As part of my World Trip thingy, I’m trying to raise a bit of awareness about other cultures and also about animals – in particular those that are endangered. In NZ, I’ve seen kiwi. In Thailand, I worked with tigers. I hope to get to Indonesia and see the Komodo Dragon. And when I return to NZ I should have a chance to see the very rare Kakapo parrot.

A friend of mine is taking part in a race in London soon, to raise money for the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund. These mountain gorillas are dying out. Quickly. They need all the help they can get and this charity has been running for many years and does fantastic work.

As such, I’m putting on my begging hat on behalf of Jess. Please, please check out the links below and if you can afford to then throw a few pennies her way via the sponsorship links.

In her own words:

“Mountain gorillas are almost the closest relatives we have, and they will die if we don’t help them.” – Douglas Adams

Click here http://www.leonardodicaprio.org/getinformed/videos.htm and scroll down to “Douglas Adams for the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund” to watch Douglas Adams talking about why we should act to save the gorillas.

I can’t pretend to be able to save them all on my own, but that’s no excuse for not doing what little I can.

To that end, on 24th September this year I will be taking part in The Great Gorilla Run – http://www.gorillas.org/articles/?id=22

Yes, I will be heading to London to run 7km dressed as a gorilla. If anyone would like to join me on the day, either to run as well or to stand and cheer me on, that would be fantastic. It would be even more fantastic if you could also sponsor me. I’ve got a sponsorship web page: http://www.justgiving.com/gorilla_jess and will also happily take sponsorship by post or in person (feel free to email me for my address).

I should be getting my gorilla suit any day now, at which point I will of course be taking silly photos. I even plan to do some of my training wearing the suit, which may well come as a shock to the gym where I work. I’ll keep everyone updated as to how it’s going!

Thanks to anyone who can help Jess… and the gorillas.