One of the things I’ve been mostly learning this week is that the best way to get someone to try out the abseil from the Titan is to shut up. Shut up entirely and let someone else say it better.
It’s been two years of abseils and I’ve tried it three times now (once dressed as a tortoise, evidence provided). But it’s been a little while since I’ve abseiled it for the first time, and been absolutely terrified. You can read those blogs here if you want to look through the archives. I’ve gone from completely petrified of heights and things going wrong to being a regular climber, and someone who looks forward to getting a go. And the majority of our charity abseilers are doing it for the first time, because they care about helping ENABLE Scotland.
Which is where people who’ve abseiled the Titan in the last year come in. I thought I would give three reasons why they are the ones to help, and follow it up with an appeal to anyone who’s done it – please do something small to spread the word. It might be just sharing this link on a Facebook, or putting up a poster for the event in your local pub. Or it might be persuading a group of your friends to come and do it with you again, just for the experience. We need you – you’re simply better at this than I am. Because:
1) You remember the thrill of abseiling for the first time. The blind terror at the top. The determination it took to step over the edge, and how surprised with yourself you felt afterwards. Realising you’re getting the hang of it halfway down, and then wanting another go… your experience will be different, and only you can tell the story.
2) You already persuaded someone else. You just don’t neccesarily know about it. Could be more than a few of the people who sponsored you were dying to try it, or since you’ve done it they have felt inspired by you. You never know what seed you might have planted in one of your friend’s minds, and it just needs a little nudge to grow into a Titan abseil tree. Ok, that analogy might be a little spurious, but hopefully you know what I mean.
3) You know that ENABLE Scotland can do great things with the money you raise. Your abseil let us do things like help over 400 people with a learning disability to find and stay in work, creating vital autonomy and independence. But your decision to support a charity in itself speaks louder about our work than us saying it. You know why you supported ENABLE, and you can inspire others to do so too.
I hope that’s made sense… and so now I’m going to shut up and let the experts get on with it – Kat
The last thing we wanted was for anyone to miss out, so in the last week we’ve made sure no one will. The event on the 2nd of October is now fully booked with eager abseilers ready to rock the ropes, so we’ve added the 9th of October to our calendar and we’re already signing people up with over 3 weeks to go. Solid Rock Cafe have offered us a prize for the best rock-oriented fancy dress on the night, and our friends at Funktion 1 hire will be bringing back the soundsystem to blast out the choice of song for our intrepid night abseilers.
Henry Wilson, 23, got persuaded by the neon lights of October’s night rave abseil. Having abseiled before but never from such a height and definitely never in costume, Henry even surprised himself by raising over £230 with his efforts. “The Titan Abseil was amazing. Between the adrenalin rush and the views of Glasgow I hit the ground and wished I could head straight up for another go!”
