Last year on September 8th, 2011, our friend Marijke lost the battle against cancer, aged 44. Her husband, our friend Klaas was left behind. I’ve known both Klaas and Marijke since I know Ton, 13 years now.

Since a number of years, before Marijke was diagnosed with cancer, Klaas has been taking part in Alpe d’Huzes, a big yearly cycling event raising money for cancer research. Last year June, Marijke walked up the 14km long 800 meter climbing road to Alpe d’Huez in the French Alps, the same route Klaas was cycling 6 times that day, to meet him at the finish. This year, Marijke cannot be there to meet Klaas at the finish, but a group of 30 friends and family members, including Ton and me, will be cycling and walking with Klaas to make sure he’s not alone at the finish.

Klaas will again cycle up the mountain six times in one day, something he spends months training for. Ton and I will walk the same route once. Physically that’s not the biggest challenge you can think of, but still we want to raise some serious money for cancer research. So it’s likely we need to do a little more than simply ask you to donate through my ‘action page‘ (if you hold a Dutch bank account), or through my Paypal account (if you don’t hold a Dutch bank account), even though every single Euro is welcome and counts! That’s why Ton and I are also offering our services, not in exchange for our regular day rates, but in return for a donation to sponsor our walk up Alpe d’Huez.

There are various things we can offer, like

• Workshops and training on Social Media, or Open Data
• A presentation or guest lecture on networked learning, open data, social media, FabLab, knowledge management or one of the other topics I work on.
• Creating a simple website for you
• A video on a topic that matters to you
• Facilitating a session using one of the Cognitive Edge methods, Elmine and I are both trained in.

Or maybe you have another idea on how we could create value for you with our professional skills?

We’ll not charge our normal rates for ourselves but transform that into a donation for the Alpe d’Huzes fund raising for cancer research.

Contact me, to discuss what we can do for you. (Already two of my clients have committed to a project with donation)

Also don’t hesitate to recommend us to others, even if you don’t see a way of hiring me or both of us yourself. We very much would appreciate it if you could spread the word. You’ll be helping us to raise money, but at the same time, you’ll be helping yourself, your family and friends. Cancer touches all our lives after all.