Macmillan Cancer Support does Geocaching!

[ralphdickinson]

Dear Geocachers.

As of next month, Macmillan Cancer research is hosting a big sponsored walk to help raise money for cancer suffers and also celebrate it's 100th Birthday. The walk will be held in Hampshire and for the first time ever, geocaching will play a major role! the website is soon to launch and I will post a link as soon as it does! in the mean time, lets get the chatter going! feel free to ask me any questions and I will answer what I can. You can also follow us on twitter, just search for Macmillan_WA.

I am in the search for any willing volunteers who would be happy to plant a cache on behalf of Macmillan and log it on geocaching.com. We have the special Macmillan caches ready, each one containing some specially made Macmillan geocoins. All we need are people who would like to find a location for them!

This is a great opportunity to help raise money for Macmillan and also spread the geocaching word!

I look forward to your comments!

Ralph Dickinson

PR for Macmillan's Way ahead Walk

[natterjacktoad]

Just a small, but important, point. It's not Macmillan Cancer RESEARCH, but SUPPORT - the organisation mainly provides help and support for cancer patients and their families.
It will be interesting to see how this can be achieved without mentioning the charity, as per Groundspeak rules........ but I hope it can, as this is a charity we support, through personal experience.

[natterjacktoad]

.....also, where in Hampshire? I'm just over the border wher Surrey meets Sussex, but if it's within reasonable travelling distance (for maintenance etc) I'm happy to place one. I know a lot of other Hampshire cachers, so if you can let me have more information (and some reassurance about the charity/GS problem!) I'm happy to spread the word!
BTW - if the geocoins are also for sale, I would be happy to buy one!

[Boltonian]

Too far away for me but I would love to have joined in.

Had bowel cancer myself, dad had prostate cancer, sister in law breast cancer, mother in law bowel cancer and now the bloody cat is bleeding from his bum.

[Brenin Tegeingl]

I've sent a PM to the OP, with a suggestion about contacting Groundspeak

Deci

[ralphdickinson]

Dear Deci,

Thank you for your advice. I have previously contacted Groundspeak, and we got the all clear, but I will send a message to the contact that you provided just to double check.

Regards

Ralph

[ralphdickinson]

Dear NatterJacktoad,

Thanks very much for your interest and willingness to help. The guys at Hampshire Macmillan are still finalising the route, but I'm expecting to hear on Monday. It is essentially following the Wayfarers Way; so it is a long route, roughly 70 miles. Anyone participating can do as much or as little as they wish, over as long as they wish and whenever they want between April and October (the duration of the event). Another forum user has been very helpful and given me a contact at groundspeak who hopefully will clarify what we can exactly say and do. I did contact geocaching.com's general enquiry email address in January and they were very supportive of what we wish to do, but I have just emailed this Groundspeak contact to clarify. with regards to the geocoins, I think they have been made in quite limited supplies, enough to fill the caches, but probably not to purchase; not to begin with at least. I will however suggest the possibility of purchase to the area funraising manager. Finally thank you for pointing out my mistake in the title, if there is anyway I can edit that I will and my apologies to everyone over that.

Hopefully speak to you later with further details of how you can get involved!

Kind Regards

Ralph

[ralphdickinson]

Dear Boltonian,

I'm very sorry to hear about your struggles with cancer and how your family has also suffered. I'm also sorry that this event is the wrong end of the country for you. All I can say is that Macmillan are running this event from April this year until October, so should you find yourself in Hampshire over that time, It will be going on for a while. Also this is the first time that Macmillan are including Geocaching in a sponsored walk. Should everything go to plan, and should it be a success, it is hoped that other regions will consider doing something similar! Hopefully one closer to you! Thank you for your interest and keep an eye on the thread for an annoucment of when the website goes live!

Kind Regards

Ralph

[The Wombles]

I'm personally very pleased to read about this support and linkage between caching and Macmillan. We've also lost family to cancer and Nicky is a regular Macmillan coffee morning organiser.

I hope this is a great success.

[DrDick&Vick]

Ralph, I will be going down to Devon and Cornwall soon and will be happy to hide a cache or two for you down that way. I have caches in both areas that locals look after for me.
Cheers

[natterjacktoad]

Sounds good! I'm sure I, and my fellow SE Hants cachers, can oblige with some at this end! How many caches are you looking to have placed? Presumably you are going to want them spread fairly evenly along the route?

I cared for my sister for nearly a year when she had terminal cancer and we had the support of a wonderful Macmillan nurse who was always there for us. Rachel was only 39 when she died, in my arms, but she was at home with people who loved her.
Sarah

Dear NatterJacktoad,

Thanks very much for your interest and willingness to help. The guys at Hampshire Macmillan are still finalising the route, but I'm expecting to hear on Monday. It is essentially following the Wayfarers Way; so it is a long route, roughly 70 miles. Anyone participating can do as much or as little as they wish, over as long as they wish and whenever they want between April and October (the duration of the event). Another forum user has been very helpful and given me a contact at groundspeak who hopefully will clarify what we can exactly say and do. I did contact geocaching.com's general enquiry email address in January and they were very supportive of what we wish to do, but I have just emailed this Groundspeak contact to clarify. with regards to the geocoins, I think they have been made in quite limited supplies, enough to fill the caches, but probably not to purchase; not to begin with at least. I will however suggest the possibility of purchase to the area funraising manager. Finally thank you for pointing out my mistake in the title, if there is anyway I can edit that I will and my apologies to everyone over that.

