Charity Fundraising Week

Day One: The Fast

Yesterday was the first day of my fundraising week. It was the first of four twelve hour daytime fasts that I have to complete this week and it was terribly frustrating. I woke up at 6.20am to prepare my pre-fast meal: two boiled eggs and a slice of wholegrain toast with butter, washed down with a glass of orange juice and a multivitamin tablet. At that time in the morning my appetite was painfully absent but I kept in mind the advice I had been given about eating protein and fats before the fast began. It made sense. Then, at 7am, the fast began. For the first three hours I didn’t feel very hungry but on the approach to lunchtime my brain began making suggestions about what to have for lunch! Every half hour it sparked up with another food that it fancied and, in normal circumstances, this would have resulted in the absent minded consumption of said food but under the constraints of the fast I felt only a pang of disappointment. The freedom to choose what I wanted to do (snack in front of the television) and when (during Jeremy Kyle) was restricted and it made me feel frustrated. There is no tangible comparison with the experiences of those asylum seekers detained in centres around the UK but perhaps the feeling of frustration and the inability to answer to the needs of one’s body are things that detainees in places like Yarlswood will feel at some point during their “stay”. From two o’clock until five o’clock my stomach growled at me and then nausea set in. At about six o’clock I could no longer feel the hunger but when it came to half past I was in the kitchen cooking up a feast. I broke the fast with a bowl of mozzarella and tomato topped gnocchi, some popcorn and some much craved chocolate. After my initial elation I began to feel a bit deflated. At the end of the day I had very easily rustled up a meal and indulged in some treats but I really appreciated the fact that so many people couldn’t have done that.

I have attached the link to a testimony from an asylum seeker whose experiences here in the UK are eye-opening and disturbing. Please read her words:

http://www.testimonyproject.org/node/170 

Cynical England has to stop dismissing the pleas of asylum seekers by claiming that they are somehow not credible.

Emma.