After a few (well, several) drinks last Boxing Day, I made a promise to two of my best friends that I would raise money for them to help with the wonderful, selfless work they do. These two lovely people are Emily and Rob House. The work they do via the Thembalitsha Foundation (www.hope.org.za) in South Africa is just amazing and although I knew I wanted to do this, I had absolutely no idea how!

After giving it some thought, I decided that, given my love for fitness, putting together a calendar to sell would be a great way to do it! The first thing I did was approach Evan and Eva at my gym, Fitness 2000 – and I am so glad I did: I didn’t quite realise how complicated something as simple as a calendar could be and Evan has been instrumental in helping me to make this product which you now hold in your hands!! 

Putting in the hard work to get in the best physical shape of my life was my next goal and I really couldn’t have done it without the support of Fitness 2000. It’s a great place to train where you always feel welcome and a great motivational atmosphere to train in!

Evan and I set out what we wanted and how we were going to do it and, with the help of professional photographer Wayne Pilgrim, we ended up with what we think are some fantastic shots for the calendar – We hope you agree!

I want to thank all of the guys who took time out to get in shape and put themselves up for being models for the calendar. Getting in top shape takes discipline and commitment and is definitely not easy. I also want to thank the team at Fitness 2000, Wayne for taking these awesome pictures, all the sponsors of the calendar and of course Evan and Eva, the owners of Fitness 2000 without whom none of this would have happened. Thank you!

Finally I want to thank YOU for choosing to buy this calendar and donating towards an extremely worthy cause via the hard work of Emily and Rob. They rely almost entirely on support and donations from friends and family to continue volunteering for Thembalitsha so every calendar purchased helps them to help more people!

It’s been a challenging journey, both mentally and physically, in order to make this calendar a reality and am extremely proud of what we have managed to achieve.

I hope you enjoy every month of this 2015 calendar…..and who knows, maybe a 2016 one will be in the pipeline!

Yours Sincerely

Daniel Hale

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity.