good morning lovely blog reader,
i’ve been thinking.
to reward your loyalty for reading this blog, and supporting us as a charity i need to give you a little more, so I’ve been thinking of what to give you.
my immediate thoughts are breaking news as we have cool stuff happen, though i haven’t discussed it yet with chloe, as we have something humungous potentially happening very soon, which we weren’t going to tell anybody about until it happens, but i want to share more of our journey with you, as i think it will bring us closer.
the other thing i have just thought of is some giveaways.
when we do events, or get given access to certain things, we share them here, as a kind of thank you.
so today we’ll start with a giveaway.
so here’s the backstory.
a few months ago we did an event called ‘run4good’ where we sold 280 tickets for a capacity turn out in st. davids hotel in the bay.
the model was to get some amazing speakers to talk about running, and the health benefits, both physically, and mentally, and sprinkle in some bigmoose speakers and stories, and hopefully get some of the audience to commit to fundraise for bigmoose, and if anyone needed help, we encouraged them to reach out.
a simple yet extremely powerful event, with laughter, tears, and a rainbow of emotions throughout the evening.
the true value of the impact of the evening will never be fully known, but we have had a number of referrals that we have now helped, which is amazing, and life changing, and we have had over twenty thousand pounds pledged by people who are running various races this year, as well as hotspot cases of individual magic, such as a close friend being so impacted by our amazing speakers that he handed his notice in on his management role within a nationwide business, and quit booze the morning after the event.
(he is thriving by the way, in a new job he’s loving, booze free which is making him and his family happy, and doing lots of running, which in his words makes him look better naked, the world wins)
so inspired by the success of the evening, we decided to do another one, only this time ’swim4good’.
same idea, 280 people in a room, and some brilliantly inspirational speakers talking about their own adventures, and the benefits of swimming, and cold water therapy, as made popular by wim hof and his recent tv show freeze the fear.
we follow the 'run4good' idea of getting some bigmoose stories told by people who have been helped by our therapists, and then we are going try to encourage people to join in a huge open water dip/swim on monday 10th october, all around the world, spreading the bigmoose word, and hopefully raising some funds for project 1million.
so, the event is on the 19th september, and the tickets are only a fiver and can be purchased here https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/swim-4-good-tickets-402407781507
or.
drumroll.
you can email me for a chance to win three pairs of tickets free.
value of two tickets, ten quid, value of attending a lifechaging event, priceless.
so, to give you some info on the speakers, here are their bios.
grant zehetmayr - co founder of dawnstalkers https://dawnstalkers.com/
tried cold showers through info from friends derived from wim hof - hated them, only accountable to self, not sure if doing right, what was the point… saw someone getting in the sea, very serene, mindful, looked super badass. also talking to others who did showers or similar elsewhere - wanted to try, and as a reaction to lockdown, control - the feeling of wanting to break out / be extreme in a different way (actually just noticed that drugs did that, but probably wasn’t getting the attention / endorphins i was craving 🤔 interesting!)…
then after a few in December added to dry january & committed to 5 days in 7 - it’s addictive so ended jan only dropping 3 days. also was getting some attention & meeting others who were interested or were cold water people from other locations. the algorithm feeds you what your interested in! I was also spending a lot of time with piotr and the coffee bike chatting to people and connecting… more endorphins and contribution and in the background had been doing some immersive personal development with landmark that was having a profound affect on my self expression and how I operated.
son, brother, dad, husband, glass half full optimistic snowboarder / skateboarder learning to own his identity forgotten at some point previously in life.
i for one can’t wait to hear this cat talk, and i think it’s going to be life changing for him as well as us.
hannah phillips - a graduate of the bigmoose referral programme and inspiration to all at bigmoose.
hannah phillips is a mother, a wife, writer, stand up comedian, runner and mental health advocate.
if she’s not on maternity leave she works for run wales in the day and writes blogs, books and sketches in the night.
