You can now help ETSETH right now as you read this

We have now put a "Donate" button to the right of this posting which means you can help us without moving.

If you have a Paypal account it's a doddle but you can also use your debit or credit card using the secure system. We welcome anything you can give, whether it's a pound or a grand. And every single penny will go towards helping with the projects or the very people we are working with. And we want this to be completely transparent so we are looking for an accountant who would give an hour or two each month to verify payments and receipts. Unlike other charities we have no overheads, no staff to pay, no hidden expenses. Everything we use has been given.

So let me tell you how we have helped apart from plastering, painting and decorating and the other necessary work like elecrics and carpentry. We havet tried to add those personal touches that were missing and, although inexpensive, have been beyond the immediate reach of those we were helping. A painting on a wall: a football signed by the local team, a rug on the floor.

The difference it's made has just been unbelievable. It's brought pride and enjoyment. It's brought a new lease of life. And you can be part of that because the more we receive the more we can give. And they say it's better to give than receive. I'll tell you what it does do. It gives you a warm feeling and hopefully i;'s make you smile. And that smile might just brighten someone else's day. And perhaps that "someone else" will say a kind something to another and so it goes on.

Tell you what. If you give way to someone when you are out driving watch that person. In nearly 70% of cases they'll give way to someone else. And even those who don't give way in turn have found to be happier than before someone let them into the traffic.

So all you have to do is click on the "Donate" button. It takes just a couple of minutes and will heklp someone locally in need. . . . .

. . . . and make you feel 7 ft tall!

Want to set up your own group then just e-mail me now. E-mail: etseth@hotmail.co.uk

Have a really good day.

Jamie

Dinner with Industry at the Dragon Hotel where I was guest speaker

I spoke at the Bright Futures Society Dinner with Industry last Tuesday evening at the Dragon Hotel. It was a great evening and an opportunity for me to tell a large group of people about ETSETH.

Bright Futures is the Swansea University Society that aims to give under-graduates life and employment skills. Held at the Dragon Hotel 70 under-graduates paid to attend with 30 guests from all fields of industry. There is an almost speed-dating element as the students talk to the guests on their table then move after each course. They have the opportunity to ask questions and present themselves to up to 12 business people during dinner plus mingle at the champagne reception.

 The master of ceremonies for the evening was Chris Wilding, the Society’s President with 2 guest speakers. Jackie Jobes, who graduated last year from Swansea University was a committee member with Bright Futures and now works as a Regional Development Officer for the National Organisation. She spoke of the problems she’d experienced in her first two years as an under-graduate and how Bright Futures had changed her life around. It was a down-to-earth talk that many students could relate to: it presented them with the opportunities open to them.

At the after dinner networking both students and businesses came forward to support me with offers to help in different ways. I hope they are as eager when I call them back.

Dinner with Industry was a great success for both under-graduates and their guests taking away good contacts. The evening proved that we should be proud of our young people.

How ETSETH Started

 I'm Jamie Denyer and I must tell you I've been asked to speak to about 90 university students and 30 business people at the Dragon Hotel in Swansea at the Dinner for Industry event. I'm really chuffed!

ETSETH is a project I started I January 2009 (great timing Jamie, right at the pinnacle of the credit crunch) and through it I’ve discovered that by using the skills and talents that we all possess, we can make a change in someone’s life so massive, so meaningful and so magnificent that I wonder why I hadn’t done it before.

“Enlarge the spirit, encourage the heart” has become my motto and my mindset. It’s how I live each day .If you do a good deed or something nice for someone then you “enlarge their spirit” that will then “encourage their heart” to do something nice for somebody else – and so the pay it forward domino effect continues. I love doing it and this is how I started.

I phoned up a reporter at the South Wales Evening Post and explained that I’d like to plaster a room free of charge for deserving families. Add together the strange offer/request and my London accent and I don’t know whether she believed me or thought I should be sectioned. Luckily enough she believed me and exclaimed it was a fantastic idea. She ran an original article and told me to contact her when I’d chosen my first make-over. In her first article she’d explained the concept and asked people to send in a letter to nominate someone they thought deserving. And so I waited.

