Hurd sponsors shadow Thomas for triathlon challenge – twice

24 Jun 2013 News

Anyone who has bumped into the Labour spokesman on civil society recently will be aware that he is training hard for a charity challenge few of us would dare attempt – three triathlons in two months.

Gareth Thomas MP, shadow minister for civil society, running his second of three triathlons for Parkinson's UK Harrow

Anyone who has bumped into the Labour spokesman on civil society recently will be aware that he is training hard for a charity challenge few of us would dare attempt – three triathlons in two months.

Gareth Thomas MP is raising money for his local branch of Parkinson’s UK in memory of a close relative who had Parkinson's for 30 years. He’s already completed two of the triathlons; the third (and apparently toughest) is coming up on 6 July.

As of Friday he also surpassed his fundraising target, thanks to a £100 donation from Sonny Leong.

But it’s the two donations made yesterday that are perhaps the most noteworthy.  A certain Nick Hurd MP, no less than the minister for civil society himself, put aside his ideological and political differences with his Parliamentary adversary for the greater good, and sponsored Thomas for the challenge.

Only, he somehow managed to do it twice.  Thomas’ JustGiving page clearly displays not one but two £20 donations from Hurd, one just after the other, bearing exactly the same message.  Which begs the question – did he intend to make it £40 in the first instance and accidentally pledge £20 – or did he mean to give £20 and forget he’d already done it once?  Or was it his first interaction with the JustGiving site and he was unfamiliar with the process?

Whatever the answer, Thomas won’t mind.  With £10 of gift aid, Hurd’s double-donation has taken the fundraising total up to £1,085 - £85 more than the target, with nearly two weeks left to go until the end.

Hats off to Hurd for his generosity and even more so for his tweet promoting his donations – if even a few of the minister’s 9,477 Twitter followers take a leaf out of his book, the Harrow branch of Parkinson’s UK will be very grateful.

Scroll down to see the tweet....

hurd_tweet.jpg

And of course good luck to Thomas for his final challenge on 6 July – you can sponsor him here.