Meet and greet with the lovely folks from the London Ambulance Service who are running the marathon for MERU!

So as you may have guessed from the not so cryptic title of this blog post, MERU was lucky enough to hold a meet and greet evening at our workshops for the lovely people from the London Ambulance Service who are running the marathon for us!

On Tuesday evening we were all busy running around putting seats out in our (rather cold) workshop, getting drinks and nibbles ready (always a good part of a meet and greet) and of course preparing for our fundraising presentation delivered by our lovely fundraising manager, Emma.

Once everyone arrived we had some fabulous photos taken by the London Ambulance Service's photographer. It was a lot of fun and everyone really enjoyed it (even those like myself who are ordinarily a bit camera shy)!

After loads of group photos we all trooped into the workshop to hear Emma's presentation about fundraising. It really offered a different perspective on the best methods to fundraise, it doesn't just mean going round shaking a tin at everyone you know! There are all kinds of different ways to fundraise - how about offering to clean your friends' house or cook them dinner in exchange for some sponsorship? It was great to chat to people afterwards as I think it really inspired people to 'think out of the box' with fundraising ideas. I even spoke to someone who was intending to organise a house party and charge a small fee for entry which had me convinced!

It was really lovely to get a chance to meet so many people who are so generously running the London Marathon for MERU. As everyone knows, it's by no means an easy to task to run a marathon, the amount of training, mental strength and discipline is something that I myself could never hope to achieve. So our heartfelt thanks to all of you for dedicating your time and energy to MERU. I can promise the funds raised will make such a difference to so many children's lives.

Thank you once again from all of us at MERU.

Hello. Don't take communication for granted.

The arrival of January cites the beginning of The National Year of Communication and with it the first theme of the year: 'Hello. Don't take communication for granted'. "So what is this theme all about?" I hear you ask. The answer is simple. January marks a month of raising awareness of the importance and value of communication in every area of our lives. 

The truth is communication is something that can easily be taken for granted by us all. Until we are confronted with a communication difficulty, whether our own or that of a friend or a family member, it can be hard to appreciate how this can impact the life of an individual and those around them.

Communication is all around us and affects us all in our everyday lives. So support MERU's involvement in The National Year of Communication. Visit http://www.hello.org.uk/ to find out more.