brainstrust

Fifteen of Brahm's best took to their bikes out for a long ride this weekend. Brahm is a leading marketing agency based in Leeds. Their friendly trip statitician has thrown up some interesting facts about their achievements, which all came in 6s:

• They covered 60 miles (about 90% of which were off road)
• Ian Rossin burnt 6000 calories
• They climbed just shy of 6000 feet
• The group consumed 60 000 pints of brown booze on the Saturday night
• Paul McGuigan got lost for 60 mins
• Mike Cooper swan dived into a 16 inch deep puddle (alright, that's a tenuous '6')

But thanks to all their wonderfully supportive colleagues, friends and family and with the help of the Dolphin Inn they went the distance and raised a brilliant £1,245 of sponsorship for brainstrust. A big thank you to Will Jones for encouraging Brahm to support us this year.

You can still sponsor the Big Brahm Bike Ride '08 on their Justgiving page:

Our intrepid founders Helen and Peter decided they wanted to be closer to the sea and sailed with their home and dogs in tow to West Cowes last week.

For all of you that rely on brainstrust for advice and support please update your address books. Although don't worry all your post and phone calls will be forwarded to the new brainstrust HQ on the Isle of Wight to smooth the transition.

Please update your address books

brainstrust HQ
4 Yvery Court
Castle Road
Cowes
PO31 7QG

01983 292 405

NB: their email addresses have not changed and are still This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

We wish Helen and Peter the very best for their new home on the island. It's good to know the Red Jet ferry to Southampton only takes 20 minutes so they're not far away!

Our director and co-founder Helen Bulbeck has been nominated for the Wessex Chief Executive of the Year! She is still bemused and startled by this, but is delighted for the nomination as it reflects the success of brainstrust. Helen says:

I'm hoping that others from brainstrust may also be nominated for their role in developing our young charity. So many people have given generously of their time and skills, working tirelessly on our behalf.
The ethos of brainstrust is one of collaboration – so everyone deserves to be nominated!

Fingers crossed for Helen, we hope she wins the praise she deserves for all her hard work and determination setting up our wonderful young charity. You can follow the awards on the Wessex Charity Awards website.

The Balaka Curry Night raises over £400 for brainstrust!

Well, we did spice up our September and an Indian Summer has followed! Our first curry night at  The Balaka in Winchester was a huge success, raising over £400 for brainstrust. Good company, excellent food (more than we could eat) and the brainstrust ambience means that this will be the first of many. So don't worry if you missed this event - our next is planned for January, when I reckon we will be in need of some serious heat!

Thank you, all at the Balaka. And a special thank you to Catherine for the loan of the coffee mugs (without saucers)!

Come along and join the fun. Spicy will it be!

A very special event, not least because the run was in memory of Mike Hebbard, who tragically did not survive his brain tumour and passed away. Since then his wife, Nita, and daughter, Paula, have been championing the brain tumour cause for brainstrust and have raised over £1000 (so far). Thank you!

So on a misty, damp 31st August, a group of runners from the Havant Athletic Club and Portsmouth Triathletes gathered together in the Forest of Bere to run in Mike’s memory. They all knew Mike and it was good to hear them sharing memories of running with him.

Nita and Paula were the stars. Nita because she began the race, and Paula because she ran the race!