Sport Relief craziness comes to Mauritius!

Those of you in / from the UK will know all about the Comic Relief and Sport Relief charity. For those of you who don’t have a clue what I am talking about, they are a UK charity that has been raising money since 1985 to tackle the root causes of poverty and social injustice in the UK and across the world (50% of the money goes to help those in the UK and 50% around the world – principally Africa).

Every year they organise events and fundraisers around March time, one year it is Comic Relief with entertainment and comedy, then the next year it is Sport Relief with challenges and sporting activities. 2016 is Sport Relief year.

I first got involved in 2014 with Sport Relief when I joined a group of UK bloggers, called Team Honk, whose aim was to unite UK bloggers  as one big team to raise even more money than they could do singly.

They dreamed up a Land’s End to John O’Groats relay of bloggers and I co-organised the London leg with Vanessa from HPMcQ and Sarah from Grenglish. Our leg happened to land on my birthday and it saw me walking 15 miles round London on a cold, wet, windy February day, dressed in a red Sport Relief onesie and wearing a bowler hat and moustache (Mr Monopoly style) as we made our way around all the colours on the London Monopoly board. We called our leg “Honkopoly” as it was Team Honk + Monopoly.

Raising money for Sport Relief l www.FranglaiseMummy.com l French and English Parenting and Lifestyle Ramblings

My birthday in London, raising money for Sport Relief

Honkopoly was exhausting but so rewarding as we raised over £3,000 for just our leg of the Team Honk relay.

Last year was Comic Relief’s turn to take back the reins and they, along with Tanya, Annie and Penny of Team Honk, organised a 6 hour dance-athon at Wembley, that was filmed and shown live on national TV! So that was complete, utter humiliation as well as exhaustion because I’m a terrible dancer!

Comic Relief 6 hour danceathon at Wembley: www.FranglaiseMummy.com l French and English Parenting & Lifestyle Ramblings

Dancing for Comic Relief at Wembley
Left to Right: Me, Vanessa from HPMcQ and Sarah from Grenglish

A few weeks ago I got very sad as I started to see fellow bloggers talking about plans for Sport Relief with Team Honk this year, as now I’m in Mauritius I thought there would be no way I could join in and fundraise.

BUT I was wrong!

The very fab Tanya, Annie and Penny who are behind Team Honk decided to make this year a global relay 🙂

So I started thinking about what we could do here for Sport Relief that was Mauritius-style? And would anyone even join me?!

Despite only being in Mauritius for 4 months I already have some lovely friends who seem to be getting used to me coming out with slightly wacky suggestions, and no one batted an eyelid when I suggested a Mauritian Sport Relief team.

Hubs and I brainstormed over what we could do here that was sporty and team-like.

First of all I thought of climbing Le Pouce mountain, but considering the heat, humidity and heavy rains at this time of year I thought it was best avoided.

Then I thought about some kind of water sports event but decided that the logistics were just too complicated and it would less fun to watch (here and online).

Which brought us to our final idea and the one that stuck.

Drum roll please…..

I give you the Mauritius Relay Beach Volleyball-athon for Sport Relief charity!!

On Saturday 5th March around 20 of us will be gathering on the beach in Tamarin, which is in the west of the island, to play beach volleyball for 3 hours.

Whilst that may sound like a fairly easy deal let me just explain something first.

It is over 35°C here with over 90% humidity. I love the heat and can’t stand the cold but I am pouring in sweat from the 5 minute school run. Now start to imagine playing volleyball in that weather. Add into the mix the risk of heavy rains and 3 hours playing volleyball is sounding a bit tougher, isn’t it?

We will have two teams of mixed ability players (including kids) playing constantly for 3 hours. There will be 3 people on each side at any one time but we will be swapping players in and out, relay-style, to avoid anyone collapsing of heat-stroke!

Tamarin beach, Mauritius: www.FranglaiseMummy.com l French and English French and English Parenting and Lifestyle Ramblings

The beach in Tamarin where we will be volleyballing

This is where I would like you to get involved.

If you are in Mauritius and would like to join us please contact me ASAP.

If you are a business in Mauritius / know of a business in Mauritius who would like to sponsor us please contact me ASAP. (There will be a lot of social media coverage of our event in the UK.)

For the rest of you – please SPONSOR us to make a lasting difference around the world!

Did you know that by sponsoring us just £1 you could provide a hot meal for a child in the UK living in extreme poverty?

Whilst £15 provides life-saving medication for 75 children with malaria in Uganda. Just £15 could mean saving 75 children’s lives!

Please dig deep but equally just £1 will make a huge difference. If you are too embarrassed to sponsor £1 you can donate anonymously, but know that your £1 will make a difference.

Sponsor us here: http://my.sportrelief.com/sponsor/mauritiusbeachvolleyballathon

Thank you all for your continued support – Team Honk over the last 4 years has managed to raise £80,000 (not bad for “just a group of mummy bloggers”!), so the target for this year is £20,000 to make it a round £100,000. I have set our Mauritius target for £2,000, which is pretty damn high, but if there are 20 of us we just need to get £100 sponsorship each…. we’re counting on you!

Thank you 🙂

(The featured image at the top of this blog post is of part of our Mauritian Sport Relief team from this Saturday when we were brainstorming our event at the beach in Tamarin – there may have been some beer involved…)

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2 Responses

  1. And there was me thinking it was all beaches and barbies over there! I’m starting to envy the heat a little less now 😉 What a fab bunch of troopers you all are. Can’t wait to see and share how your 3-hour game goes! xx
    Nell@PigeonPairandMe.com recently posted…Team Honk day-long London museum dash for Sport Relief, Saturday 19 March #passtheproudMy Profile

    • Franglaise Mummy says:

      Thanks lovely – it is lots of beaches and BBQs but man is it hot and humid here! xx

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