As some of you may have already seen from my recent article and profile updates, I've decided that from this point onwards, every single penny of my dooyoo earnings will be donated to charitable causes.

~~~~A tribute to Ken~~~~

I know a great many people here on dooyoo were deeply saddened at the loss of one of the dooyoo community's finest to Cancer earlier in the year.

Ken Johnstone, or KenJohn, will remain quite simply a legend in dooyoo circles, for his brilliantly written , free flowing, forthright, entertaining and honest reviews that were always full of passion and wit.

I contacted his widow Dolores over the weekend, and she has kindly agreed to me announcing my intention to donate the next £50 of my dooyoo earnings to the Cancer Clinical Research Trust in Ireland http://www.ccrt.ie in memory of Ken.

Please take the time a look at her message on Ken's profile page http://members.dooyoo.co.uk/member/kenjohn, which also has some very poignant final updates from Ken himself, showing the true courage and compassion of the man.

I can think of no more fitting way to begin my earnings donations than to pay tribute to such a much loved member of this community.

~~~~Make a difference - my thinking ~~~~

So if you'd have asked me a few months ago what I was spending my dooyoo earnings on, to be honest I wouldn't have had a clue. The one or two cheques I've had since joining in 2008 have just gone into the current account and probably just got used up in routine purchases or monthly savings.

Since I started out on here, I've always had the dream of building up a sufficient stream of earnings from this and other review sites and online publishing places to be able to walk away once and for all from my IT career entanglement.

But bizarrely my recent health scare has actually made me more inclined to stick around in the day job, with of course the proviso of making much needed changes in my approach to the work and the kind of assignments I'm prepared to accept going forwards.

So rather than trying to scrape a living from freelancing, which would almost inevitably mean signing up to poorly paid , mind numbing assignments just to pay the bills I've decided that there is a way to get the most out of both worlds.

In the end, what I love the really most from this and other sites is the feedback you get for your efforts.

Add to that the opportunity to really make a difference with the money earned, then it's a perfect recipe for writing about what I really believe in

I used to think how great it would be to properly make it as a writer and then be in a position to give something back and support good causes.

You know what, I'm already fortunate enough to be in a secure and well paid job, and I'm already lucky enough to be able to write what I want, every single day of my life. So why not start now.

~~~What the Dickens!~~~~

Maybe this is my "Christmas carol" moment.

I feverishly leap out of the bed on Christmas morning, thrust open the window and shout down to the little lad below- Hey you there - here's £50 go and buy the biggest turkey you can find....

Anyway you look at it, making a commitment like this, finally finding a way to write and do something you truly believe in feels amazing.

Through my still fledgling make a difference blog (see my profile for details), and naturally through my continuing contributions here on my favourite site of them all, I'm really hoping to get something special started.

~~~~Please get involved~~~~

I would dearly love to hear from any of you out there who have causes that are really close to your heart that I can highlight and hopefully raise funds for.

What I'm really hoping is that in doing this it may encourage one or two other people to follow suit and commit to donating some or all of their earnings.

To be honest I've never been much of a revolutionary, but this is one idea that I absolutely 100% believe in.

My late Mum was a fantastic fundraiser herself, and it's her determination and her will that lives on in me.

I'll try and keep this review and my profile updated with my progress towards the earnings targets - as of this morning my earnings totaliser was flashing at around £22.70 so I really would like to appeal to all of you out there to keep on rating my reviews so I can get that first £50 on the board as soon as possible.

I've also passed the word out to dooyoo HQ about this so hopefully the momentum should continue to build. As well as my dooyoo earnings I'm now looking at my various survey and cashback earnings to see what I can do with them as well so look out for further announcements in my profile on that score.

Please do get in touch with your ideas and suggestions for worthy causes, I'm particularly interested in supporting smaller groups that don't get a lot of publicity.

Look forward to sharing this journey with you all!

Happy to report I donated the £50 to CCRT at the end of last year and received a lreally ovely thankyou note from Dolores - she's organizing an annual golfing event in memory of Ken during the summer and hopefully I might make it over there. Currently starting the next cycle of charity earnings - will keep you posted