2014 Challenge

Check in Day 211. All the best!

Afternoon all,

checking in today for a successful gamble free week. No thoughts or urges to place a bet which can only be good for me and my family.

Stay strong fellow members.

Mike

Day 246 tomorrow gamble free

Hi to all and well done to all challengers reaching milestones.industrious day today keeping occupied.

Working voluntary every Saturday morning in a charity shop. Eight weeks into new job hard work and not really enjoying it . The area I worked in before have kept my post for me so far so not sure to stay till after Xmas as I will be off for Xmas and new year first time in 16 years I only got it both off then as my son is Xmas baby lol hitthefanx

Checking in with a very bad head, another messy day at the football! Kept away from the bookies despite some of the football boys heading in. Its not been an easy week, but just got to take it a day at a time!

Checking in on day 199. No thought about self destruction at the moment.

Last minute check in from me! Not even been close to a gamble.

Checking in... Day 115

Suzy

Hi guys, checking in still gamble free. Sorry I missed check in last week, family life has been hectic recently and I've started a new job as well.

Argggggh! Late check in, still GF 🙂

Just so bloody busy with life! 🙂 🙂 🙂

Hi guys, apologies for the late check in been very busy indeed! Nevertheless, checking in on day 21 still gambling free.

Another tough week, urges are becoming more frequent and a lot stronger. Gambling is all around us and very hard to escape from something that is so widely publicised and played such a large part in my life.

However, feeling strong and even more motivated to keep pressing on as I'm really seeing the rewards. Hope you all had a great week. Stay strong all 🙂

Thanks,

Andy

17 days gamble free for me . Urges are not very strong. Need to be aware that this is where I get vulnerable.

Hi Fellow Soldiers

Checking in, still gamble free. Still broke but looking forward to when loans start clearing. A light at the end of the tunnel.

Kitted out again in my camos ready to face the enemy again this week, along side you all.

Elfie x

Checking in, sorry I have not been about the last couple of weeks but my computer had stopped working. Anyway it is now fixed and I am back online.

Hope everyone is staying strong.

LG x

Afternoon everyone!

So 10k done and I’m feeling it now - along with a couple of very long nightshifts! The training hadn’t exactly gone the best with everything that’s been going on and with a horsey cough, sinus infection and an ankle injury, the time wasn’t the best either! Still, just over an hour to make around 1000 GBP in charity money for the Scottish Association for Mental Health (SAMH) made it all worth it. Today of all days made it really special to have gone ahead and finished the race - it would have been my wee brother’s 38th birthday. Knowing that a lot of money being raised for such a worthwhile charity like SAMH is such a great feeling - I just hope that it prevents another family going through what we did in 2009.

Sorry for being late with the update this week - my personal scorecard reads, “must do better” at present! It’s like a personal appraisal of my last year in High School! Since I updated the numbers (managed to get this done late on Sunday, but not write the update), we’ve had ccw, Scambling, and luckygirl all check in for this week - you guys will be added back into the group on Sunday this week and sorry for missing you from the Roll of Honour and monthly tallies this week. Great to see you all with us!!

In the update this week I’ll run through the headlines, welcome an esteemed new member, touch on some missing team members from the past and present, provide the Roll of Honour, offer congrats in the celebrations sections, but to break with tradition I’m going to start with the Q3 “trading statement” for the team!

3/4 of the Way Through 2014 - Our Q3 Statement!

We are now in the last quarter of the year and I’m pleased to present to our stakeholders(!) that the following summary represents the announcement to the city for the 2014 Challenge! Some of the stats only reflect members who have checked in for w/e 5th October 2014.

• A total of 117 soldiers have been part of our group at some stage in 2014 and with 30 (33 including Scambs, LG and ccw) members of the team still on the march, our overall retention stands at just over 25% - this is 800% more than standard recovery statistics.

• 5 of the current team are “Clean for ‘14” - congratulations to Del79, duncanmac, Scambling MrBrightside and Happy Days.

• 13 of the group have been completely stopped gambling for more than 6 months.

• 21 soldiers have been stopped for 3 months or more.

• The members who have made up the 2014 Challenge have delivered more than 30 years of abstinence as a collective over the full year.

• 3 members have just delivered their first gamble free Calendar month - well done to CannaeWin, mileend and No Crisis.

• 23 of the current group (>75%) were gamble free in the month of September.

• We have 19 members of the current group who are also Century Club Members. (21 including Scambs and LG)

Headlines for the last week……..

We started the week with 31 soldiers and ended it with 30 - right on the edge of the cliff now that might see us falling into the 20’s…….or progressing towards the 40’s again! Of the 31 who started the week we had 4 not show up at base camp to check in giving us a retention rate of a pretty good 87%. We had one very notable addition to the team who will be welcomed later on in the update. Collectively we’ve been stopped for just short of 12 years and we each have an average of 142 clean days behind us…….but many many more in front of us!

