Loonies dangle from a piece of string on 17th November...


What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon in the last vestiges of a glorious Indian summer than hanging off the side of a very tall building in Bristol??? err...

This is Alicia making her FIRST descent! Yep, she went and did it again...

Well, a number of our supporters took up the challenge, including some very brave children. A 100 foot is a long way down, (Archie says farewell to his friend before making his way to the roof top) but most of them weren't content with one go as once they got the taste for heights, they did it again!

Thank-you to everyone who took part. They raised in excess of £800 for Max Appeal.

It was great to see a number of local charities get together to make the day a great success.

The race season moved to England's second city, Birmingham, on 23rd October.

Mark Bradbury, who works for EC Harris based in Baskerville House, laid down the challenge to work colleagues and clients alike to take part in the Birmingham Half Marathon. EC Harris opened up their offices located in Centenary Square to all runners and their supporters, proving food, energy drinks etc.

The office held a variety of events including dress down days, raffle, sales of pin badges and trolley tokens, not to mention a Rollapaluza cycling event, with the men's winner being EC Harris director Martin Silvester. To date in excess of £2,200 has been raised. A big thank you to Mark, Martin and Rachael Towers for their support in organising all of the fundraising events.

Not content with their support of Max Appeal, Martin and friend Ed Coppinger, together with Mark Bradbury will be taking part in the London Marathon next April for Max Appeal.

John Disley took part in the Oxford Half Marathon on 25th September.... making it look far too easy!!

John's daughter Laurel is affected by 22q11.2 deletion syndrome and other related conditions.

John came home in a very respectable 1 hour 58 minutes, raising £1,300.00 for Max Appeal and is now taking a well earned rest before considering his training programme for 2012!

James Handley took to the roads of Jersey on 2nd October to take part in the Jersey Marathon.

In extremely challenging conditions James completed the course in just over 4 hours, a fantastic effort.

James's nephew Jude was diagnosed with DiGeorge aged 1 just before undergoing open heart surgery and after a long period of ill health. Jude is now a happy and healthy little boy. James who is a director of Kelloggs raised over £1,350 for Max Appeal, including match funding from Kelloggs.

2011 Bumper Year

Almost half of our 22 runners lined up in their 'Team Max Appeal' shirts printed courtesy once again by regular supporters at Epik Incentives.

First time runners included Julie and daughter Georgia Wootton (our youngest half marathon runner to date, she has yet to turn 18!!).

See her and her 11 year old brother Archie (who ran the 5km junior run the previous day in 25 mins!) on their training run along the canal tow paths around Stourbridge... what did the Victorians ever do for us???

Once again the Red Arrows turned out in style at the start to give their customary send off to the 54,000 runners and they were there at the finish to welcome the runners home with a stunning display along the South Shields shoreline.

Our first runner across the line was Kevin Jackson a seasoned half marathon runner in a stunning (nay nauseating!) time of 1hr 34 minutes and 46 seconds.....

....closely followed by Mark Gozdecki some 3 minutes later.

Personal bests were set in the starange mixture of weathers; warm sunshine at the start was followed by freezing driving rain later.

A cycle mounted St John medic had been monitoring 17 year old Georgia's faltering progress due to the cold and made her spend 20 odd minutes in one of their support tents to 'warm up' before completing the course... but she still finished way ahead of her mum in just over three hours!

However Georgia's experience was overshadowed by Navid Moelami, who set off like a train in search of a 1 hour 40 minute finish.... paramedics attended to Navid as he collapsed on the course and he was taken to North Tyneside hospital A&E, where he was checked out and stabilised. Against medics advice and demonstrating commitment beyond the call of duty, Navid made his way back to where he had been picked up and completed the course in just under four and a quarter hours. WOW!!

Max Appeal has now secured charity places in the Great North Run and raised £85,000 since 2004.


This year in excess of £11,000 was raised, due in no small part to Mike and Sarah Whyte who, via a variety of events raised £3,800 for their nephew, a truly phenomenal achievement... and a lovely couple! Though Paul will beware the late night whisky challenge with Mike's dad in future!!

We couldn't omit to thank our retinue of helpers at the finish line marquee!! Thanks everso to Sally and her boys from South Shields!!

A quartet of intrepid ladies put themselves forward for the Basingstoke Half Marathon on 2nd October. The team was led by Michelle Adone–Thatcher with Natalie Field, Leanne Ives and Katrina Vincent.

Michelle works for IBM has a 9 year old daughter Leanne, who was diagnosed with Di-George Syndrome aged 8, a year after being diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome.

Katrina was very pleased for some relief provided by local residents' hosepipes!

Unfortunately Natalie succumbed to illness the week before the race and could not take part and was so disappointed that she has vowed to take part in the Reading Half Marathon in 2012, and she has already persuaded her husband to join her and is determined to expand her team of runners for the event.

The other three members stuck to their task and completed the course in unseasonably warm conditions (again!) raising £1,350.00 in the process.

Yay! Girl power!

Max Appeal also a got mention in the local press about the event!

Long time Max Appeal member and supporter Craig snapped this photo with Max Appeal's celebrity patron Tony head.

GO Craig!!

More than 350 people turned out in their red t-shirts at London Zoo mostly courtesy of Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Almost 50 people went to Twycross Zoo in Warwickshire as well, thanks to Jane Benson for her hard work in co-ordinating the tickets!

In total about 2,000 people went to the zoo worldwide... so the UK was the biggest turn-out by far... fab!!