participants stepped on the hottest part of the bed, and not everyone placed both feet on the hottest part. It remains true that only Michael "walked" when it was at its very hottest.

Michael McDermott placed both feet in the middle of the hottest part when the interior of that portion was at 1,813 deg F, as measured by a Fluke Model 51, k-type thermocouple. The average surface temperature of the part that he placed both feet on was above 1,750 deg F, as measured by a hand held Omega infrared thermometer. McDermott's feet after the walk had some red patches and a dime sized blister on one instep, but there was no apparent evidence of more serious damage.

The temperature listed is the highest temperature at which the person listed walked. Most people walked more than once.

•

• Rich Andrews (1,641 deg F)

• Jill Bradwell (1,746 deg F)

• Ron Cleghorn (1,742 deg F)

• Kenny Felder (1,709 deg F)

• Jim Francis (1,729 deg F)

• Jay Gasaway (1,685 deg F)

• Deberah Groel (1,739 deg F)

• Brett Hackett (1,729 deg F)

• John Hilscher (1,628 deg F)

• Jim Jarvis (1,709 deg F)

• Michael McDermott (1,813 deg F)

This unusual challenge requires participants to walk across a 20ft bed of hot coals under the supervision of Fire Walking Experts Survivorbility Ltd. All participants must take part in a 1hr training session to prepare for the challenge.
Over 80 people have now successfully walked on coals to raise money for the MND Association including, TV and Radio Presenter Natalie Pinkham, BBC Radio Northampton's Richard Savage and Northants County Cricketers Lee Daggett, Ryan Cummings and Jack Brookes.

We conquered the coals on 14 November 2009:

"Fantastic! A real worthwhile experience. Left me on a high!" Emma Dowler

"Amazing, a moment I will never forget" Ryan Cummings

"Fantastic. Really interesting seminar. Not like anything I've ever experienced" Ed Chapman

If you'd like to join them then walk this way!

How can I take part?
Simply contact us for an entry pack. There is a £50 registration fee and we ask that you pledge to raise £150 in sponsorship.
(Please note, this event is for over 18s only)

Have you got what it takes?!

Contact Taryn Third on 01604 611691 or email taryn.third@mndassociation.org for more information.

Louise Jones, 34, Polly Baker, 43, Sophie Cudwoth, 33 and Zoe Richards, 29, who all work for Invesco Perpetual in Henley, took part in the challenge at Northampton cricket ground.

They were given an hour-long motivational speech before walking over 600 degree embers with the backing of a Brazilian samba band.

Mrs Jones said: "There was a crowd of about 200 spectators and there was a real buzz in the air. You are so set on looking forward and walking that it isn’t until the end that you start to realise how hot it is."

The quartet called themselves Peter’s Firebirds after their colleague Peter Banks, who died in May, aged 66.

The women have raised more than £3,000 for the MND Association with other fund-raising events, including quiz nights, cake sales and a work dress-down day. For more information, visit www.mndassociation.org

“Hilarious” **** – Wendy Ide, The Times

“Side-splittingly funny” – Psychologies Magazine

“A gentle, sweet-natured film populated by butterflies who decline to be broken on the wheel of cynicism.” **** – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

“A significant achievement” **** – Sukhdev Sandhu, Daily Telegraph

“It looks great and there are more laughs than your average Will Farrell comedy… Priceless.” **** – David Edwards, Daily Mirror

DVD Release date: 25th January 2010

Running time: 102 minutes

DVD RRP: £15.99

Cert: 15

OUT ON DVD FOLLOWING ITS NATIONWIDE CINEMA RELEASE

Three miles north of Molkom, hidden deep in the lakeside forests of Sweden, lies Angsbacka; a 21st Century playground for adults. Once a year, their gates open to a thousand international participants, placed in 'Sharing Groups' at random. A Swedish celebrity, a Californian hippy, a Finnish grandmother and a bemused back-packing Australian rugby coach are amongst the sharing group. Firewalking, Shamanism, Tantric Sex and a myriad of other esoteric experiences guide our unlikely heroes towards enlightenment, love, loathing and themselves. Will they ever be the same again?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Special Features:

Ängsbacka – Meet the Commune

The Blagger’s Guide to New Age

The No Mind Festival in Ängsbacka – what’s it all about?

An Ängsbacka Virgin – First impressions of the No Mind Festival

Theatrical Trailer

For check discs, further press information and interviews please contact:

Jon Rushton – 020 7766 8600 / jrushton@metrodomegroup.com

On Sunday 15th November The Pulse joined forces with Macmillan Cancer Support to raise money by asking individuals to walk bare foot over red-hot wood embers measuring some 800 degrees celsius.

It all took place at Benfield Toyota, Wakefield and our very own Jacqui Blay was not only your host for the afternoon – but also completed the firewalk too!

Thank you to all that turned up on the day and those brave folk who did the Firewalk!! See the efforts on the video by clicking the link!