I was prepared for what I thought would be written in those letters . . . . but I wasn’t prepared enough! Unfortunately the content in some of them was horrific and harrowing: to say I was hit emotionally would be an understatement. And it broke my heart that I couldn’t help them all straight away.

So after careful deliberation between my wife and myself I chose a project. The recipient was a man called Gareth, a 69 year old who had suffered a brain tumour. He spent most of his time in his kitchen watching a black and white TV with a rayburn cooker for warmth. He had to live in his kitchen because his living room was, well, DEAD!!!

The ceiling was falling down in places, walls all rough and flaking paint. Sections of the plasterboard were missing above the door (which let in a terrible draught) so it was ETSETH to the rescue.

Gareth’s daughter has nominated him and he knew nothing about what was going on or what was about to happen. It felt amazing when I went around and talked to Gareth, had a cup of tea (no sugar, I’m sweet enough!) and told him the good news.

 And so the first ETSETH project had began. It was a long and full day, I’ll grant you, but I did it with a smile on my face. Of course it was hard work but this kind of job was “heart work”.

Once I was finished, the newspaper ran a follow-up story on Gareth’s project and as a result a flood of nominations came in as people could see what it was that I was doing. And because of that the project got more exposure. So after the first three makeovers things really started to take off: and help came in through many different avenues. The most surprising and welcome was from a guy called Kelvin and his colleague Warren of Selco in Llansamlet. Suddenly they began donating building materials I needed each month. And they have done s ever since. They are big guys with bigger hearts. I also received an offer of a 7-page website for a fraction of the cost from a guy called Andrew Downie in Wind Street.

Vinyl vehicle graphics of the project logo were donated by a lady called Sharon Perks of Signs Express in Llansamlet. I had printed and embroidered given by two different companies. Firstly, Steve of Personally Yours in Gorseignon High Street and James at J & S in Tycoch, A great result all round.

On top of all of that things were moving forward on the labour front too. Other trades men and women that I’d got to know through paid jobs got to know what it was that I was doing and offered to help. So before I realised it, plasterer Dean Colclough and  apprentice, carpenters Mike & Chris Jones together with Steve Hollands. There was also building and carpentry work from Peter Ryan and Gareth. Painting was provided by Emma Lizkger and electrics by Andrew Hooper. So from all that I think you can see that things were getting rather lively.

It’s very hard to put a negative spin on the entire situation with all these lovely people helping and I have nothing but gratitude for them all. The only glitch is the temporary “feel good factor” that has affected some people. Some trades-people see what I’m doing, get the “feel good factor” and offer their services. When I get back to them a couple of days later they say they’ve thought it over and can’t help for one reason or another. But “hey ho”. If that’s the only downside then I’ll live with it. So long as I have the people beside me that are there already then it’ll be tickety boo!!

You see,the reason I started this and ciontinue to do so is because of the change that you can make in someone's life. There will be the obvious changes that will be evident straight away: but btrust me, therte will be a bundle of changes you never even thought possible, and that's whereb the beauty lies.


Every single one of my projects are worthy and I learn and take something from each one of them . Gareth was my first and I will tell you about some more . . . . starting next time.

The birth of ETSETH. And it's certainly not as painful as having a baby

Here I am in God's Country and ready to take on the world. Fresh air, beautiful scenery and some of the best people you will ever, ever meet. If I'd know Wales was this good I'd have come sooner! It's so good you have to pay to get in. Money well spent in my book.

Soon after my arrival in Wales, in September 2008, with everything I'd gone through, coupled with the fact that no matter where you looked, TV, radio and newspapers, it was complete and utter doom and gloom. And I thought to myself "Enough is enough" and what could I do to spread a bit of positivity?

And so ETSETH was born! What is ETSETH? You'll have to wait a little while so just be patient.

