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I have a yearning to do something wild and whacky before I am consigned to the dustbin of old age. Perhaps I shall circumnavigate the globe on a uni-cycle or something similar. those of you who know me on Facebook may be aware that I'm already thinking about heading off to work a summer season at a holiday camp! But I feel more inclined to do something good and worthy that will raise money for a charity.

The trouble is this: while I am away on my uni-cycle (or whatever), there will still be bills to be paid and mouths to be fed back home.

Now, there are several people who seem to go off and have charity inspired adventures. Walking from land's End to Jokn O'Groats, walking the length of the Amazon, etc. Indeed there are some people who seem to do nothing else in life but raise funds for charity by going off on one wild adventure after another.

My question is this. How do these people afford it? Are they a) Rich and therefore can afford to spend their lives walking to the South Pole b) Allowed to channel part of the monies raised to pay for their living costs or c) Sponsored by charitable benefactors who pay for their living expenses?

Anyone any idea? Every time I see some person on the local news being waved off on a 12 month adventure in aid of charity I ask myself the same question. How can they possibly afford it?

they save up?

IAIN wrote:they save up?

Damn. That sounds far too sensible.

I know someone who walked form John O'Groats to Land's End for charity during his mid-life crisis. He then bagged a friend of mine who was deeply impressed. Chap's a legend.

It is done through sponsorship.

Random thoughts:

Certainly advertising and sponsorship has to be involved. As you rightly say, the bills will continue to arrive and need paying at home. Assuming you do a walk from top to bottom of the UK and raise, say, £30,000.00 in the process, you'd also need to be sure of near enough that amount on top to pay council tax, food for the family, utility bills and so on. At that point some smart@rse will moan that you could have given all £60,000.00 to charity and few will listen to the reasoning that you had to cover ongoing expenses at home as well as those en route.

I suppose a working/earning partner might be able to cover home expenses so more could be donated but it all starts to get a bit complicated at that point.

That sounds like a great idea, Paul. A couple of friends did a charity VW Camper rally around Africa for a month and took it off work as paid leave. Not all that much use if you're self imployed though I guess.

Sponsorship seems like the obvious way to go and it should be ok if you make it clear that you'll be using a portion of what you collect to cover your expenses.

I think that I'm sharing the same midlife crisis with you Paul.

I'd love to do the Grand Tour through Europe and do some shows and lectures along the way.

how does one know when it is the middle of one's life? I tried deathclock but I don't think it is very accurate. What if I missed my midlife a month ago and missed purchasing a shiny red sports car?

Go out right now and buy one just in case it's actually this week......

Many/most people have a pet or favoured charity, what's yours Paul?
I'd have thought that getting in touch and telling hem you'd like to do something epic ( how cool do I sound there? ) for them would have them giving you as much advice/support as you could hope for.
How about asking other charities or indeed other 'adventurers' about how they did things?

Thanks for the advice everyone. It does seem entirely possible. I'm not at all sure which charity, or indeed charities to approach. I have asthma, but don't feel particularly drawn to an asthmatic charity. I would do it for some animal related thing, but worry people would not see that as being worthy enough.

Hmmm. Plenty to think on.

And what to actually do!? I'd love to do something magic or esoteric based. Hmmm. Bit late now. Perhaps it will come to me in a dream. A bit like Pharaoh.

I went through it all a few years ago. I looked at the expanding hair-line and the greying hair, and went mad. I wrote a few books, broke a world record, and walked to the Everest Base Camp. I also returned to the ring and had a few fights. That seemed to settle it for a bit.

It is a great journey to begin, and it has improved the quality of my life. I am now doing more interesting things, and have met new people.

My suggestion is to use your skills to raise the funds for a charity event, such as a trek up Kilimanjaro. Try to put on a few big shows, which people will support because of the charity element. Get the charity involved in the promotion. Stage psychic reading nights, with a couple of buddies throwing in their services for free, as their contribution to the charity. You will quickly build up a fund. Best of luck. A mid-life crisis is a great thing to go through.

It's a lovely idea and I really think that the thought of using shows to raise the money is a great one.

Don't worry about what other people think of the charity, it has to be something that you care about. A passion for the cause you're raising money for will help push you on.

A few years ago I ran a marathon for an Algerian orphanage and it was the thought of letting down the orphanage and the children that really pushed me on through some quite tough moments. I think you need to believe in what you're doing otherwise things will be much harder.