FAQs

This page aims to answer those questions that come to mind as you consider the 365challenge. If your question isn't covered here, please email me on colin@365challenge.co.uk and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.What is the 365challenge?It is an opportunity for you to spend a year raising sponsorship for Cancer Research UK (CRUK). The original idea was to undertake a series of physical challenges, spread across the year, accumulating miles towards the final target on each visit to the gym during that year. But as long as the challenge you set yourself occupies you in activity relating to your challenge over the year, you can be as creative as you like in developing your 365challenge.Do I have to do something on the 365challenge every day of the year?Not at all. As long as you achieve your target goal over the course of the year, that's enough. For example, if you plan running a marathon a month, that breaks down to 6.55 miles a week, or 3.275 miles twice a week. How does that sound? Not too heavy a commitment, is it? But it adds up to 12 marathons a year in aid of Cancer Research UK with just 2 days activity a week!How can I get involved?

If you want to do this with me for Cancer Research UK, get in touch with me and let me know what your 365challenge is to be - or I can help you think about possibilities you might want to consider. You'll also need to register with them. You can get all the details and download your fund-raising registration form by clicking through on this link: Fund Raising Registration for CRUK. Once you've registered - and please let them know on the form that you're taking a 365challenge - their local coordinator will be in touch to support you. But don't forget that I'm here too, and I'll do all I can to help you create your challenge and generate sponsors.

I've written a guide, also, to the important steps that you should take as you start planning your 365challenge and your personal fund-raising, which you can download for this link: 365challenge Guide

Do I have to raise £3650 in sponsorship?

No. £3650 is the figure I set originally as it had a nice symmetry with the 365challenge title. But you can set any target figure for your fund-raising. But don't forget that you will be spending a year undertaking your challenge, so over the course of that year, you could generate quite a healthy amount of sponsorship, so why not aim for the "gold standard"? £3650 breaks down to £10 a day over the year, and if you invite your sponsors to become 1%ers, sponsoring you 1% of your target figure, that is just £36.50 or the equivalent of 10 pence a day for a year.

Does that sound achievable now? And you know, even if you did set the target at £3650, and didn't achieve that goal, and raised only, say £2000, I'm betting that that is more than some of you might have thought possible in the first place! Go on, take a shot ...

Do I have to take a physical challenge?

No. If you can be creative and come up with an activity that will occupy you across 365 days, raising money for Cancer Research UK, and you can present this to potential sponsors as something worthy of supporting, then come on board with the 365challenge right now!

For example, I mentioned in the previous answer that setting a target of £3650 breaks down to £10 a day. So, you could set yourself that as a target - to invite one person a day to donate £10 for Cancer Research UK. What do you think of that as a 365challenge? You may not get 365 people to say "yes", but I bet you'll get a good number and raise a great deal of money for this great cause.

Or if you're a social animal, maybe you'd like to spend your 365challenge year hosting social gatherings to raise money for the cause. Do you fancy approaching a local hotel or pub and asking if they'd support you in putting on a monthly themed event for CRUK, say a wine tasting evening one month, a murder mystery another, and a fancy dress another? They'd get the business in on the evening, but you could charge for participating, with the money going to CRUK!

Can I take the 365challenge with a friend?

Absolutely! Some people find that taking the 365challenge on their own is a "big ask", or they may have friends or colleagues who also want to take the 365challenge on too. So why not join together and form your very own Team 365challenge team? From two to as many people as you want to bring together can make up a team. Make it interesting and set yourselves an impressive 365challenge, such as cycling the length of Africa (7500 miles). You could also get competitive in your fund-raising across the year and see who could raise the most for the team - and CRUK of course!

What are the Remembering / Celebrating pages about?

I wanted to commemorate my sister, Brenda, when I started the 365challenge, and as the idea developed, I realised that there must be other people out there who might wish to commemorate their own loved ones or, of course, celebrate those who have survived cancer. So I created these pages to allow anyone who wishes to add their own photos to the site. If you have someone you'd like to post some photos about, please email them to me on colin@365challenge.co.uk, with some details, and I'll add them to the site for you.