The German Invasion - Berlin Marathon 2008

I knew that the years running around the housing estate slums of West London from the Rozzers would one day come in handy. The next challenge ahead in my ever complicated life, is shifting my 14 stone frame around the streets of Berlin in the forthcoming Marathon on the 28th September.

It's all John Honney's fault by the way. As you may have read about our chief organiser in my latest blog post "If it wasn't for John Honney...", he has assembled a team of a dozen QPR supporters to participate iin the Berlin Marathon for The Cambodia Trust - a charatable organisation he is currently working with in Pehnom Pehn.

Having being enlisted as a member of the said assembled QPR crew some 15 months ago, the fact that only five weeks to go has left me feeling panic with plenty of bowel movements.

I've set myself the modest target of raising £500.00 for The Cambodia Trust. To help me achieve this total I once again turn the the good people I call friends who have already this year dug deep that has seen my efforts in the Rickshaw Run and Mongol Rally raise over £6,000.
If you would like to chuck a small amount of coins into the hat, you can do so at my JustGiving webpage - The German Invasion

To help raise my set target I've also got a fully signed QPR shirt from the 2007/08 season, complete with signatures of the entire squad including Gigi De Canio, our manager at the time. This shirt is being auction on a supporters website, please get in touch if you would like more details.

Thanks again for your support!

Mark
Cambodia Trust Website
JustGiving - Mark Coughlan, The German Invasion

Yak to the Future in the Surrey Advertiser!

Our lunacy is now common knowledge to all the (old) folk of Godalming and Surrey. Splashed accross page two of the local rag we are pictured in what will no doubt be a regular, worried looking pose throughout central asia, or on the hard shoulder of the A2 on the way to Dover. For those with bad eyesight, here is what the paper had to say on our forthcoming trip as we don't do our bit for the evironment!

To Mongolia in 'umbrella on wheels'
On 19 July, three young men from Godalming and Haslemere will depart from Hyde Park, to race 10,000 miles from London to Mongolia in a twenty-year-old Citroen 2CV, to raise money for charity.

Mark Coughlan, Joe Turner and Tim Hopkin, will compete against 200 other teams taking part from all over the UK. They will head east passing through countries such as; Iran, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan on their way to Mongolia.

The two charities they aim to raise funds for are the Pashupati Briddhsshram Home for the Elderly, in Kathmandu, Nepal, a government run home for 236 residents in urgent need of resources. The second, the Mercy Corps Mongolia, is an organisation that supports rural communities and herding families through economic, educational and agricultural programmes.

The team is looking for sponsorship in the form of donations from individuals, items from their wish list that they will need for the journey or corporate sponsors. They hope to raise a total of £5,000 for their chosen charities.

Mark, said: “We are all very excited about the trip and passionate about our chosen charities. The money that we raise will make a huge difference to so many lives. We have already received some corporate sponsorship from The Great Big Event Company, Witley, Polaris Consulting Limited, Guildford and ShareNow.com but we need more to hit our target.

If you are interested in sponsoring Mark and his team and would like to find out more, please visit the website at www.yaktothefuture.com.