This post is an experiment of sorts, a test of the community I feel like I'm a part of. There are all sorts of groups and get togethers and meet ups for bloggers, and all of them have one thing in common - the collectiveness, the sense of belonging and the friendliness. We wanted to draw on that to create a mass virtual event, one that anyone, anywhere can take part in and belong to - in the aid of two very good causes.
Very recently a close blogger friend of mine lost a dear friend to cancer. A young wife and mother to two small children. Another life stolen by a cruel and unsparing disease. You can read the beautiful essay on grief that Emma wrote on her blog.
We are both part of a small blogging "tribe", and of course all of of us were there to support Emma, even if only virtually. So much of blogging life is virtual - we chat online, we read, we comment, we support, we love. As we were talking we starting to think about our influence. There are so many of us - not just in our little gang - but all bloggers together. How much influence could we wield?
We started to talk about doing some Macmillan coffee mornings, but we are scattered far and wide, and only a few of us could meet up, if any. So we thought, why not have a virtual coffee morning? And why not invite other people to share our virtual coffee morning, with a social media thunderclap and a call to action? Why not see just how far we could go, together, against something that affects and hurts everybody? Who hasn't lost someone to cancer, or seen someone struggle to overcome it? My son will never know his Nan, just as I never met my mother in law. My own mother lost her best friend to cancer. Help us.
We bloggers, as a collective, we could really shout. How many people could we each get to donate say £5 to charity? To Bart's Charity and to MacMillan, for both cure and care? So we have set a date for bloggers, and the people who read our ramblings, to have a virtual coffee morning. To spend 10, 15, 30 minutes, whatever we can spare, to sit and have a drink, and to talk to our friends, either in person or online. To ask people to donate to these amazing causes, that could change lives, that could save lives.
Will you join us? Write a post, use the #bloggersbeatingcancer picture below if you want to, just let people know what we are hoping to do, when and why. Every penny we raise goes towards two brilliant charities. Cure and care.
#BloggersBeatingCancer - join us on Friday 30th September at 10.30am, for coffee and a social media thunderclap. Use the hashtag, get your friends involved, get fundraising if you can.
Please donate to or share our fundraising page, which is open from today - https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/bloggersbeatingcancer
You can see the original article on Mumzilla