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

Firewalk is a roaring success!

CLIC Sargent’s first ever, daring fundraising firewalk was held Thursday 5th November 2009. People from all over the Grampian region were invited to take part in this exciting pioneering event where participants were sponsored to walk over hot coals! The event saw 15 brave souls take part!

Run by Survivorbility Ltd, the firewalk took place at Queens Link Aberdeen as part of the city’s annual fireworks display. The fifteen individuals each attended a seminar to prepare them for the challenge.

The night was a huge success with the fifteen participants all triumphantly crossing the burning coals in front of an eager audience. Thanks to these fearless firewalkers a whopping £3,500 was raised to support children and young people affected by cancer and their families across the North East.

Are you brave enough to walk on fire or glass to help raise funds for victims?

Victim Support's Firewalk in 2008 was such a success that we are thrilled to invite you once again to this ultimate challenge: will you walk over fire and glass to help London’s victims and witnesses of crime?

The 2008 Firewalk saw nearly 80 participants raise a whopping £28,000 for Victim Support in London. This time around, we hope to increase the figures so even if the challenge isn't for you, please spread the word.

Claudine Piggott, Fundraising and Relationships Manager for Victim Support in London said: "The Firewalk was so popular in 2008 that we decided to hold it again. We have now introduced a Glasswalk to give people another option and to add to the excitement. Last time was an amazing experience and those who took part said the buzz lasted for days!"

The Victim Support London event is organised by Survivorbility Ltd who hold a 1 hour training session before the actual walk  to give participants the confidence and know-how they need to take part. Firewalkers and glasswalkers must register to take part in the event as minimum sponsorship targets apply. For further information or to register, please email Claudine Piggott or call on 020 7448 9886

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/

http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2010/02/fire-walking-facing-ones-fears.html

Thanks for the input Lucya.

A group of fundraisers who jumped out of an aeroplane last summer are this year taking part in a short charity walk – across hot coals.

Wendy Sawyer is organising the event along with partner Adam Rowdon, in the memory of her brother Captain Tom Sawyer the former Rickmansworth School student who died last year while serving in Afghanistan.

The group are raising money for Help for Heroes, a charity which supports members of the armed forces.

Ms Sawyer said: “We are planning to do the fire walk on 2nd May. We raised a massive £11,000 from the sky dive and we want to add as much as possible to that total.”

Anyone interested in taking part can find more information on the “Firewalking for H4H” facebook group, or by emailing Wendy Sawyer on sawyerwendy@yahoo.co.uk.