Some of you may be reading the Roth Journal and wondering why we are putting ourselves through this Ironman business… We each have our different reasons, but the one we all absolutely agree on is raising money for the mental health charity, Mind. And so last Thursday we got 150 of our friends and family together for the Big Fat Charity Quiz.
George kicked off the evening with an emotional speech about why Mind means so much to the four of us. He explained what mental health is and gave examples of the charity’s work, both to help those affected and to break down the stigma surrounding mental health. A scary fact is that members of the iGeneration (born 1995- 2012) are statistically more likely to kill themselves than anyone else.
The quiz began and the beers started to flow (except for us four triathletes, of course – we were all drinking water…) and so did the money… first for raffle tickets and then as people’s eyes turned to the items in the upcoming auction… We were incredibly fortunate that all of our raffle and auction prizes had been donated, which meant that every penny we made during the evening went directly to Mind. Jack stepped up as auctioneer and was in his element shouting, whipping up the crowd and raising the bids, sometimes by hundreds of pounds at a time. The auction proved a phenomenal success and some incredibly generous amounts of money were donated for some of the top prizes; the largest was a staggering £1,500 for a week at a house in Cornwall!
Despite our success on the fundraising front, there were a few slip ups in the quiz itself, which caused much amusement! Mistaking Dumbledore and Gandalf in the picture round resulted in outrage, and a slightly chaotic marking process had all 4 of us sweating like we were on a watt bike session!
At the end of the evening, spirits were high and our nearest and dearest appeared to have had a wonderful evening. We were blown away by the generosity of the people who came, and we managed to raise a total of £11,055! That - combined with the money we hope to raise with the rest of our fundraising - will make a huge difference to Mind and the amazing work they do.
If you would like to make a donation towards the work of Mind, then do please visit our Ironman for Mind page.