Any grants for travel available in Caithness?

[colin stoner]

Recently found out that I would be part of the Press Operations team for this summer's Olympics in London (which is pretty exciting!) and that I'd be based at the track & field events at the Olympic Stadium.

However, this means I'm going to have to travel down to London three times prior to it all kicking off for training sessions and for a poor student like myself, it's going to hurt my wallet quite severely, taking into consideration travelling down there, travelling around London, accomodation and food.

I was wondering if anyone knew of any travel grants or bursaries I could apply for in the county? I'm not sure if they'd give money to something like this, but it's worth a shot.

[dx100uk]

yes there must be

our first aid org were asked if they wanted to help
their travel costs and accom costs and daily expenses are being paid

i'd ask your team leader

dx

[Croftergirl]

Well done on getting a place on the press operations team. I'm of in feb to new Zealand to compete in the world shear in championships as 1 of the 2 wool handlers on the Scottish team, unfortunately I did t get any funding either. I started a fundraisin effort (n it was an effort at times)! I went to car boots sales every weekend, did bakin stalls at any fayres on and generally begged friends n neighbours for any help they could give. I managed to rise ova £1200 doin it. I still have about 5boxes of donated stuff for boot sales in my shed, if you do decide to fund raise yourself give me a shout and you can have them to start you of.

[Croftergirl]

Oops that should read world shearing championships!! My fingers are not working too good yet this morning!!

[Nick Noble]

Hi Colin, I wish I could help with grants etc, but I am not aware of anything specific that will be able to assist you.

However I thought it worth mentioning a couple of things, I may well be telling you things you already know, but worth repeating anyway.

NUS Extra will get you a discount on both National Express (25%) and Megabus (10%) fares. Search for best fares and book ahead and you will find you can do London from Inverness from about £20 return - not many tickets at that sort of price but there are some.

Be flexible over actual dates of travel if you possibly can - sometimes an extra nights accomodation can be cheaper than the additional travel costs to travel on a particular day.

Not the most fashionable of places to stay, but Youth Hostels still offer a relatively inexpensive way to stay in relatively clean and comfortable surroundings with the added advantage that you can prepare your own food rather than having to eat out.

It's even worth looking at the train fares, sometimes you can find a good fare to London, there are even good deals to be had on the sleeper trains, again look as far ahead as you can be and be prepared to be flexible regarding actual day of travel.

Hope that is of some help, and if I hear of any grants I'll let you know.

And congratulations on getting involved in a once in a lifetime experience, enjoy!