Friends dump booze, fags and chocolate in the name of charity

Apr 16 2009 by Chris Clements, Hamilton Advertiser

Friends dump booze, fags and chocolate in the name of charity

THREE county HSBC workers have raised an estimated £1500 for a well-known cancer charity after staying off the booze and fags for 40 days and 40 nights.

Tony Goodall (25) and Alan Bilsland (28), both of Stonhouse, and Robert Vaughan (28), of Coatbridge, took part in their own detox programme, which ends tomorrow (Friday) to raise cash for Macmillan Cancer Support.

Tony, Alan and Robert all had to abstain from alcohol, chocolate, caffeine and junk food for charity, while Rob went the extra mile and gave up smoking.

Their challenge started on Tuesday, March 10.

Tony, who works in customer services in the bank’s centre at the International Technology Park, Blantyre, told the Advertiser that it was a tough task but he is looking forward to his first pint on Friday.

He said: “It had absolutely nothing to do with Lent, it was just a coincidence with the timing. We couldn’t have alcohol, coffee, sweets, or junk foods.

“We’re leaving work at four o’clock on Friday afternoon, and we’ll be going straight to Carrigans in Blantyre for our first pint in 40 days. I’m going to be having the bar staff pouring me another Guinness before I’ve finished my first.”

The idea of a period of abstinence came about after Tony decided he would do so to lose a bit of weight. He said: “ I thought that it’s going to be quite a big feat so I might as well do it for charity.

“My friend Alan said he was up for doing it. Then, as we were chatting to the specialist team we have at HSBC, called the Best Place To Work team, we convinced Robert to join us as well.”

Tony reckons that Robert had the hardest battle of all after giving up smoking for the task: “I gave up smoking myself a while ago, so I know how bad it gets. When you stop smoking, you tend to start eating more. So I think he found it the hardest.”

Tony said that his period of detox wasn’t bad for the first fortnight but things grew gradually worse.

”The caffeine withdrawal was the worst and gave me bad headaches, especially as I drink a lot of coffee at work,” he said.

“The worst day came last weekend. It was my fianceé’s dad’s birthday and we had to make him a chocolate cake. I had chocolate all over my fingers that I couldn’t lick off. That was the worst I’ve ever felt – giving up the booze and everything was nothing compared to that.”