Update - Update - Update - Update 

A HUGE thank-you to everyone in the Institute who helped out with raffle prizes and donations of cakes, and an even bigger thank you to everyone who supported our efforts, adding a whopping £437 to our fundraising.

A magnificent day's work!

Cake Sale Day!!!

Early indications suggest a fantastic response to the cake sale and raffle; end of day totals will be announced soon......

With only three days to go until the big day the Drug Discovery team are in a baking frenzy ahead of our Cake Sale at the Paterson Institute.

Just to update on the fantastic raffle prizes which have been donated by local businesses to support our fundraising for CRUK:

• A huge Hamper of goodies and £20 voucher to spend in Didsbury Farm shop, Didsbury: http://www.theartisanmeatcompany.co.uk/our-farmshop.htm  
• A Meal for Two courtesy of Fuel Vegetarian Café Bar, Withington: http://fuelcafebar.co.uk/
• Afternoon Tea for two supplied by Silver Apples Catering, West Didsbury: http://www.thesilverapples.com/
• A box of Retro Sweets from our friends at Chocolate Ape retro Sweet Shop in Affleck's Palace: http://eshop.chocolateape.co.uk/
• A bottle of Red Wine donated by Reserve Wines, West Didsbury: http://www.reservewines.co.uk/
• A bottle of White Wine donated by Folk Deli/ Café/ Bar, West Didsbury: http://www.folkcafebar.co.uk/
• Home-made Organic Preserves from Trove Foods, Levenshulme: http://www.trovefoods.co.uk/
• 'Walking with the Wounded' book and LED keyring donated by CampFour, Macclesfield: http://www.campfour.co.uk/
• A bottle of Lanson Champagne donated by VWR: http://www.vwr.com/
• Bottles of wine donated by the SCI

Thanks again to everyone for your prize donations and sponsorship, you have all be very generous!

Into the final week, and the last "usual" group Tuesday training run is complete.  Lovely weather, too, with hail, sleet and a brisk breeze.  Sunday must be better, surely??

Meanwile, we're all delighted to have passed the £1,000 mark through on-line donations; thanks to everyone who has sponsoerd us, including Sandra from Bruker UK, our latest corporate sponsor!

With just over a week to go until the big day sponsorship keeps rolling in and the training continues! Thank you to everyone so far for your support.  We're in the green wave for the run, with the starters' gun setting us off at 12:10 pm, I'm sure you'll be able to spot us in the lab coats!

As well as the Cake Sale at the Paterson Institute on Friday 18 May we're also holding a raffle, with prizes donated from generous local businesses, they include:

• Hamper of goodies and voucher to spend in Didsbury Farm shop, Didsbury: http://www.theartisanmeatcompany.co.uk/our-farmshop.htm
• A Meal for Two courtesy of Fuel Vegetarian Café Bar, Withington: http://fuelcafebar.co.uk/
• Afternoon Tea for two supplied by Silver Apples Catering, West Didsbury: http://www.thesilverapples.com/
• A box of Retro Sweets from our friends at Chocolate Ape retro Sweet Shop in Affleck's Palace: http://eshop.chocolateape.co.uk/
• A bottle of Red Wine donated by Reserve Wines, West Didsbury: http://www.reservewines.co.uk/
• A bottle of White Wine donated by Folk Deli/ Café/ Bar, West Didsbury: http://www.folkcafebar.co.uk/

So if you're around on Friday 18 May come along and get yourself a ticket for the chance to win these excellent prizes and support CRUK in the process!

Stunning fundraising progress continues as the Drug Discovery Unit approaches our big run.  Huge thanks to our new sponsoring suppliers Radleys, SLS, Accelrys and Smith Scientific for helping us on our way.

The big question in our minds now is "Can we surpass half of our fundraising target by the Bank Holiday"......??

We seem to be having an intermittent problem with the JustGiving widgit on the left-hand side of the blog, which isn't linking to our donations page.  We're awaiting a fix from JustGiving......in the meantime, you can still donate directly via our page here ! :o)

Cake Sale at the Paterson Institute - Friday 18th May, 10:30 am

Please come along to support our fundraising and get some tasty treats, all made by the fair hands of the chemists and bioscientists of the Drug Discovery group.....it's going to be good!

As promised, here we all are in the "official" team photo.....  From L to R: Allan, Ali, Mark, Alison, Kiran, Bohdan, Kate, Ian, Helen, Donald and Alex.  Yes, those really are the labcoats we'll be running in.

Also, a warm welcome to our newest team members, Donald and Bohdan, who have convened the "You must be mad if you think I'm running, we'll stroll along at the back" sub-team.  We have a sneaking suspicion that their numbers may grow over the next few weeks, at the expense of the "we really are mad and are going  to run the whole way in labcoats" group......

Big thank you to Devin and Labcyte for their donation and support! 

Photos will be coming soon of the team in our running attire, keep your eyes peeled!

Big thanks to Vaccubrand for their kind sponsorship; well done for putting our other supliers to shame for the time being!!

Delight in the DDU, as the BBC announce that, even for a marathon, training is not necessarily required.  See here...So we all must be able to do 10k, surely?  In celebration, we collectively gathered for our first whole-team nutrition session today.  Doughnuts consumed, we feel assured our carbo-levels will now be much closer to where they need to be.  Though more doughnuts may yet need to be consumed.

With just over two months to go, training in the DDU is progressing apace, all in our own special ways. Alison's football and Alex's netball keeps them both fit for the big day, Kate and Mark are running regularly and Ali is either running, in the gym or eating Milky Bar.  More strenuously, Allan has completed media training to ward off the hoardes of reporters, Ian has been investigating and practising post-run celebration techniques in Dublin and Bohdan (our support crew co-ordinator) has been practising his motivational encouragement, ready for the big day, with hearty and encouraging comments such as "You really are all quite mad."  He might be right........   Show us we're not, by sponsoring us, perhaps??

Big thanks to Mark at  Sigma Aldrich; our first coporate sponsor to donate via the JustGiving page.
Thanks, Mark, from all the team!

Just a note to express our grateful thanks to ThermoFisher, for kindly providing us with the lovely lab coats we'll be using for the run.  Photos will be forthcoming, once they're all logo'd up.  Now, I wonder which other of our regular suppliers will match the generosity with sponsorship?

Welcome to the Paterson DDU runner's blog.  A place to contemplate the thoughts of our team, offer support or simply bask in the madness that is running 10k through the scenic delights of Salford in labcoats and safety specs.

Updates, photos and comments will appear here as we approach the event, from the team and our dedicated team of supporters.  When we find some......

Post here to inspire us with your messages of devotion, admiration or simple bewilderment.......