John 'Max' Maxwell aka The Pig Farmer » Charity & Pro Bono

Rugby Uncle gathers momentum

The Pig Farmer — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 12:18:01 +0000

A couple of years ago I went to India with the Tag Rugby Development Trust (TRDT) to spend a couple of weeks ‘introducing’ TAG Rugby to the children of Bhubeneshwar. I arrived a day early in Kolkata and enjoyed the added bonus of an extra night of hospitality, courtesy of one Mr. Paul Walsh. I met Paul in what was effectively the club bar for the Jungle Crows RFC, the team he coached – a fascinating tale in itself …… and went on for a fantastic curry and a very deep sleep! The following day the rest of the TRDT team arrived and off I went, thanking Paul and not imagining that I would really see him again. I returned to Kolkata 2 weeks later, but he was not there and I vowed to stay in touch from Dubai – and beyond. It was through Paul that I heard about Sailen Tudu. Tudu discovered rugby on the Maidan in Kolkata where Paul coaches the Jungle Crows and he was hooked, joining the Crows and going on to represent India. Tudu’s story is a fantastic one, as is that of his friend Zaffar and you should be able to read more about them and others on my website www.ruckinrugby.com – where I try to keep up with them both. My move to the Middle East in 2007 rekindled my love of playing rugby – as my body is incapable of doing so at anything less than 35 degrees heat – and this trip to India, along with tales from the Philippines and Indonesia relayed by my team mates in Dubai, bought back to me just how important rugby was for me when I was a young teenager – and I wanted to give something back. This is what Rugby Uncle is all about, for me.

The website is up and running now and will grow quite quickly over the coming months, but for now we want it simple and easy to navigate. You can join the facebook group from the homepage and the news feed keeps up to date with everything that is going on.

New Logo For Honour-Our-Troops.com

The Pig Farmer — Wed, 06 May 2009 10:42:14 +0000

This week has seen an update visually of the Honour-Our-Troops.com website, thanks to a fantastic new logo from our graphics girl Shelly. The logo shows the crossed swords and tri-colours of the 3 Armed Services – The Army, Navy and Air Force. The website has been done on a pro bono basis by The Pig Farmer Designs to help this group raise enough money to gain charitable status. Once they have achieved this they can get started promoting what I hope will be a fantastic concert to say Thank you to those men and women who fight on our behalf every day, – so that we don’t have to.

This is a project that I feel very passionately about and it has already proved very difficult for me – personally – to accept the attitude shown towards these soldiers by their public at home, many of whom choose to use the very democracy that they defend, to opt out of saying thank you. These guys and girls do not start wars, we have politicians and businessmen for that – the Armed Forces are there to clean up the mess, and I for one am thankful for that.

Mongolia Machine Arrives

The Pig Farmer — Wed, 06 May 2009 10:18:18 +0000

I have done some more with Andrew & Cat’s website this week and they have got a first draft from their cartoonist for the logo – so all is moving along well.

The Rally sounds like a fantastic mission and I truly wish them all the best for their journey – this website has been a welcome distraction over the last week or two and I look forward to getting the final drafts on the imagery so we can finish up.

Honour Our Troops

The Pig Farmer — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 11:11:48 +0000

There’s a lot of stuff knocking around about individual soldiers, units, mums, partners etc – about whether the war is right or wrong from just about any angle you can think of. But this caught my eye. A small group of individuals have decided to stage a huge concert to well, – Honour Our Troops upon their return. It really is that simple.

I’m sure that most people who know this old hippy, know his thoughts on the invasion of Iraq from a political viewpoint but I am partly hitching my wagon to this because I want to make very clear – to everyone that I know – that I am 100% behind our guys and girls out there. In my honest opinion, we as civilians let these people down by making them the ‘only option’ when they were far from it.

All this aside – we have the greatest Armed Forces on earth, bar none and we need them there, trained – to ensure that we don’t even have to think about it. And once the politics are done and the call is made, for my money, all bets are off and we stand as a Nation 100% behind them. To that end – I am honoured myself to be involved in this project and would hope that all those who know me, will do the right thing and help make it happen – for them.

www.honour-our-troops.com

Thank you.