I quite regularly donate relatively small amounts of cash to fundraising pages on JustGiving that catch my eye as being particularly heartwarming stories, thoroughly interesting causes that I’m totally unfamiliar with, or specific causes that I feel strongly about or resonate with me on a personal level.

I try to donate what I can afford, which isn’t really a significant amount, but I firmly believe that every little helps, and perhaps more importantly - I really try to do my bit in helping to promote those fundraisers through comms on Twitter and sometimes Facebook too.

There is a real gulf between the act of tweeting / retweeting on Twitter or sharing on Facebook about a fundraiser, and putting my money where my mouth is with a much more significant and generous act of kindness that is parting with my own cash and actually giving directly to a fundraiser myself. I think we must remain hugely grateful to those who help to spread the message about a cause through social media, but let’s not get apathetic at the same time - where possible let’s remember to make a donation, however small, ourselves to help that fundraiser on directly, rather than hoping that the next person down the line is going to go that step further. Sometimes I believe it actually comes down to laziness,clicking the Retweet button is really much easier than typing in all my card details to make a small payment. Of course, JustGiving makes life much easier once you’ve created an account as a sponsor because it can save your card details for future use, meaning the payment process is greatly reduced. Woop!

In an effort to bring more attention to some of the fundraisers that I’ve been supporting recently, I’m going to start regularly writing blog posts to shed some more light on these really admirable people and the touching causes that they are working to help. Ideally this is going to be a weekly affair, but please don’t watch that too strictly as sometimes I can get rather busy with work commitments. Still, I’ll do my best

And here’s one fundraiser I’ve been supporting this week…

Jo Galloway, fundraising for the White Ribbon Alliance.

Please visit Jo’s fundraising page on JustGiving where she is currently at 49% of her target amount - she’s raised £1,270.00 of £2,600.00. Wow! Seriously, wow! That’s a really great amount and way way above the average for one person on JG, at least from what I’ve seen anyway. Maximum respect out to you if you ever read this Jo. I really believe your effort is so admirable, and I’m certain that you’re going to blow that fundraising target right out of the water pretty soon.

Jo Galloway is taking part in a trek in the Himalayas in India with a group of like minded people to fundraise for The White Ribbon Alliance. This sounds like a really tough and arduous personal challenge - far, far beyond my personal ability (especially considering my terribly poor level of fitness!), so not only is Jo making a really big effort for a really valuable cause that she clearly believes strongly in, but she’s fundraising for it in a very challenging and extraordinary way indeed. If that doesn’t deserve our admiration, then I’m really not sure what does.

On Jo’s fundraising page she tells us that “nearly every minute, a woman dies of pregnancy related complications.” - That is a very, very troubling statistic and it resonates with me as a vast number of hugely unnecessary deaths. The White Ribbon Alliance is an international coalition of over 3,500 organisations and individuals working in more than 145 countries to save the lives of mothers. They empower women and communities to provide that missing voice for half of the pregnant women in the world who still face dying during childbirth. Such a sad fact, but one we are very much capable of helping to drastically reduce through better education and healthcare provision.

Family means so much to all of us, and I’m sure this cause will particularly touch you as it has done for me. If you feel that you might be able to spare even just a few pounds to support The White Ribbon alliance’s really incredible work to prevent death of mothers during childbirth in the future, then I strongly urge you to please, please, please consider donating to Jo’s fundraising effort today.

I believe that Jo really is one of those one-in-a-million people that keep the world turning round and influence things for the better in their own small ways, making all of our futures that little bit brighter. Thankfully there are lots of other one-in-million kind of people just like Jo Galloway on JustGiving, who are each doing equally challenging, extraordinary or sometimes even wacky things to raise fantastic sums of money for such incredible causes all over the world.

Please donate whatever you can spare and help Jo smash her fundraising target today!

You can also follow Jo Galloway (@PottiJo) on Twitter to keep up to date with her latest fundraising efforts and talk to her directly.

All the best to you Jo, and really the best of luck for your fundraising effort and for the trek itself. Keep it up, we all need people like you!