Welcome to my guest post on Money-For-Old-Rope. My name is Andrew and I am posting from Adelaide, South Australia. I can’t say that I am an adult with a congenital heart disorder and the closest I get is having a functional heart murmur (along with just about every one else probably).

When I first came across Money-For-Old-Rope and Paul’s awareness/charity mission, I thought it was interesting as it was heart related however I didn’t exactly “jump in boots and all” because it was about adults. I followed along for a while and then it struck me, Paul and all the others from GUCH have a congenital heart condition, that is from birth and therefore they were not too different from where our 3 year old toddler is now (yeah I know .. we’re a bit relaxed in Aussie and takes a while to click).

One thing I am really motivated about is creating awareness for congenital heart disease as most people have little or no idea in relation to the infamous 1 in 100 babies are born with a heart condition statistic and these babies hopefully become adults. Before getting onboard though, my “Spidy” sense tingled (any Spiderman fans?). Was this yet another internet scam? I checked the links on the site and one went to a website called GUCH. Seemed to be a professional site with plenty of material, contacts, and links to other genuine organizations. My last check was the Google PR rating which showed a Page Ranking 5 or better from memory. Now Google page ranks of 5 don’t happen overnight or even usually after 3-6 months unless you’ve got a blog site called “The guy that sold the laptop on eBay and ripped me off” or something similar but that’s another story.

So at that stage being happy all was ok, I then decided why not get a piece of history in the making and in reverse help make history and tossed around some thoughts for a trade. I couldn’t link to the 18 pairs of craft scissors so I went for the Australian theme and came up with the Olympic Official Uniform I wore when I worked at the Sydney 2000 Olympics (before you ask .. yes it was washed)! I think this is a great concept with genuine motive and have decided to help where possible if that means success for the cardiac cause. In 17 months time I will be able to hold my piece of rope and say I have a piece of the rope that turned into what I hope will be a well publicized end result.

I hope you too can continue on the journey, spread the word for others to follow and consider also whether you may be able to trade and get a bit of old rope.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned to see whether Paul decides to give me another guest appearance or says thanks but adios to the Aussie.

Andrew

PS For a continuing story that follows the path of our 3 year old toddler who has undergone open heart surgery twice, stomach surgery twice and numerous other little issues, you can visit www.beatinghearts4kids.blogspot.com on one condition, you bookmark this site before you go and come on back.