Greed. thats what's pulling us down

I was walking around Trentham gardens today, well, not the gardens but the retail area. We had had a particularly nice time. My partner had commented to me that the retail area didn't really have very practical shops. A lot of the shops down there sell obscure items or things that you simply wouldn't choose to buy whilst on a day out.

I have always been a bit tight with money, but it has to be said ; goods in the Trentham shopping outlet are expensive. This was underlined when we went into a clothing shop after seeing a t-shirt that looked pretty cool. Whilst in the shop My partner pointed out a great looking jumper, with a wooly type lining. I Thought It was great, just me..then I saw the price and my heart sank, £100. Yes you read it right, £100, One hundred freaking pounds for a jumper, Holy hell.

To me this is nothing more than outright greed. There can be in my opinion no justification for hundred pound jumpers. Little wonder then that the economy is in a state. Retailers expect a hundred pounds for a jumper. Personally I have never been a labels person, I don't see the point of it at all, why define yourself by labels? I accept though that it appeals to some people.

Had the jumper been, say £30 or £40 I'd have happily bought it. I dont earn a bad wage but they priced me out of the market, along with about 3/4 of the population. It's all a bit daft really.

Wouald you pay a £100 quid for a jumper? If so why. Let me know.

MOD letter regarding UFO sightings 01/11/09

The MOD sent Me this letter the other day. I had to reply. the Person who sent me the letter was either Lying or Terribly misinformed,You decide. My response is below. the letter.

Letter

		V. F******** HEADQUARTERS AIR COMMAND RAF Business Secretariat 2
Mr **************		Spitfire Block Royal Air Force High Wycombe Buckinghamshire HP14 4UE 01494 496254 ufodesk@mod.uk
		Our Ref: UFO Report
		9 November 2009

Dear Mr ***********

I am writing with reference to your report of an ‘unidentified flying object’, seen on 1 November 2009 over the Matlock area in Derbyshire. I have been asked to reply as this office is the focal point within the Ministry of Defence for correspondence relating to UFOs.

Firstly, it may be helpful if I explain that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) examines any reports of ‘unidentified flying objects’ it receives solely to establish whether what was seen might have some defence significance; namely, whether there is any evidence that the United Kingdom’s airspace might have been compromised by hostile or unauthorised air activity.

Unless there is evidence of a potential threat to the United Kingdom from an external source, and to date no UFO report has revealed such evidence, we do not attempt to identify the precise nature of each sighting reported to us. We believe that rational explanations, such as aircraft lights or natural phenomena, could be found for them if resources were diverted for this purpose, but it is not the function of the MoD to provide this kind of aerial identification service. It would be an inappropriate use of defence resources if we were to do so.

The MoD does not have any expertise or role in respect of ‘UFO/flying saucer’ matters or the question of the existence or otherwise of extraterrestrial life forms, about which it remains totally open-minded. I should add that to date, the MoD knows of no evidence which substantiates the existence of these alleged phenomena.

I am sorry I could not be more helpful.
-----------------------------------------------

My Response


Thank you for your reply to my UFO report. I appreciate you taking the time to acknowledge my sighting.
I too am sure there is a rational explanation , however, I did only report the incident to the MOD because I thought it was my civic duty to inform you. I hope I did the right thing.

With regards to your statement.

"The MoD knows of no evidence which substantiates the existence of these alleged phenomena."


The recent release of documents through the freedom of information act would suggest that the MOD certainly has lots of evidence to substantiate the existence of these "alleged Phenomena". The Rendlesham Forest Incident was so high Profile that no one with an interest in Unidentified Flying Objects could miss.

Former MOD official Nick Pope, and Lord Hill Norton, who was an Admiral, First Sea Lord and Chief of Defence staff certainly took a very great interest in UFO's and the (Rendlesham) case in particular. I Presume that given your quaoted statement, that you were unaware of the case.


Please, for the sake of public information re-word your response to such sightings. To say the MOD has no evidence of UFO's simply isn't accurate, and will certainly be held up to scrutiny by more articulate people than myself.

I enclose a quoted statement from Lord Hill Norton.

Your Sincerely
Tideswellman

Quote from Lord Hill Norton about his opinion regarding the Rendlesham Forest Case:

Lord Hill-Norton is a five-star Admiral and the former Head of the British Ministry of Defense who was kept in the dark about the UFO subject during his official capacities. In this short interview, he states that this subject has great significance and should no longer be denied and kept secret. He emphatically states, “…that there is a serious possibility that we are being visited — and have been visited for many years — by people from outer space, from other civilizations; that it behooves us to find out who they are, where they come from, and what they want. This should be the subject of rigorous scientific investigation, and not the subject of rubbishing by tabloid newspapers.”

