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Royal Visit

Telco Vodafone Hungary has become the biggest single sponsor of the Marathon Effort For SOTE II (a fund-raising exercise which will see two local expats run almost six marathons in six days across the Sahara desert), with a massive donation of 18,000 Euro (HUF4.8 million). This week also saw official notice of what amounts to Royal interest in, if not actual patronage of, the appeal and the charitable foundation backing it.

The Duchess of Cornwall, wife of the heir to the British throne, is accompanying Prince Charles on his official visit to Hungary later this month. While in Budapest, she will visit the 2nd Department of Paediatrics of Semmelweis University in Budapest's District IX and meet staff and patients.

There she will meet representatives of the Robert Burns International Foundation, which has supported the hospital for the last 13 years providing equipment, fixtures and other essential items to improve child care. She will be shown round the Rheumatology, & Immunology, Oncology & Day Care departments of the hospital, which provides care for more than 100,000 child patients every year. She will then unveil a plaque given by the RBIF to mark the 125th anniversary of the founding of the hospital.

The Duchess will also meet representatives from Vodafone Hungary, who will brief her about the company’s initiative to provide an annual award to recognise outstanding efforts in Corporate and Social Responsibility. The inaugural donation is going to the RBIF and the Marathon Effort For SOTE II.

The campaign aims to raise an initial target of 50,000 Euro to construct mother and child distance trauma units to assist recovery of critically ill child patients coming from the borders of Hungary. To do so, Harry Harron, from Ireland, and Briton Simon Saunders will take part in what is known as the toughest foot race on earth: the Marathon des Sables (MdS). The two men are the only Hungary-based entrants from an international field of 750, and the first for five years.

Thanks largely to the generosity of companies like Vodafone Hungary and TESCO, which has made a 5,000 Euro (HUF1.3 million) donation, more than half the appeal target has already been raised or pledged.

Medical sponsorship has come from FirstMed Centers Kft, who are providing ECGs and 375 Euro (HUF100,000), and Budapest Bank is putting up HUF200,000. The first sponsor on board was PURE Wellness, City Home & Lifestyle Centre in Ó utca, which has been offering the two athletes free use of its facilities during their training programme.

Other sponsorship has come from Amadeus Magyarország Kft (which bills itself as the leading provider of IT solutions to your tourism and travel industry), bottled water company Visegrádi, hotel group Le Meridien and sports goods and equipment store Decathlon Hungary.

“We are extremely grateful for the sponsorship we have received so far,” said appeal chairman Patrick McMenamin, who runs Scottish pub the Caledonia Budapest on Mozsár utca. “And, of course, we look forward to hearing from many more sponsors to help us reach the second half of our target.”

And McMenamin is leading by example. Throughout March, HUF20 from the price of every large glass of Dreher sold at the Caledonia will be donated to the appeal.

“Naturally, we still want to encourage people to drink responsibly, but if you normally drink something else, we would hope you might switch to Dreher to help raise funds for this month,” said McMenamin. He is hoping other bars in the city will follow suit.

Harron and Saunders can be contacted via their blog (http://harryandsimon.wordpress.com/), and there is also a facebook group (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?[...] with 355 members. Payment of personal sponsorship money can be arranged through the blog or group, or through PayPal.

Should you wish to discuss corporate sponsorship possibilities personally, Saunders can be reached via email (saunders.simon@ymail.com), mobile phone (+36/30 526-3177) or Skype (simonteammypt). McMenamin can be contacted via email on info@caledonia.hu


Background

The Appeal

Greg Dorey, the British Ambassador to Hungary, officially launched the Marathon Effort For SOTE II, at the 13th annual Budapest Burns Supper on Saturday 30 January 2010 with the words, "It [the MdS] is not for the faint-hearted. Welcome to the world of masochists and lunatics."

The challenge covers 250km (155 miles), which equates to about five-and-a-half marathons, and is run across the Sahara Desert over six days. Competitors have to carry with them food, clothes, medical kit, sleeping bag, in fact everything they will need for the duration, apart from water and a tent. (Water is rationed and handed out at each checkpoint.) Mid-day temperatures can get as high as 49°C (about 120°F), much of the day is spent running or hiking across uneven, rocky ground, and up to 20% of the total distance actually involves traversing sand dunes.

“Even though we have run many 42km (26 mile) marathons and mountain marathons between us, this does not mean that we will find the MdS easy – we are doing lots of training,” Harron and Saunders say on their blog (http://harryandsimon.wordpress.com/).

Saunders is the elder of the two-man team at 38. Now a personal trainer, he is a former cross-country athlete who has represented the UK. Pharmacist and entrepreneur Harron is 37. He has plenty of running experience of his own, and has already covered 500km (310 miles) of the same desert using wind power in the form of a kite and an adapted buggy.

The distance trauma suites will allow the mothers of critically ill children coming in from the Hungarian countryside to stay with their offspring, an important aid to recovery. SOTE II has very few such facilities at present.

Directing the appeal and making sure the funds raised will be able to do the most good is the RBIF (www.rbif.org), which distributes money raised by the annual Budapest Burns Supper, among other sources. Appeal chairman McMenamin is also a member of the organising committee for the Burns Supper.


The Royal Visit

The President of the Republic of Hungary Mr László Sólyom has invited The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall to undertake an official visit to Hungary from 17 March to 20 March 2010. Their Royal Highnesses will also visit Poland and the Czech Republic. Among the themes of the tour will be climate change and the environment, heritage conservation, knowledge-based economy, diversity, culture and youth employment.

The tour starts in Warsaw, continues in Budapest and finishes in Prague. The Prince and The Duchess will meet the President and Prime Minister of Hungary and undertake a variety of engagements in Budapest. The Royal Couple will also spend time outside the capital exploring how Hungary is protecting and conserving its built heritage over the centuries.

The Prince of Wales has made three official visits to Hungary in 1990, 1994 and 2000. It will be The Duchess of Cornwall’s first official visit to the country.

For more information on the Royal visit, see the British Embassy website (http://ukinhungary.fco.gov.uk/en/a[...]

Press release prepared for the Robert Burns International Foundation and Marathon Effort For SOTE II by Robin Marshall, Devil's Advocate Communications (www.da-comms.com).