Bit of a long shot & a cheeky plea all in one... I raising money for Help for Heroes, but have had a bit of a set back.
I have entered the ballot for their big ride every year, this year I was lucky enough to get a place on the Big Battlefield Ride - 335miles from Brussels to Paris, then meeting up in London with the folks from the various UK HeroRides for one big cycle through our capital up to the Cenotaph.
The one condition is that you pledge to raise £2,600. £1,200 of which has to be paid by the 7th of March.
When I first announced I had a place on the ride, a local business contacted me, they offered to pay £1,00 and would also provide me with clothing & equipment needed on the ride, in exchange for wearing their logo on the back of my jerseys.
This money was to be paid at the end of February, I set about arranging other ways to raise sponsorship, I contacted several local shops, and arranged to do some collecting days, I figured standing with a bucket would be a bit boring, not very appealing or eye catching to busy shoppers, so I decided i'd take my bike & turbo, spend the day pedaling in my H4H kit.
I will be doing one of these days at the end of March with several others in April & May.
Lots of friends had made donations to my page, so with the company's support & the future events all looked rosy on the sponsorship front.
But I felt 350 miles wasn't that big a challenge, so I pledged to ride in total an additional 1,500 miles over the year
I signed up to some big events,
The Puncheur on 2nd March, 60miles with a finish on top of D(B)itchling Beacon.
The Burgess Hill Springtime Classic on 30th March, 71 miles & some more chuffin great hills!
The Dartmoor Classic in June..100 miles & it's even hillier in Devon!
And then the RideLondon100, following much of the route used in the Olympic road races, and I have been assured there are some lumpy hilly bits in it too..... I really don't like hills!
Of course all this riding will need extra training, I was given a set of dvds called The Sufferfest, Man alive..I thought I was fit until i spent an hour on the turbo slogging & sweating my way through one of them, but with the weather the way it has been lately, there's not been much chance of getting out for any real road sessions.
I'm going to start swimming again, I love swimming, sadly the chlorine in the pool doesn't love my hair though - I may have to go for a normal hair colour for a while then... That is a sacrifice!
I'll also be cutting out the Chinese takeways & gin...Now this really is getting serious folks, I do love my noodles & a nice GnT 
So, back to the money...well that is what this is all about, me cycling a whole load of miles to raise money for the H4H team.
Sadly, my main sponsor pulled out, they have been a casualty of the recent bad weather, have had flood issues, stock ruined, unable to purchase new supplies & are now facing a huge battle with insurance to get compensated.
So i'm a bit stuck, I have £400 in my fund at the mo, I was going on a cycling holiday this year, but as I got my BBBR place I'm now taking that as my holiday instead & will put in the kitty the £500 I was going to spend, but I cannot do this until March 5th.
So with the deadline looming I find I am somewhat short of my initial amount required. If I do not hit the target I will lose my place (and with it any money paid in)
I was wondering of any of the good folk here, work for or know of a company that would sponsor me? I have a local shop who can add any logo to the back of my jerseys, my local paper has agreed to do a piece on me, so they'd get a mention in that too, i'm fast running out of time & starting to have just a teeny panic!
I can be contacted via email mandybuxton21 [at] gmail.com
and my sponsor page is www.bmycharity.com/dizzy
THANK YOU XX
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Thnak you Tim & aslo to Adam too.
Sadly so far I have not been able to find a 'corperate sponsor' I have an alternative plan being hatched
I may have to withdraw from the BBBR if I do not secure minimum funding, but I can transfer to one of the UK Hero Rides.
I still have a week to go, but my thoughts are I will move onto one of the 2 Tedworth Rides, They're 100 miles. 1 is the Dawn Raid, non stop through the night to arrive at BexleyHeath, or the other the Plodder is over 2 days.
It's about 100 miles from my house to Tidworth, so I am looking at riding there first before doing the ride.
At least I will have made some miles
Hope you manage to resolve the sponsorship issues. A great cause which will no doubt benefit from your fund raising.
I'm unable to recommend an organisation to assist but hopefully a small sponsorship donation will help you to get 1 step closer.
Good luck Dizzy with your goals, both mileage and donation target!