I know a good bit about the Bentwaters incident. I’ve interviewed a number of the people who took part in it, and what I have decided after careful thought, is that there are only two explanations for what happened that night in Suffolk. The first is that the people concerned — including Colonel Halt, who was, at the time, the Deputy Commander of the Base, and a lot of his soldiers — claim that something from outside the Earth’s atmosphere landed at their air force base. They went and stood by it; they inspected it; they photographed it. The following day they took tests on the ground where it had been and found radioactive traces; they reported this. Colonel Halt wrote a memorandum, which was sent to our Ministry of Defense. He has appeared on British television at least once, to my knowledge — possibly more often — in which he has repeated, effectively, what he said in that memorandum. What he said is what I have just described. That is one explanation — that it actually happened as Colonel Halt reported. The other explanation is that it didn’t. In that case, one is bound to assume that Colonel Halt and all his men were hallucinating. My position is perfectly clear — either of those explanations is of the utmost defense interest. It has been reported and claimed — and I, myself, have raised it to ministers at the Defense Ministry in this country — that nothing they have been informed about regarding UFOs is of defense interest. Surely, to any sensible person, either of those explanations cannot fail to be of defense interest. That the Colonel of an American Air Force Base in Suffolk and his military men are hallucinating when there are nuclear-armed aircraft on the base — this must be of defense interest. And, if indeed what he says took place, did take place — and why on Earth should he make it up — then, surely, the entry of a vehicle from outer space (and certainly not manmade) to a defense base in this country also cannot fail to be of defense interest. It simply isn’t any good for our ministers — and the Ministry of Defense in particular — to say that nothing took place that December night in Suffolk, or that it is not of defense interest. It simply isn’t true. Since my name has become connected with UFO matters in quite a big way in this country, and in one or two other countries too, I have frequently been asked why a person of my background — a former Chief of the Defense Staff, a former Chairman of the NATO Military Committee — why I think there is a cover-up, or what the reasons may be for government’s wishing to cover up the facts about UFOs. A number of explanations have often been put forward. The most frequent, and perhaps the most plausible, is the government’s concern (which [is] primarily that of the United States, and that of my own country) over the public’s reaction if they [were] told the truth — which is that there are objects in our atmosphere which are technically miles in advance of anything that we can deploy, that we have no means of stopping them coming here, and that we have no defense against them, should they be hostile. I believe governments fear that if they did disclose those facts, people would panic: people would rush about and jam switchboards like they did that famous day in New Jersey, when there was a spoof that the Martians [had] landed — people will go mad, and they will jump up and down. I don’t believe that at all — I’ve said so in print. I do not believe that people today, in the 21st century, are going to panic at that sort of information. After all, they have put up with the introduction of nuclear weapons and the destruction of two Japanese cities 50 years ago. They take as a matter of course that we can land vehicles on Mars — land to the precise instant, forecast years before. So why should they panic? They are much more interested in doing the pools or the lottery. They would shrug their shoulders and take it as a matter of course. Anyway, they don’t trust politicians, in my experience. What I’d like to say is that there is a serious possibility that we are being visited — and have been visited for many years — by people from outer space, from other civilizations; that it behooves us to find out who they are, where they come from, and what they want. This should be the subject of rigorous scientific investigation, and not the subject of rubbishing by tabloid newspapers. It seems to me that the Bentwaters incident is a classic case where an apparent intrusion into our airspace — and indeed, a landing in our country — occurred, which was witnessed by serious-minded people in the military — responsible people, doing a responsible job. And, Bentwaters is, in a sense, a benchmark for how not to deal with these matters in the future.

Admiral Lord Hill Norton speaks about UFOS

UFO's what are they and when will there be open debate?

As I sit here late at night perched at the top of my bed I am slightly irritated. I'm irritated because, I'm writing yet another UFO post. Irritated because I knothat every time I write one of these UFO posts people out there, think"nut job", or "he's obsessed" or "weirdo, avoid".

Yet, at the same time I am compelled to write because who else is? Who is actually prepared to stand up and say" hold on, there's something going on and we , the people have a right to know as much about it as possible". Those of you who know me will know that I am certainly not afraid to stick my neck out and make controversial statements. I'm a nobody really but if enough nobody's speak out loud enough with one common voice then perhaps something will be done.