when she’s not sorting the social running scene of the nation out, writing, running or being mam to b, kiki and zia she spends her time battling to find the answers to mental health problems.
she’s tried her hand at cold water swimming and bought a dryrobe so she feel more than equipped to speak at swim4good.
bigmoose love hannah and her supercool family, and she shone at ‘run4good’ so we can’t wait to hear her ’swim4good’ talk.
kerrie aldridge - aka kez littlelegs marathon runner
hi I’m kez a 43 yr old plus size mummy with short ass legs. I’m mum of 6; 5 angels and one amazing rainbow. I have been on an incredible fitness journey since being the last official finisher in the london marathon in 2019; but that’s only one part of my story. I was brought up living close to the sea as a child and it was a big part of my childhood. I was brought up by my mum who sadly after a long fight with bipolar took her life when I was 17. It’s 25 years this year since I lost my mum and I have decided to change the narrative and honour her memory by swimming the serpentine this year. I am doing this for bigmoose and their project 1 million as I am passionate about doing what I can to help people in crisis due to their mental health. come join me on the 19th september as I share my story of being a child of a parent with significant mental health and my relationship with swimming and the sea.
i’m getting teary just reading kez’s bio, but having seen her overcome her fears and abseil for us recently, i know she is going to be inspirational and this is her first time ever talking publicly about her life.
cath pendleton - aka the merthyr mermaid (check her documentary out on bbc iplayer). ((http://www.merthyrmermaid.co.uk/))
I learnt to swim at about 4 years old and have always loved swimming. as a child I spent the school holidays playing in my local river. throughout my life I have always enjoyed swimming for fitness. I rediscovered my childhood love of open-water swimming via triathlon. I did my first ever open-water swim in 2013 (2 km) and progressed onto 5 km, 10 km and then longer distance swims, including lake windermere (2016 and 2017). my longest swimming challenge was in 2018, the english channel, solo.
ice swimming
I started ice swimming in september 2015 and I was immediately hooked. I swam my first official ice mile in january 2016, becoming the first welsh woman to do so. In 2019 I represented team gb at the world ice swimming championships in murmansk, russia, achieving bronze in my age category for the 1 km swim. I was proud to be a nominee for the world open water swimming association's woman of the year 2020. I was placed 3rd out of 12 outstanding open water swimmers.
cath is another amazingly inspirational woman who I don’t think knows how awesome she is, but we have the opportunity to hear her speak on the 19th and we are so excited.
jessica hepburn - https://www.jessicahepburn.com/about/
jessica hepburn is an award-winning author, arts producer and adventure activist who has become a pioneer in inspiring people to live big and bravely when life doesn’t go to plan.
in her forties in a bid to exercise her way out of heartbreak she started swimming. her second book, 21 Miles, charts her journey from head-up breast-stroker to channel swimmer. and in may 2022 she finally achieved her dream to achieve ’the pond to peak challenge' - swimming the english channel and then summiting ‘mount everest’ - becoming one of only two women and the fourteenth person in history to do it. despite being nominated as one of amnesty international's ‘women of suffragette spirit’ and ‘woman of the week’ in stylist magazine she says she’s still on a life-long journey to maximise her mental health. water has become a huge part of that - she calls it: ‘home’. www.jessicahepburn.com
wow! this lineup up of humans is so flipping amazing, and i am childishly excited to hear jess speak, and so proud to have such a powerhouse on the bigmoose team, she is already pushing me to dream bigger.
so, that’s the lineup, pretty awesome huh?
and, if you want to win one of three pairs of tickets, just email me, or click here to book now https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/swim-4-good-tickets-402407781507
todays blog is very copy and paste, but hopefully introducing you to a selection of our super interesting friends will encourage you to go for a dip or swim, and maybe do something amazing for your own mental health.
thanks for reading, and if todays blog inspires you in any way please let me know, feedback good and bad always welcome.
i’ll be seeing ya,
blue skies,
jeff