Organising a ‘Jailbreak’ raised thousands for Oxfam

Jailbreak organiser Nicholas Martlew tells us how his small idea turned into a big reality.

Nick with a Jailbreak t-shirt. ''It’s amazing just how much a couple of people can do when they bring together so many people’s efforts and so many good intentions into one event.'' ''In the end we, or rather all 74 participants of The Jailbreak, did make quite a contribution (to Oxfam) - over £6000.'' ''We had just said goodbye, or rather au-revoir, to the last Jailbreak team and we knew all the time organising this fundraiser had paid off. It was quite a feeling.''

It wasn’t a real jailbreak, but the euphoria must be quite similar. We had just said goodbye, or rather au-revoir, to the last Jailbreak team and we knew all the time organising this fundraiser had paid off. It was quite a feeling.

Two months earlier a friend had suggested we organise something called a Jailbreak. Jailbreaks are charity fundraising events where people are sponsored to try and get as far as possible in 24 hours without spending anything on transport. ‘I’m in’, I said. And so it began. First stop, a pint and a spider diagram!

To be brutally honest, our initial reason for this undertaking was our CVs. Jake, my co-organiser, and I are both doing MAs in international politics. We wanted to boost our skills and experience to help us get the much-prized voluntary-sector jobs we both wanted, and it worked - Jake’s got a job already as a direct result.

However, once the organisational snowball started rolling with publicity, logistics, insurance (the bloomin’ insurance!) and so on, it wasn’t self-promotion that motivated us: CV points didn’t make us don prisoner outfits (pyjamas with arrows on them) to hand out promotional flyers in the rain; the competitiveness of the job market didn’t make us trek miles in the rain to pick up our specially-printed t-shirts (we’re in Sheffield, it’s always raining). Instead our motivation came from doing something new and challenging, knowing that if we did it well we could end up making a contribution to Oxfam’s work.

In the end we, or rather all 74 participants of The Jailbreak, did make quite a contribution - over £6000. That figure still shocks us. The sense of achievement was only matched by surprise. It’s amazing just how much a couple of people can do when they bring together so many people’s efforts and so many good intentions into one event.

The Jailbreakers humbled us with their efforts and their gratitude. It seems the wrong way round - they had raised the sponsorship money, they had got to Amsterdam/ Bordeaux/ Jimmy’s Pig Farm in Norfolk and, just as importantly, they had got back. Yet they were the ones thanking us.

We invited Ben Margolis, Oxfam’s Campaigns Officer in the North East, to come to the Jailbreak party we organised with one of our sponsors - a bar in Sheffield. We’re very grateful to him for making the trip and giving an Oxfam thank you to all the Jailbreakers, helpers and organisers. Accepting the big novelty cheque with the big impressive number on it, Ben said The Jailbreak was a perfect example of Generation Why’s maxim 'do what you love doing - just change the world while you’re doing it'.

And we did love it. When we were compiling the now legendary initial spider diagram, we loved it. When the sun came out on the Jailbreak photo-shoot and we all stood there in our white Jailbreak t-shirts like a Daz commercial, we loved it. When we sent the last pristine, smiling Jailbreakers on their way, we loved it, and we know we’ve helped Oxfam change the world while we were at it.