Now to the point of my blog post. On the 1st of November at approximately 7.40 pm We were driving back from the Matlock area in Derbyshire. It was an extremely clear night, I had strong intuition that I should keep my camera with me, I sadly ignored that intuition and stuffed it into the boot. A decision that I would later regret heartily. We had driven for about 15 minutes when I became aware of a very bright light in the sky. Planes fly overhead all the time and I guess this night was no different than any other, except to say that the plane I saw seemed odd, it moved too slowly, considering how low in the sky it was. Moreover it was extremely low in the sky, helecopter low. It was pitch black outside the car so I could not get a good look at the plane.

what I can tell you though is that it's altitude stuck me as odd, as did its lights. it seemd to have one light in the middle and two constant lights on both flanks. It had a small blinking light underneath. As it flew low over Carsington water, I'd say it wouldn't have been more than 300 feet up at the very most. My real estimate would have been 100 feet. Now i'm not saying that this was an Alien spacecraft. Yet to me it was a UFO. UFO doesn't mean alien spacecraft that would be an ETV (Extra Terrestrial Vehicle). It was a UFO because it wasn't like any plane I have ever seen, it wasn't on a Flight path I have ever seen. It moved Slower than any commercial plane I have ever seen. What was it? I watched it fly over Carsington lake and then I lost sight of it for a few seconds, it was gone. Yet, I had a perfect view over the lake, as we climbed towards Kniveton near Ashbourne. Where did this low flying object go? I certainly felt unnerved. Rightly so. This part of Derbyshire, Matlock, Wirksworth, Bonsall is well known for its UFO reports, even more so lately. This year, 2009 has seen the highest incidence of UFO reports Worldwide since records began.

My partner who was driving the car, doesn't really hold with UFO's. I think she'd have to see one to believe it. She tends to express the view that there is a rational explaination for this sort of sighting and that there is no pooint making a fuss. This is the view help by the majoroty of the population. If fact I believe it too, except that I have long had an interest in UFO's because of very unusual things I have seen for years now.

On with the story. We drove on, I had now got a sneaking suspicion that we would see something else unusual. There seemed to be a lot of activity in the skies, but nothing quite as startling as what I had just seen. When we got to Uttoxeter, we were approaching the Mcdonalds roundabout when I became aware of a very large red light low in the sky. The red light seemed to be near to the Racecourse , it was at least 2 miles away though, so impossible to tell what it was, my partner also saw this. She looked a little spooked. I asked her to turn off toward the light but she declined and drove on towards Stoke on Trent. I couldn't help but feel that we had missed an opportunity to investigate. That said, having the family in the car probably wasn't the best UFO hunting opportunity. We drove on.

Then things got really good. As we approached Stoke on Trent down the A50. We were at the Britannia stadium when I looked across to my right (uk drivers side) and saw a very bright white light right over stoke town. I asked my partner what the hell it was, again she looked spooked and, again turned away from it opting to drive down to Newcastle via the Handford roundabout, much to my frustration, I wanted to try to get a photograph of this light. It was so bright.

As we left the Handford Roundabout the light became visible again. I pointedly asked her to look at it. It was a white light with tow smaller while lights on either side of it. As though on stalks or like spotlights. We could hear no Helecopter noise, even though my partner assured me that was what it was. As we drove along the A34 we were both looking at this light. It was definitely no more than 100 feet off the ground. Suddenly, and this is the best bit it changed colour from white to emerald green. Again, I alerted my partner to this, I said "look at it, tell me it has changed colour and I'm not imagining it". She confirmed that it had changed colour, the two small white sidelights seemed to have disappeared. At this point we were directly by the Tesco's at Trent Vale, and I could still see the object, I tried to get a photo. I took 2 and one caught a tiny bit of green glow...the image was very disappointing. Like so many UFO experiences I had failed to get any decent evidence and that truly is frustrating. Simply because 99% of all ufo photos are so inconclusive that nothing ccan be proved. Yet again my photos was certainly no different. If only I had kept the SLR in the front with me.

Mobile phone pic below taken from inside moving car. see left side green glow. sorry thats all i got. Rubbish I know.



We arrived home minutes late and I scanned around and then went out for a drive to see if I could see anything unusual, I couldn't. What we did see that night though was 3 objects that were unusual. For once I had another witness who saw at least 2 of these objects.