The experiences I've had through ETSETH . . . . 
 

. . . . the people I have met who are inspirational, what I learned and taken from each project, the Swansea Pride Awards (which was one of the best nights in my life!), Articles in the Evening Post, Wales on Sunday, Manchester's Weekly News, Swansea Life Magazine, interviews on the internet radio show In Town Today, and the Jamie & Louise Show on BBC Radio Wales.

The greatest day of my life was 4^th June 2010, the day I married my littler lump of Welsh loveliness at Craig-y-nos castle. The sun was shining, all my family were there and I had the most beautiful bride in the world. What more could I ask for. I was one happy camper and all the time it just gets better. I'm strapping myself in and enjoying this fantastic ride. I do not want to get off!!

I've realised as I've gone along that life's path is strewn with hurdles, potholes and land-mines that we have to negotiate. We will trip, stumble and fall, of that there is no doubt. But we have to get up, dust ourselves down and go on again. Learn from each experience and use it in a positive way :for out of our darkest days come our greatest triumphs" and for whatever we go through it's no reason not to be a better person and help others, along with helping ourselves.

It will awaken something in you that you never knew you had. All of a sudden you are living life instead of merely existing.Most of all you are making a difference and that one thing can be a drop in the ocean that creates a ripple that turns into a tidal wave. Just imagine if everyone did that, it would be a tsunami of beauty. That's a truly phenomenal prospect. Think about it!!!

I think we are in a mindset of "no-one helps me or has done anything for me, so why should I do anything for anyone else". That way of thinking has to go. Be a shepherd that leads, not a sheep who follows.

When we give to others, and it can be anything – our skills, our profession, money, love and just simply giving your time – can be priceless. And if you give any of these with the best intentions and will then you'll get so much more back. I'm talking about the sense of good and well-being, and this is a feeling that cannot be described.

We don't realise what power we hold in our hands. We all have talent and we all have skills that we can use in a most positive and productive way to help others. "Blessed is he that serves others, for it's in giving that we receive" and it's true, trust me. I've had feelings I've never felt before. I've learnt things I never thought I would, and I've met some of the most wonderful, humble, inspirational and phenomenal people. And for that I'm grateful. 
 

We learn daily as we go along. My lessons continue. We make a living and that's what we get, but we make a life out of what we give.

So what is ETSETH? And why is it so empowering to those people who have helped me and those whom we have helped?

Please watch out for my continuing story by following this blog. Why not click and become a follower. Should you wish to just leave a message or support in any other way then go to the website by clicking here
See you soon

Jamie

From deepest Essex to Sunny Swansea

At 16 I went into plastering full-time with Shaun, my brother-in-law. But I started working when I was thirteen and a half. I worked through my school holidays and so from that early age I hardly had a summer break, only when I went abroad.

The next couple of years consisting of working all the time, girlfriends (again) break-ups, getting back together and breaking up again, pubs and clubs as life plodded along.

Nothing much to report really apart from a year of chronic illness. . . .

. . . . And the illness came to an end in a very strange way. In a nutshell all the ligaments and cartilages in my feet wore away, which left my feet in very, very strange shapes due to swelling. I was also in an aweful lot of pain. The thought of chopping them off crossed my mind once or twice, let me tell you. And after getting lots of treatments which included anti-inflammatory, t strength pain killers and a few cortisone injections straight into my feet. Still no change. I was desperate but my cure came in the form of a guy called Ray Brown.

Ray Brown was a former Irish bricklayer but no longer. Now he has a 2000 year old spirit called Paul who was a friend of Jesus Christ, working through him. Paul cures and heals people. And crazy as it sounds Paul healed me. He gave me back my life and I’ll be forever grateful for that.

Don’t be afraid of the unknown because you’ll never know how it can help you, or indeed when you’ll need it.

