Win a £40 Bouquet of Flowers from Debenhams

Gynaecological  Cancer Awareness Month

Sept 2015 was Gynaecological  Cancer Awareness Month and there was some excellent campaigns running.  If you have an Instagram account you may have come across the hashtag #ladygardencampaign, which was a partnership between Top Shop and the Gynaecological Cancer Fund, a new charity with monies going to support research at the Royal Marsden.

The Campaign received a lot of celebrity backing with the likes of Ellie Goulding and Elisabeth Hurley donning jumpers with ‘Lady Garden’ boldly emblazoned on the front.  And the Duchess of York, Fergie lending her support at a Lady Garden Luncheon.

Cancer Awareness Sept 205

The main aim of the campaign hopes to encourage woman to talk more about their bits and become aware of what the symptoms of  Gynaecological Cancer are.  Unlike Breast Cancer and Skin cancer, where physical changes can be detected;  lumps, dimples, discharge, change in moles etc, many of us are not aware of what to watch out for when it comes to the Big 5 Gynaecological Cancers.  Click on the image for more information.

Gynaecological Cancer Awareness
Picture Courtesy of CDC

I thought I would take the opportunity via this Flower Competition to remind my lady friends how important it is to attend regular Cervical Screenings.  It’s not the most pleasant thing in the world, and I can think of a zillion other things I’d rather do,  but early detection is the key to successful treatment.  Most woman don’t get screened before it’s too late and are not diagnosed till stage 4.  With cancer there is no stage 5.  50 Woman a day in the UK are diagnosed with some form of Gynaecological Cancer.

‘too busy to attend her screening and now admits that not going for her smear test is one of her biggest regrets.’  Jenny Croston a 38 year old mother of two

Hopefully this prompts at least one of you to book your screening today.

 

It’s Give-away Time!

Now it’s your turn enter for a chance to Win £40 to spend on any bouquet from Debenhams Flowers.

Next Day Flower Delivery

Whether you want to send flowers to a loved one, treat yourself or simply cover up the fact you’ve forgotten a special occasion at the last minute, Debenhams Flowers is definitely the destination of choice.  I recently used their Flowers Delivery service and can highly recommend, I wasn’t sure what I wanted, left it up to them and they put together a gorgeous bouquet for me, and if you’re also short on time they do a Next Day Flowers delivery service as well.

Debenhams Flowers are kindly offering one lucky winner to win a £40 voucher to spend on a bouquet of your choice.

If you want to be in with a chance of winning, simply enter the competition via the Rafflecopter Form below.  Full terms and conditions can be found at the bottom of the form.  In short, open to UK residents 18 and over. Closes on the 1st Nov 2015.

Good luck.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This is a sponsored post on behalf of Debenhams Flowers, www.debenhamsflowers.com 

This competition is listed on Loquax, Prize Finder and Competition Hunter.

Win a Trip of a Lifetime by Geocaching #mwgeotrail

I’m all up for an opportunity to win a FREE trip courtesy of Mountain Warehouse.  I love travelling and my daughter is turning into quite the intrepid traveller.  I have no idea where we would go if we won.  Anyhow, the task was simple really and involved one of our favourite activities Geocaching.  We had the Shaun the Sheep Trackable, and all we had to do was find a cache, take a photo, instagram it and leave the trackable for the next person.  I checked our Geocaching app and there were 3 in close vicinity to our house.  So we got kitted up and headed out.

Kids Waterproof Jacket and Shoes from Mountain Warehouse

Kids Walking Gear Courtesy of Mountain Warehouse

We absolutely love geocaching and hopefully this doesn’t put you off.  Part of the fun is that you are not always successful and it can be challenging.

The first one was only about 8oo meters from our house, we read the notes and it mentioned we would need a long pole to grab the cache so we took an umbrella, we closed in on it quickly with a bit of bush whacking involved, my daughter shouted ‘I found it’ and then proceeded to come out of the bushes with this.

Dangers of Geocaching

As you can imagine, I nearly had a heart attack.  It’s paraphernalia for taking Heroin – needles, swabs and citric acid.  Thankfully it had not been used and the needles were not open.  I rang the non-emergency police number and they had no one to come and collect it and our local police station was shut on the weekend so I couldn’t drop it off.  They gave me very bad advice and suggested I stick it in the closest bin, I did question the safety of the Bin Man.  Anyhow, for future reference pharmacies tend to have places to dispose of needles safely.

If at first you don’t succeed……

Geocaching with Kids St Albans

Anyhow that didn’t put us off so we headed for the next one which was only a few hundred meters away.  We had to climb over the railing on the wooden walk way, we hunted high and low, even crawling under the bridge, we even resorted to reading the notes but no clues, I did then check previous logs and it looks like this one may have gone on a walk about as others were not able to find it either.  We weren’t doing so well today.

Try and try again!

We decided to have one last ditch attempt, there was another one within 500m and our dog needed a walk anyhow so we toddled off along the river.  When we popped out the other side, we knew it wasn’t going to be our lucky day, the site of the geo-cache had been completely dug up and was fenced off so we wouldn’t be able to get to it even if it was still there.

We still have Shaun the Sheep so will try again soon.

