Gef’s Daily Roundup

Parish Walk

It’s closer than you think until this year’s Parish Walk and MT is reminding its customers that the offer of reduced entry fee closes on Tuesday January 31.

The £5 discount is on top of the already reduced earlybird entry fee and enables Manx Telecom mobile customers to register for just £35. From February 1, all entrants will pay a £40 registration fee which increases to £50 from April 1 The closing date for all entries is midnight on May 7.

One of the Isle of Man’s annual sporting highlights and a much-loved community event, the 2023 Manx Telecom Parish Walk will take place on Saturday June 24 with competitors challenged to complete the 85-mile course in 24 hours.

Manx Telecom CEO Gary Lamb said: ‘With the New Year now behind us, many people’s thoughts are turning to getting fitter or meeting personal challenges and goals for 2023. The Manx Telecom Parish Walk will be in many people’s sights, both for those who regularly compete and for those who want to try it for the first or second time. We are proud to sponsor this uniquely Manx event which seems to get bigger and better every year. We encourage all Manx Telecom mobile customers who are considering participating to take advantage of the extra discount available up to the end of this month.’

All entries must be made online at http://www.parishwalk.com

Hospice at Home

The Diana Princess of Wales Hospice Care at Home Trust (‘Hospice at Home’) is celebrating 25 years of fundraising in 2023 with an ambition to achieve its highest ever annual fundraising total this year. Its most successful year for fundraising to date was 2021 when it raised £128,450.

Founded in 1998 by Don and Ali Westacott, the Diana Princess of Wales Hospice Care at Home Trust is a registered Isle of Man charity.  Since then, Hospice at Home has raised over £1.4 million to help fund specialist nurses to provide respite care and end-of-life palliative care for Isle of Man residents with cancer or other life-limiting illnesses who wish to remain at home in their last days.

Chair of Hospice at Home, Jennifer Houghton, said: ‘Hospice at Home is also attempting to have generated donations totalling £2million by the end of the decade and requires £600,000 to achieve this goal. £508,000 has been raised in the last five years so if we continue with this track record, we should be able to reach our goal. Our 25 anniversary is the perfect opportunity to highlight that supporting Hospice at Home is more important than ever. The demand for the Hospice at Home service remains high and is providedfree of charge to patients resident in the Isle of Man by wonderful specialist nurses from Hospice Isle of Man.’

Fundraising efforts are coordinated and delivered by an enthusiastic and hard-working Board of Trustees and Committee Members, all of whom give their time on a voluntary basis. There is a busy schedule of events planned for 2023 including the continuation of the popular Raad ny Foillan Challenges which have given hundreds of people a wonderful opportunity to walk around our beautiful Island in stages along the renowned 100 mile Raad ny Foillan footpath.

Doomsday Clock

Sky News has reported that the Doomsday Clock has been set at 90 seconds to midnight – representing a time of ‘unprecedented danger’ – largely because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It puts it 10 seconds closer to midnight, the closest to global catastrophe it has ever been – it had been at 100 seconds to midnight since 2020.

The countdown is a metaphor for global collapse agreed on by world-renowned experts at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.