I felt sure that this incident was so unusual I simply had to check it out. I called the Police that night to ask if the helecopter was up and flying in that region. they said they'd check and get back to me. No one got back. So I called again on Monday morning. I spoke with Staffordshire police and asked them to check. They, recorded the incident (Trent Vale) and ran checks to see if the helecopter was flying. They called back to say that they had no record of the Police helecopter flying that night. this still doesn't mean it was an ETV, but it rules out police helcopters.

Other options could be military helecopters or the Air Ambulance. I called the Civil Aviation authority who told me that small aircraft do not have to register their flight plan with them.
So I have thus drawn a blank. Whatever I saw looked weird to me. I'm keen to rule out check all conventional options. Yet I'd just like to say that what I saw in all three locations that night is consistent with current Ufo sightings across the country and the world.

Here is my crude sketch of the objects



I'll finish this article by providing you with some links to local ufo sightings and some video's of UFO's which look like planes but seem not to be planes. you decide? Will you lend a vice in asking what are these lights? when will the government make some official statements?

World Governments have recently released many many UFO documents previously kept secret.
The Vatican made a statement that Extraterrestrials were our brothers. Are the worlds governments building up to telling us something because the sightings are now so common place they can no longer keep a lid on it? Only time will tell.

Links:

Matlock Merucry-Oct 02 2009: UFO spotted in Matlock.
Matlock Mercury-Mar 12 2009: UFO spotted in Wirksworth.
Matlock Mercury-Feb 10 2009: More Ilkeston folk come forward with UFO sightings.
Google - Terms: UFO, Derbyshire, 2009
Google - Terms: UFO, Staffordshire, 2009

The Sun - Aug 09 2009: UFO invades BBC Breakfast
Daily Telegraph - 13 Jul 2009: Record number of sightings predicted
Daily Telegraph -17 Aug 2009: Former Armed Forces Head Wanted probe into UFO
The Times - Jan 27 2009: Cameron - We will publish secret UFO files

National Archives - UK MOD - Released UFO files
UK MOD - UAP files
MOD - UFO reports
MOD - How to report a UFO


Video

1st one similar to what we saw in Trent Vale.




UFO's that arent planes, but change shape to look like planes. whats going on?





UFO fake planes - youtube Channel

Doughnut on a rope contrails in Derbyshire

I spotted these unusual contrails in Derbyshire over the weekend in the Matlock area. The Military have long flown aircraft low over the Derbyshire Dales. What plane makes these trails though. Something New?

Confirmation That UFOs Are Soild and Under Intelligent Control - Claims Brazilian Military

Confirmation That UFOs Are Soild and Under Intelligent Control - Claims Brazilian Military
by A. J. Gevaerd

Posted: 16:32 October 26, 2009

Confirmation That UFOs Are Soild and Under Intelligent Control - Claims Brazilian Military
Source: forgetomori.com

As I have informed before, the Brazilian Government declassified a few weeks ago a new set of previously secret UFO documents, covering the 80s. I also informed you that we already had disclosures covering the 50s, 60s and 70s. They have been doing the releases by decade. So far over 4,000 pages and 300 photos have been disclosed. This time declassification, the 80s, is composed of some 800 pages and is very powerful.

Among the documents released are the reports of UFOs on May 19, 1986, considered the 'Official UFO Night in Brazil', when 21 spherical objects, estimated 100 meters in diameter - according to military sources - literally jammed air traffic over the major Braziian Airports, when several Mirage and F5 jets were scrambled to pursue them for ours.

As most of you already know, at that time the Air Force minister Octavio Moreira Lima went public on national TV networks about it the other morning. The pilots and their commanders also spoke freely about the pursuits, which occurred over several hours. This was a major thing in Brazil.

Now, when on TV to the whole Nation, the Moreira Lima promised that a full report would be issued about the events, considering the air-air and air-land radar detections and the pilot pursuing, and it would be available in 30 days. And as most of the things that happen in my country, when governmental promises are involved, this so expected document was never known.

Now we know why!

Among the important files just released in the 80s package, there it is a certain ‘Occurrence Report’, dated June 02, 1986, just a few days after the ‘invasion’ by 21 UFOs of the most developed areas in the country. It has 8 pages and is signed by Air Brigadier Jose Pessoa Cavalcanti de Albuquerque, acting commander of the Brazilian Air Command of Air Defense (COMDA). Now, what this report contains is very interesting, and I quote its Final Considerations part:

1. Based on the analysis of above-reported events, it is this Command’s opinion that, according to the information from the controllers, pilots and previously elaborated reports from I Cindacta (Air Traffic Control and Aerial Defense Center), that there are some points of coincidence regarding radar echoes, accelerations, illumination, velocities and behavior, either by technical detection or by visual contact.