Hopefully speak to you later with further details of how you can get involved!

Kind Regards

Ralph

[Boltonian]

Dear Boltonian,
<SNIP>
Kind Regards

Ralph

Thanks Ralph, will certainly try and get to one of the events that happens even if I have to drive from Bolton stopping at every public convenience on the way.

Always joined in with the coffee mornings when I worked and lost a few friends along the way.

Thanks again.
Derek.

[ralphdickinson]

I'm personally very pleased to read about this support and linkage between caching and Macmillan. We've also lost family to cancer and Nicky is a regular Macmillan coffee morning organiser.

I hope this is a great success.

Hi Dave,

I'm sorry cancer has affected your family too. Thanks for your response to this thread and thanks to Everyone at GAGB for their help so far. We really hope this inclusion of geocaching will add a fun new dimension to the already popular charity walk, while at the same time, spreading the geocahing word! A special website for this Macmillan walk is almost finished and we are planning to really promote the geocaching aspect. We've included a clear how to guide for newcomers to the sport!

It'd be great if you could keep an eye on this post and offer any advice you may have along the way.

Kind Regards

Ralph

[ralphdickinson]

Hi Sarah, I am sorry to hear about your sister. But I'm glad you had the support of a good Macmillan nurse. Yes, you are correct, we'd like to plant caches fairly evenly, and we were thinking of planting about 10. It's actually Macmillan's Centenary so we thought 10 caches would be good, a cache for every 10 years. The walk is also roughly 100km so one every 10km seemed like a good idea. I'll be in touch soon with more details.

Thanks again

Ralph

[ralphdickinson]

Greetings all!

Following the advice of another user, I spoke to Bryan Roth from Groundspeak yesterday and Macmillan have been given the official Green light to carry on with our Geocahing plans! This is great news! So I refer you all to the original posting on this thread and repeat my call for help. If you live on or near to the Wayfarers Way in Hampsire and would like to plant a cache on behalf of Macmillan then please get in touch! We intend to plant 10 caches along the route which stretchs from Inkpen, near Newbury, to Emsworth, near Portsmouth. Our website goes live on Monday, That will have all the information you could possibly need. All we've got to do is plant those caches. If you do volunteer to help us your efforts won't go unrewarded; I've managed to get hold of some Macmillan t shirts for anyone who wishes to plant a cache for us! So, as I said, get in touch and lets get hiding!

All the best

Ralph

[Bill D (wwh)]

Dear NatterJacktoad,

...

Finally thank you for pointing out my mistake in the title, if there is anyway I can edit that I will and my apologies to everyone over that.

...

Kind Regards

Ralph

Title changed as requested. Sorry for the delay - I've only just noticed this.

[natterjacktoad]

Congratulations Ralph, that's FABULOUS news! I admit to being surprised, but very pleased
I will officially 'bag' somewhere towards the end of the route, as that is nearest me. Are you going to co-ordinate the spacing of the caches?
Please let me know when you want the cache placed - I can probably scout out a suitable site this week.
Sarah

Greetings all!

Following the advice of another user, I spoke to Bryan Roth from Groundspeak yesterday and Macmillan have been given the official Green light to carry on with our Geocahing plans! This is great news! So I refer you all to the original posting on this thread and repeat my call for help. If you live on or near to the Wayfarers Way in Hampsire and would like to plant a cache on behalf of Macmillan then please get in touch! We intend to plant 10 caches along the route which stretchs from Inkpen, near Newbury, to Emsworth, near Portsmouth. Our website goes live on Monday, That will have all the information you could possibly need. All we've got to do is plant those caches. If you do volunteer to help us your efforts won't go unrewarded; I've managed to get hold of some Macmillan t shirts for anyone who wishes to plant a cache for us! So, as I said, get in touch and lets get hiding!

All the best

Ralph

[ralphdickinson]

Hi Sarah!

Thanks for your support! I'm having a meeting with the Macmillan guys tomorrow to discuss geocaching details. but yes certainly, I'd be hugely grateful if you could place one of our caches towards the end of the route. Perhaps you would like to DM me your email address and I'll be in touch with further details.

Many thanks again!

Ralph

[ralphdickinson]

Hi Guys!

Just thought I'd let you know that our website is now live! http://www.wayfarerswalk.org.uk/ you will see that we already have a geocaching section! Go and have a look and play around with the mapping tools. The site has had loads of work put into it and it looks great!

Many thanks

Ralph

[Graculus]

I've been in touch with Groundspeak about this series and asked to help. I'm not in a position to place any caches but as the reviewer for the Southern region can certainly help anyone who wants to place one with checking a location. Groundspeak have also suggested I contact my 'local' cachers to see if they will help. So to reiterate the original post, if anyone can help out then please do!

Chris
Graculus
Volunteer UK Reviewer for geocaching.com
UK Geocaching Information & Resources website www.follow-the-arrow.co.uk
Geocaching.com Knowledge Books