New and Missing Members…….

I’m sure you’ve all seen, but we have had duncanmac join us this week for the rest of the year. I’ve always hoped that you’d join us duncs………pity about the circumstances by way of the other Challenge not coming through, but selfishly for me and the rest of this group, you’ve added strength and a huge moral compass to our army and I know there’ll be huge value in having you with us. All I’d ask is that you check in once a week anytime from a Sunday through to midnight on the Saturday night (into the Sunday).

I don’t often mention the missing soldiers which has been a conscious decision as I’ve not wanted to highlight where someone has potentially fallen or has gone awol. However, at a transactional level it’s always really painful when administering the group to see someone’s name fall into amber when the first week check in has been missed……….but torturous when that same name turns red the following week and they fall into the “lost” category. It’s quite rare for someone to come out of that and start marching again, and even more rare that they are still clean. We’ve had some massive names in the group - people who have made a real difference in my recovery journey and in that of others who still march week to week with us. At an emotional level it’s infinitely worse. I’m not sure if any of you are still kicking about or reading these pages from time to time, but on the off chance you might happen upon us this week, I just want Wolfgang, Shorty8, Daz71, ToBeOrNot, richy244, KickItNow, Babybluesky, AdamPrice, Hardtimes, lec101, 2012theyear, no maybe, silverlining, Spaingone, FlyingFox, Strange……..you guys are especially missed by me (not that others aren’t) and I really wish you’d find your way back to us. Turning you red felt like cr**. Hope you are all ok.

Milestones Celebrated and to be Celebrated

Scambling and Mr Brightside both reached the triple Century and through the 300 day marker! Well done Scambs, always that one day behind you mate!

Lostafortune is definitely saving a fortune now as the 30 week mark has been breached - you will change your name one day LAF - can’t wait for that! Julio also celebrated the 30 week milestone - hope things are looking up for you J and that the future is full of optimism without gambling in it.

triangle and ringerbell have both broken through the double century now and are sitting proudly on 206 days (as at Sunday 7th) with the 30 week milestone coming up this week. Well done guys!

Gladsdad had a huge milestone this week as he clocked up half a year without gambling - a massive marker Gladsdad and one that I know you’ll be well chuffed at!

Help2604 has broken through the 150 days but the week before also hit the 20 week mark - just wanted to recognise this help and acknowledge the amazing journey you’re on!

Dear Elfie……….our newest Century Club member!! Many many congratulations Mrs - so very proud that you’ve made it this far and despite the difficulties the past brings you are setting up a great future for yourself!

Mileend has marched through the half century and will soon be on the great milestone region of 10 weeks, 3 months and then the Century Club! - brilliant mileend!

Milestones that will be celebrated this week are…………Del79 (60 amazing weeks!), triangle and ringerbell (both 30 weeks), Happy Days (300 days), delboygolf (200 days….on Monday!), fitzy (20 weeks) and CannaeWin (50 days……half way to the Century!!)

The Roll of Honour for this week……..

I’m shaking it up slightly this week in that I’m going to order both the Roll of Honour and the front page by listing in order of highest to lowest clean days. I’d ask that everyone accepts the positive intent in this……..rationale is that for those higher in the list you aspire to stay there and appreciate the hard work to get to where you are……………for those lower in the list, just look up and aspire to keep going…….everyone higher in the list can be leaned on for support and encouragement - they want you there with them! In a practical sense it should also be easier for you to see your name! Here’s the list for this week:-

Name Days Clean

Del79 419

duncanmac 339

Mr Brightside 301

Happy Days 297

Hitthefan 246

Baggins 217

julio 214

lostafortune 212

triangle 206

ringerbell 206

delboygolf 199

Gladsdad 183

help2604 152

Fitzy 133

mjc1974 131

John64 128

Wolf57 122

SuzyLemon 115

Elfie17 104

markieb10 83

Mileend 56

CannaeWin 49

NoCrisis 38

bornagain 28

GamAddict 21

rst94togo 20

AndyJ 19

Mo 17

Dot83 16

Chirst21 15

Drum roll………total days free of gambling since the Challenge began……….

10983 Days = 0.54915 million GBP in our pockets………………..0 GBP in the bookies!!!

We’ll be through the 550,000 GBP mark this week already!

So that’s the update for this week folks and once again many apologies for my tardiness. I’m sure life will calm down to a frenzy soon! I’ve got no excuses this Sunday, so the update will be back to the regular slot of being up late morning/early afternoon.

We’re in the final stretch now - a quarter of the year left, approximately 13 check ins and updates to go……the last one for the 2014 challenge will be posted on Sunday 4th January.

Have a brilliant week everyone and I’ll update the front page as often as I can.

Mr Brightside

Hi, checking in on day 113,

Sorry I've not been about to check in over the past couple of weeks - I've just moved into a new place and have been really busy between work and getting moved in. I think I'm just about sorted now 🙂