<p>Hello everyone.</p> <p>I'm spending the whole of 2012 <strong>entirely sober</strong>.</p> <p>You can raise money for charity and help motivate me to complete the year by sponsoring me. I've decided that the funds will go to Gingerbread, a charity that supports single parents. It's not easy being a single parent, and single parent families are more at risk during times of economic hardship.</p> <p>2012 is going to be a hard year for everyone, but the stresses and strains will be felt hardest by single mums, single dads. Try imagining how it feels to lose your job when you're the only breadwinner. Or, imagine seeing your children suffering at school because you can't afford to buy them the things the other kids have. Imagine watching the bills coming in, the bank balance ebbing away and having no partner to confide in.</p> <p>Single parents' ability to insulate the child from life's stresses is inevitably less. Parental crises can leave a mark on the child's personality that lasts for years, perhaps for a whole lifetime. If you're like me and an only child from a single parent background, that effect is even more profound. For instance, I feel I would have been a happier, less anxious boy in my childhood had I not felt so much stress. And yet in so many ways I was one of the lucky ones! I can't imagine how I would have coped had things been truly bad for me and Mum. That legacy is only now passed, and it's taken more or less two decades to get over.</p> <p>So, you can help single parents and help me by sponsoring me through my sober year. I've set a target of &pound;1200, based on 100 people sponsoring me for &pound;1 per month of the year. Hopefully we can do much better than that.</p> <p>Happy new year<br>Dom</p>