 

 

Card Games for the whole family – Giveaway

Dobble is Brilliant!

Family Card Games

As a family we really should play games more often.  We have a sideboard full of games from Kerplunk to Kerfuffle plus a few traditional ones like The Game of Life.  We do play cards on occasion and daughter a dab hand at Snap, Go Fish and War.

However, I had never played Dobble and had no idea how brilliant it is.  I would describe it as super-charged snap.  It’s both simplistic and challenging at the same time.  The first time we took it out we played 8 games back to back.  There are 55 card with 8 symbols on each card  and there is one identical symbol in common with each card.  I have no idea how they did this.  There 5 mini games to choose from; Towering Inferno. The Well, The Hot Potato, Gotta Catch ‘Em All and The Poisoned Gift.  We’ve only played two so far and are hooked.

It comes in its own storage tin and is very portable so we will definitely be taking it on car journeys, plane trips and camping.

 

Win Dobble for your Family

To enter simply use the Rafflecopter form below.  In short it’s open to UK residents 18+ years of age.  Full Terms and Conditions can be found at the bottom of the form.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good Luck!

If you don’t manage to win it, I’d suggest popping out and buying yourself one, Argos and WHSmith are currently offering 20% off.

This competition is listed on Loquax, Prize Finder and Competition Hunter.

Win £200 Worth of Sainsbury’s Vouchers

Childhood Obesity is on the Rise in the UK

Sainsbury's Active Kids Campaign

This will come as no surprise to anyone as we have seen the features on the news.  Genetics, unhealthy diets and lack of exercise are always at the heart of this discussion.

I was in a school awhile back to deliver a training session, which had nothing to do with nutrition or exercise, however, prior to my session the PE teacher was updating the teachers on a recent course he had been on and he said

‘20% of Year 6 Pupils are classes as obese’

That’s a whopping statistic which means that one in 5 kids will be overweight by the time they finish Primary School and statistics show that this is only going to get worse.

My thoughts on what’s causing childhood obesity

1) We all worry about the amount of time our children spend in front of the screen, whether it’s a TV, Playstation or Tablet according to one study I read, children spend on average 4 hours a day in front of a screen.

2) There has also been a definite trend of kids playing out less and less, personally I blame the internet for making parents feel it is unsafe for their kids to play out like we did as kids.  However, the roads are a lot busier now than when I was a kid, but I strongly don’t believe there is a bogey man around every corner and it’s no more dangerous than when I was a kid, we just hear about more incidences now.

3) When I used to teach many moons ago, I found the demands of the curriculum would often mean there was not enough time in the day to cover everything and PE would be pushed aside. This is worrying as the new national curriculum that came in in September is even more demanding than before.

4) There is also a link between family income and obesity.  Children from low and medium-income  families are more likely to eat less healthy.  I can totally understand this.  Readymade meals cost a fraction of the price of buying all of the ingredients.  For example, I can buy a readymade lasagne from the grocery store which is probably laden with hidden sugars and fats for around £4.  However, if I buy the ingredients to make it fresh it would cost me about 3 times as much as this.

5) Even though technology is supposed to be making us more efficient, I find we are busier than ever and don’t often have the time to cook homemade meals, and I’ve been known to opt for convenience foods including takeaways.

6) And one of my personal pet peeves is the ridiculous entry procedures for Primary Schools, which often means that children do not go to the closest school, resulting in their parents having to drive.

Sainsbury’s Active Kids 2015

Launch of Sainsbury's Active Kids Campaign

This is why I like the Sainsbury’s Active Kids Campaign, which encourages kids to live an active lifestyle.  To date they have provided over £150 million worth of equipment and experiences.  You can collect vouchers until the 5th of May 2015 and donate to your local school which they can then exchange on a range of active and cooking equipment.

Win £200 Worth of Sainsbury’s Vouchers and Signed Merchandise

To kick of this campaign they are offering one of my readers a chance to win £200 worth of Sainsbury’s Vouchers.  Simply enter using the Rafflecopter Form below.

To increase your chances of winning the giveaway, you can gain additional entries by:

  • Tweeting about the giveaway
  • Submitting a Tweet or Facebook link showing a picture of their vouchers.

The giveaway will run until 12am on Saturday 11th April 2015.

Good Luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure:  In association with Sainsbury’s

This competition is listed on Loquax, Prize Finder and Competition Hunter.

Print Your Photos

Polaroid Style Prints

I have nearly 1600 photos on my camera roll and have posted over 800 on Instagram.  Like most of us, I never get around to printing photos on my phone, until I came across Printic.  It’s an incredibly easy app to use allowing you to free your photos from your phone.

Printic App

Simply download the FREE app for free and then select the photos you want from either your camera roll or your Instagram account, you can also add text to your photos and as a child of the 80s I love the Polaroid feel to them.  They come in a cute orange envelope.

Photo Printing by Printic

You can also order calendars and photobooks.  The Photoboxes would make great gifts for Graduations, Weddings or momentous birthdays!

The prints work out to less that .30p each and they offer FREE international delivery.

Now is your chance to win one set of 10 Printics.  Simply use the rafflecopter form below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This competition is listed on Loquax, Prize Finder and Competition Hunter.