Fast forward to the ripe old age of 25 and that’s when I met a girl from Essex who I later married. That relationship ended and it was a bitter blow. Anyone who has been told those words “It’s over” will understand. You invest so much time, so much energy, so much heart and soul into it, that when it’s taken away it really knocks you down. To me it was a right old sucker punch, took the wind right out of my sails, if I’m honest. My faith in a lot of things had been taken away. And what happened was a time of emotional distress.

Sudden change and due to the fact I had paid out a lot in equity to my ex because I stayed in the house. Then, very soon afterwards, the credit crunch happened. So add together falling property prices, less work around, a single income, higher mortgage, personal loans, credit cards, and two young plasterers I kept in work equalled financial hardship. Here’s no shame in getting knocked down. We all get knocked down. It’s how we get back up that matters.

Like I said my faith in a lot of things had been taken away and I may have been on a bit of a downward spiral. . . . that was until I met my destiny.

My destiny, my saviour, if you will, and my little ray of sunshine. In a nutshell the person I was put on this earth for: which turned out to be a little lump of loveliness from Wales. Classic!! So realising soon after meeting her that I had to be with this girl, I put my house on the market and waited, and waited and waited. As many of you will know, things weren’t just moving at that particular time. But after 8 months of hasstle and aggro, shed-loads of miles due to the Essex and Swansea commute, the joyous day came, the day I could leave the Essex trap. Yes!!

So after paying the solicitors and estate agents along with some smaller loans I’d taken out, I walked away with just £1500 in my pocket from the sale of that house. But my mindset was that I was grateful that had any money at all: there were so many people in negative equity and were really struggling. Those people didn’t have the luxury of a clean slate and a fresh start as I had – so I was blessed.

So here I am in God’s country and ready to take on the world. But you’ll have to wait til the next posting.

Please watch out for my continuing story by following this blog. Why not click and become a follower. Should you wish to just leave a message or support in any other way then go to the website by clicking here
See you soon
Jamie

Rapping the Night Away and stuff

The need for positive male influences in my life came firstly in the form of my grandad, "Gramps" as he is known to me – who arranged amongst other things taught me to swim in the Brighton sea, play cards, appreciate a good stroll and what a good whiskey tastes like (not when was nine though . . . I was nine and a half!). When I was little I used to think he was a giant and now at 92 years he remains that to me in every sense of the word.

Then there was my brother-in-law, my oldest sister’s husband, Shaun . . . I learned my trade from this man that has held me in stead all my life. This is the man I have explored the inside of pubs with, started off chants at football with, had some classic heart-to-hearts with and finished off some pukka curries late on a Friday night with. Above all Shaun was one of my best mates and will always remain so.

In a nutshell, from all of them, my mum, nan, Gramps, sisters and brother-in-law I have had the most amazing amount of love. Thank you!!

I suppose everything started getting interesting when I was about 13 and girls were on the scene. It was about this time that Vanilla Ice brought out his massive hit “Ice! Ice! Baby”. I’d always been into hip-hop and rap music. I mean, when I was 10, the first concert my sister took me to was a triple at the Brighton Centre of The Beastie Boys, LL Cool J and Public Enemy. But I went mental for that Vanilla Ice tune, so much so that I had all the zigzag lines cut in my hair and had black/blonde streaks at the front: I mean, I really went to town. And it was this time that had a massive input and impact on my life. It was 1990 that the song came out and that year my sister and brother-in-law took my niece and me away to the Isle of Wight where we stayed in a holiday camp. And as at all holidays camps they had dance competitions, games and, before X-Factor or BGT was a twinkle in Simon’s eye, they had singing/talent competitions. .

And that was where Vanilla Ice comes in.

During the auditions I started chatting to a younger boy called Nyrone and it became very clear, very quickly that both of us loved the same music. And it was then that the idea hit me . . . so from going from not knowing what to do to knowing exactly what to do.

Like I said it was at this time that I became really into girls. And looking into that crowd it was polluted with crumpet. They were all looking up at the next wannabe boy band or solo artiste and it was then that I thought we’ve got a chance here!” After 4 boys who were more like Dogslife than Westlife had finished it was our turn. All the others had their backing tracks to sing to and as Nyrone and me took to the stage they asked for our tape (tape? Get with it grandad!) to which I replied “We only need 2 mics” and were met with a very puzzled look from the compere.

