Inspiring individuals with powerful and emotive stories to tell are showing the way with social, says Jenna Pudelek.

As we went to press with this month’s magazine, donations were pouring in to the Teenage Cancer Trust.

This was down to an inspirational Facebook blog by 19-year-old Stephen Sutton, who wrote about his experiences living with terminal bowel cancer and his “bucket list” wish to raise £10,000 for the charity.

He later upped his target to £1m after people started donating in their thousands and at the time of writing this he’d reached more than £2m.

It comes after the social media fundraising phenomenon that was #nomakeupselfie raised £8m for Cancer Research UK in six days. These campaigns captured the public’s imaginations in different ways, but they demonstrate the huge potential of social media to motivate people to give on a massive scale.

Both were started by individuals rather than organisations and went viral by chance rather than careful planning, which adds to their authenticity and makes them hard to replicate. Although, Dominic Nutt’s personal account of using the crowdfunding platform Indiegogo to raise money for research into a rare cancer, shows that with some planning and powerful story-telling it is possible to create a viral campaign.

Our main feature this month explores the rather weird and wonderful world of mass participation events.

Recent successes like Movember and the Dryathlon show how important social media has, and will continue to be, in facilitating this new breed of digital-led events. But the huge fundraising success and popularity of this year’s London Marathon shows the long-lasting endurance of traditional challenge events. It’s interesting to see new takes on these like the Colour Run, where you get splashed with paint as you run, and the growing popularity of hardcore events like Ironman Triathlons. And who will come up with an event that engages young women in the same way as Movember has done with men?

Finally, for anyone wondering what on earth I’ve done with Celina Ribeiro; fear not, I’ve just stepped in to hold the fort while she is away on maternity leave.

In the meantime, do let me know your thoughts and ideas – contact me via [email protected] or on Twitter @JennaRPudelek.