2. Some of those coinciding points that we can name are those phenomena which exhibited certain constant characteristics, as follows:

a. Produced radar echoes, not only on the Air Defense System, but also on the intercepting airplanes simultaneously, with visual comparisons by the pilots.

b. Change in velocity, from subsonic to supersonic, besides hovering capability.

c. Varied altitude, from below FL-050 to altitudes above FL-400.

d. Occasionally seen as white, green and yellow lights, and sometimes no luminous indication.

e. Sudden acceleration and deceleration

nd there is more. In the Item 3 of the Final Considerations part, the Occurrence Report says clearly that ‘the phenomenon (UFOs) is solid and reflects intelligence’. See it in full:

3. As a conclusion of the observed constant facts in almost all presentations, it is the opinion of this Command that the phenomenon is solid and reflects intelligence by its capacity to follow and sustain distance from the observers, as well as to fly in formation, and are not necessarily manned craft.

I have asked our volunteers Edison Hashida, Simon Levy and Marcos Malvezzi to translate the material and I have it for you for download. You can have both the full original document, in Portuguese, as well as the English version, both in PDF format at:

www.ufo.com.br/documentos/night

Occurrence Report - Original.pdf
Occurrence Report - Translated.pdf

I believe that this is one of the most powerful existing documents revealing the reality of the UFO phenomena, now fully admitted by our military authorities. We are now working to have more than 600 pages translated, and next Sunday I will interview the former Air Force minister Socrates Monteiro, another authority and officer in Brazil that decided to come public about what he knows and accept to receive me. He was the commander of the Air Traffic Control and Aerial Defense Center (Cindacta).

This is all a direct result of the campaign UFOs: Freedom Of Information Now, promoted since 2004 by the Brazilian Committee of UFO Researchers. All thousands of pages and hundreds of photos since the 50s given to the Committee are available for download in the Brazilian UFO Magazine website as well as physically at the National Archives, in Brasilia.

In late July, hundreds of papers from the Brazilian Air Force's official System for the Investigation of Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon (SIOANI) have demonstrated how the nation's military authorities dealt with the UFO Phenomena in the 60s and 70s.

The Brazilian UFO Magazine website - www.ufo.com.br - has over 1,600 pages of documents, 200 photos for download of SIOANI's activities and Operation Saucer, carried out in the Amazonian region in 1977. Along with documents received by the Committee from other military sources.

Included in the recently revealed documents are the detailed research proceedings carried out in dozens of UFO-related incidents which had not been made public previously. Some of the colored sketches of UFO incidents investigated by SIOANI are here:

www.ufo.com.br/documentos/sioani/
www.ufo.com.br/documentos/prato/
www.ufo.com.br/documentos/extra/
www.ufo.com.br/documentos/geral/
www.ufo.com.br/documentos/anos_80/
www.ufo.com.br/documentos/novos/

Please note: Download, print, publicize and otherwise share these documents, but please do not fail to mention the source, Brazilian UFO Magazine, and emphasize that this material is public thanks to the efforts of the Brazilian Committee of UFO Researchers (CBU).

By closing, let me tell you all, as previously posted here, that the recent disclosures proves that Brazil was the first country in the world ever to officially and publicly admit the reality of the UFO Phenomena, and the first one to investigate it openly, in a not secret manner.

A. J. Gevaerd

Mission Maker Tutorial - Game Start Popups

UFO of Meir, Stoke on Trent

Last week whilst at work I went up to the top floor of the building to take photographs of Longton town. The building has an impressive view over the the South of Stoke on Trent and I wanted to get a nice panoramic shot. The light just wasn't quite right and I returned practically empty handed. On the way down though I spotted a cylindrical object flying East. I tried to focus my camera on it but I couldn't see it it was too far away. I took a couple of snaps in the general direction it was flying.

The cylindrical object had disappeared into a dissipating contrail. It was not leaving any contrail of its own. I'm not saying this object is an Alien spaceship. all I'm saying is..

1) it looked like a cylinder without any visible wings.
2) it left no Contrail
3) I don't know if it made a sound I was indoors and it was high up.
Now my word isn't enough. Here are the photographs. Click to enlarge!

Photo 1) Full size photo. Object appears in the top left contrail about 1 inch from the centre. looks like two spheres.



















Photo 2) I inverted the colour on one to see if the object I saw was a solid object. It clearly stands out against the contrails. Top left contrail.



















