Hi Earthbugs!
I have returned to some sort of normality post Christmas and am back at university and all that fun stuff so I thought, what better time for a new blog post?
I've vowed to myself to push myself out of my comfort zone more, not so much as a new year's resolution but more a lifestyle change, and take opportunities when I can and that basically sets the scene for this post. I was scrolling through Facebook a few weeks ago and saw an advert for volunteers to collect money at a Young Voices event in Sheffield for Teenage Cancer Trust. I put myself out there and signed up, I love volunteering and helping others so I thought "what could go wrong?". I received all my confirmation emails, my t-shirt, where I had to be at what time and was excited.
Until the day came and then the crippling fear of "what if I do something wrong?" "what if people look at me and go why is she here?" "what if I'm not needed?" and a thousand other what ifs that terrified me. I guess you could say I'm a what if-er, and that tends to prevent me from signing myself up for these kind of things or anything that pushes me remotely out of my comfort zone. I very nearly stayed in the car but I opened the door, told myself to stop being stupid and in true Lia style, tripped up over my own feet and walked over the Fly DSA arena to the meeting point. Admittedly, I'm clueless with directions and had no clue where the meeting point was but when I saw a group of people wearing Teenage Cancer Trust t-shirts I figured I'd found the right place.
I stood there awkwardly in a group until everyone was there and were then taken to our suites, I know that is very fancy, where we were able to watch some of the show before having to get ready to go and collect money as everyone left. The event was Young Voices, it's basically a big school choir full of different schools and many, many children. I'm talking well into the thousands, every night. There's so many songs for them to learn and dance along to and they all perform them together for their family and friends. It was really good singing along with the kids! There's also special guests, I was slightly gutted that I missed Tony Hadley as he came on stage just as we left our suite. But it was so sweet watching everyone have a really good time, I kind of wanted to put them in a bubble so they stayed in that moment forever because I don't know about anyone else, but primary school days were the best days in terms of my school life and I really hope they all remember the good time they had performing as part of the Young Voices concerts for a very long time.
The collecting money bit was quite simple, stand there smile and say thank you! People were very generous and it was lovely to see. I let the side down though as someone went to throw a pound in and I failed at attempting to catch it so had to dodge the feet to pick it up and add it to my bucket. I received an email the day after with the total of how much we had raised that night and it was a phenomenal amount which was amazing. Just from one night and there were other nights and other volunteers so it's really great.
Money raised for Teenage Cancer Trust is essential so they can continue all of the amazing work that they do, and when there's 7 young people diagnosed with cancer every day in the UK there needs to be work done to help. Teenage Cancer Trust have provided 28 specialist units across the UK as a home away from home for young people receiving treatment along with this they've funded specialist nurses and youth support coordinators to support these young people, they've reached 118,000 young people to educate them about cancer and have made 185 Hair 4 U wigs. That's just a start. They do incredible work and we should support them where we can.
I had a brilliant time volunteering for Teenage Cancer Trust and would happily do it again.
Until next week,
Lia x
I have returned to some sort of normality post Christmas and am back at university and all that fun stuff so I thought, what better time for a new blog post?
I've vowed to myself to push myself out of my comfort zone more, not so much as a new year's resolution but more a lifestyle change, and take opportunities when I can and that basically sets the scene for this post. I was scrolling through Facebook a few weeks ago and saw an advert for volunteers to collect money at a Young Voices event in Sheffield for Teenage Cancer Trust. I put myself out there and signed up, I love volunteering and helping others so I thought "what could go wrong?". I received all my confirmation emails, my t-shirt, where I had to be at what time and was excited.
Until the day came and then the crippling fear of "what if I do something wrong?" "what if people look at me and go why is she here?" "what if I'm not needed?" and a thousand other what ifs that terrified me. I guess you could say I'm a what if-er, and that tends to prevent me from signing myself up for these kind of things or anything that pushes me remotely out of my comfort zone. I very nearly stayed in the car but I opened the door, told myself to stop being stupid and in true Lia style, tripped up over my own feet and walked over the Fly DSA arena to the meeting point. Admittedly, I'm clueless with directions and had no clue where the meeting point was but when I saw a group of people wearing Teenage Cancer Trust t-shirts I figured I'd found the right place.
I stood there awkwardly in a group until everyone was there and were then taken to our suites, I know that is very fancy, where we were able to watch some of the show before having to get ready to go and collect money as everyone left. The event was Young Voices, it's basically a big school choir full of different schools and many, many children. I'm talking well into the thousands, every night. There's so many songs for them to learn and dance along to and they all perform them together for their family and friends. It was really good singing along with the kids! There's also special guests, I was slightly gutted that I missed Tony Hadley as he came on stage just as we left our suite. But it was so sweet watching everyone have a really good time, I kind of wanted to put them in a bubble so they stayed in that moment forever because I don't know about anyone else, but primary school days were the best days in terms of my school life and I really hope they all remember the good time they had performing as part of the Young Voices concerts for a very long time.
The collecting money bit was quite simple, stand there smile and say thank you! People were very generous and it was lovely to see. I let the side down though as someone went to throw a pound in and I failed at attempting to catch it so had to dodge the feet to pick it up and add it to my bucket. I received an email the day after with the total of how much we had raised that night and it was a phenomenal amount which was amazing. Just from one night and there were other nights and other volunteers so it's really great.
Money raised for Teenage Cancer Trust is essential so they can continue all of the amazing work that they do, and when there's 7 young people diagnosed with cancer every day in the UK there needs to be work done to help. Teenage Cancer Trust have provided 28 specialist units across the UK as a home away from home for young people receiving treatment along with this they've funded specialist nurses and youth support coordinators to support these young people, they've reached 118,000 young people to educate them about cancer and have made 185 Hair 4 U wigs. That's just a start. They do incredible work and we should support them where we can.
I had a brilliant time volunteering for Teenage Cancer Trust and would happily do it again.
Until next week,
Lia x
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