After 10 seconds silence I shouted the immortal words “Yo, v.i.p. lets kick it” and that’s the moment Nyrone started his beatboxing (making the beats with his mouth) and I rapped the whole sound over it. The girls – and the whole crowd - had never seen anything like it before, and they properly loved it. For the rest of the week we were like superstars. Safe to say we won the competition and went on to the National Finals in Scarborough (very Vagas) and came second to a Rick Astley tribute with a waistcoat and frilly shirt!!! But we had a whale of a time and a little taster of what a certain Mr Cardle is feeling right now.

Oh! before I forget, Nyrone’s surname is Nosworthy, he’s now playing right back in the Premiership for Sunderland. Well done. I’m proud of you mate . . . I wonder if he ever regrets the split of the duo. Playing football, the money, the girls, the fame! NOT A CHANCE!

The next two years were pretty run of the mill you know: girlfriends, house parties, first taste of alcohol . . . I mean, getting so drunk that you wake up in a field in just pants, socks and shoes with a half ton cow standing over you licking it’s lips . . . you know, all the normal stuff!!

Please watch out for my continuing story by following this blog. Why not click and become a follower. Should you wish to just leave a message or support in any other way then go to the website by clicking here
See you soon
Jamie

To Start at the Beginning

Hi I'm Jamie Denyer, a plasterer, living in Gorseignon, near Swansea in South Wales and I created and run Etseth which stands for "Enlarge the Spirit, Encourage the Heart". 
I give up just one day a month to help people who will benefit from it. And as a plasterer that's what I do. So I started off plastering a room for someone and now I have a whole team giving time and money. Other trades-guys like me help with electrical work, painting and decorating, plumbing and so on. Meanwhile I've found some really generous suppliers who freely give the supplies I need to complete the jobs. I hope you find my story inspiring (because I am inspired every time I see the face of some-one we've helped), and even feel you can support us. I find this just so rewarding.

My dream is to see an Etseth Group in every city, town and village across the globe, but lets start here in Neath, South Wales and see what we have accomplished so far..

But to start at the beginning . . . . . 

From toddler up to 8 years old was littered with the "same olds" the "same olds" as everyone else really. All the usual mooching around with mates, climbing trees, riding our BMXs, skateboards and scooters and the like. One thing that I really remember vividly about this time was how accident prone I was. If there was a trophy given out for bruises, scratches and cuts then I'd be lying under an mountain of them. I could have sold them to China and made a fortune!

I was 9 years old when my Dad left home and when I look back I can't remember any clear-cut signs that would indicate him swerving off. Since then I've been told and remembered stuff that would answer a few questions - but that's another story. But swerve off he did and of course I was upset. In some ways I blamed myself: I thought I had been too naughty, that I'd not shown my Dad enough love and that I was a bad lad. All the usual stuff that would go through a kid's mind!

All that aside now, looking back now, I never missed out on anything by not having him around - not a damd thing. You see I had some of the most positively influential people around me.

Firstly my Mum who was both a mum and dad to me. Mainly because she grew up with 3 brothers. She used to fight their battles for them. . . I mean literally fight their battles. She taught me all the usual life-skills that all of us need, should have, and should practice every day. Things like morals, manners and respect to name but a few. . . . .  but one of the most important skills she taught me were the Jab, Cross,Hook and the Upper Cut Combo. And trust me they got me out of many, many a high spot . . . thanks Mum.

Besides my Mum I had a support system either side of me in the shape of my sisters, who I don't think will ever know what they have done for me and continue to do. They'll never know how they helped me through life. They have my undying and unconditional love forever. Watch out for the next installment.

Please watch out for my continuing story by following this blog. Why not click and become a follower. Should you wish to just leave a message or support in any other way then go to the website by clicking here
See you soon
Jamie