It was still very small so I enlarged the area. You can see the object better now but its still small.















I then inverted the image again.














Finally, here are a couple of closer blow-ups, there is no more detail be gotten out of those shots sorry.
























As I have said. I don't know what this object/objects were. All I know was I saw it, it looked weird I photographed it and you can see for yourself there was actually SOMETHING there.

I looked on the Mufon Site last night and found 2 photos of a very similar looking object. this is much clearer, again it's close to airplane contrails. Photo 1 Photo2. Bothe these pics were taken by the same submitter.

Then I found this one which closel;y resembvles the shape of what I saw. Photo


What do you think?

Robin hood Legend & Tideswell

I just found a most interesting Link that puts Tideswell on the Robin Hood Map. Being as Little John was from Hathersage, it's not unlikely that Tideswell would have been known to the outlaws.

Read for yourself: Robin hood in Tideswell

Tory Party, Liberators? I think not!

Well I was going to get around to writing a realistic response to David Camerons Closing speech at this weeks Tory Party conference. After reading all the gushing reports in the papers, I thought perhaps I had heard a different speech to the one they were all cooing over. When I began looking for a balanced report of the speech upon which to draw some form of balanced comparison from, little did I expect to find it in the column of one of my most hated columnists, Peter Hitchen.

Normally I cannot bare to read he bile that pours forth from this mans mouth. I concede that occasionally, rarely, he does hit the nail on the head. Today was one of those days. So instead of launching into my planned tirade. I'm simply going to take the lazy option and point you to Hitchen's article. Simply because, it's a masterpiece of truth. The Conservatives will win the next election without too much trouble, but not because Cameron is so brilliant, or because Brown is so bad...but because the British people only have 2 choices. Labour or Conservative. they are not willing to take a risk and vote Liberal to send a strong message to both parties about their abysmal failures and lies. After 2 or three terms of Conservative Government we will see a return to Labour and so it goes on.

Click the link to read Peter Hitchen's article

The Tory Party is racing to cloud cuckoo land...via Manchester

Positive thinking can achieve your goals

It has to be said, I'm feeling upbeat. This is the first time in a long while that I have felt so positive about myself and about life. Part of the reason is that I have had a kick up the backside by way of reading a self help book. Normally I would scoff at the notion of reading such a book, as "waste of time", or "for losers". However, when I was in the library last week, it simply seemed to call out to me, and I thought "What the heck, I'll give it a try".

The book, which is Called Natural Born Winners is incredibly interesting because its basic tenet is that "no-one can achieve success for you, simply wishing you were more successful won't cut the mustard, you actually have to get off your ass and do something about it.".

I'm sure we all know this to be true anyway, but it's making it a central pillar of everything we do in everyday life that's the really hard part isn't it?

I tried to think of an example of how I have managed to achieve something that I wanted to do by being motivated and the best example was the skydive I did last year.

For so long I wanted to do a skydive. I kept making excuses that I couldn't find anyone to do it with and that they were so expensive, I couldn't possibly afford to do one yet. I'd mentioned to a friend that I wanted to do one and she told me that there was a sponsored skydive to raise money for a Sick child called Lily Grace.

This was enough to whet my appetite and I called the organisers and got a sponsor sheet. What followed was almost a mitigated disaster. I tired in a very lack lustre way to get sponsors, I needed to raise £200 just to do the jump and anything more than that was going to Lily's fund.

About 2 weeks before the jump I mentioned to my friend that I wasn't going to be able to do the jump because I hadn't managed to raise anywhere near enough money in sponsorship. I could hardly look at myself in the mirror I felt so ashamed about it. Luckily though she's a strong woman and had a clear view of what I should do. "Phil", she said, you have hundreds of facebook friends why don't you ask them to help, I'm sure you could raise quite a bit that way.

that little push, was enough. I went home and set up a facebook group, invited every one to join, sent them regular updates, kept everyone aware of the running total of sponsorship money and it seemed to galvanise everyone. I sent them all a personal email outlining Lily's illness and why we were doing the skydive and lots of people all decided to help. It was nothing short of fantastic.

I'm going to keep reading the book until I finish it and hopefully , it will set me on a new course in life. I think I already have the ideas, I just need to steel myself to follow through with projects that I undertake.

It just shows the power of self belief can get the job done. Considering I only asked people I knew for sponsorship I managed to raise a little over £900. My dream of doing a skydive was fulfilled and more importantly we got some way towards helping a little girl who deserves comfort in life.