Last year, if you recall, we had a bit of a TSF family emergency. Our beloved leader, Thomas, got into a bit of a disagreement with two parties - gravity and the floor - that generally don’t lose such arguments, and his resultant medical bills were such that we felt compelled to help out, however we could.

“We”, of course, turned out to be not just TSF, but our friends over at Cartilage Free Captain as well, who stepped up to such an extent that we gave them control of our site for the day as a thank you. We had so much fun with the challenge that we’re throwing down the gauntlet again. We didn’t throw Thomas off another climbing wall, though - we’re going to make this an annual thing, and rotate our charitable giving a bit. This year, it’s my turn.

And this year, it’s a straight-up race to see who can raise more money for their charity - The Short Fuse or Cartilage Free Captain. Between today and next Wednesday, August 10th, whichever site raises the most money for their charity gets to run the other site for a day at some point in the near future.

What is our charity? It’s one that’s near and dear to my heart. My mother suffered from primary progressive Multiple Sclerosis for 14 years before passing away at the age of 42, when I was 13. I have spent much of my adult life fundraising for MS research and support, and this year, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society is TSF’s chosen charity. Every year, the Society runs a bike ride which is one of their main fundraisers for the year, and every year, I raise money via said bike ride.

This year, we are asking you to donate to my bike ride - and just like last year, there are incentives to do so. The whole “TSF Social Media Shoutout” from last year didn’t prove all that popular, so we’re skipping that one, but we will continue the most popular incentive from last year: If you donate $100, you get to write your very own column, about whatever you want, on The Short Fuse Dot Com. And that incentive repeats for every $100 - feeling crazy? Want to donate $300? That’s three columns for you!

Now, there are limits to that - “whatever you want” has to be Arsenal-related, and we get final editorial approval and reserve the right to work with you to revise so a piece is up to our standards - but yeah, if you donate $100 to my ride, you get a column.

There’s also the big prize: If someone* feels inspired to donate $1000, I will get the TSF logo tattooed somewhere that is visible on my body.** I will also get said tattoo if we win the challenge overall.

Here’s where the competition part comes in. CFC has also nominated a charity, and from today until August 10, we’re in a race - whoever raises the most money for their site’s charity in a week gets to run the loser’s site for a day. Their chosen charity is Noah’s Ark Hospice, the official charity of Tottenham Hotspur.

Not gonna lie, this is quite the challenge - their site is bigger than ours. On any given day, they come close to doubling our readership. But as we learned last year, you all are awesome people who love to step up to a challenge like this. Think of it as all of us chipping in to buy them a lasagna on the last day of the season, if it helps.

Now, for the math: If everyone who reads TSF in a given day gives even $1, I will raise comfortably north of $10,000 for the MS Society. That would be astounding, and I would probably collapse in a teary puddle of gratitude. No matter what you choose to give, though, I will be utterly thrilled and forever in your debt.

So if you’d like to join the rest of your fellow TSF’ers in both helping to defeat MS and, just as importantly, in keeping CFC one spot below us in the table, please click here to donate. And tell your friends. And family. And coworkers. And Facebook/Twitter/etc. followers.

Thank you so much, from me and on behalf of those living with MS.

*”Someone” being defined as “An individual or not more than two people combining forces”

**visible, like, on an arm, not like a Mike Tyson face tattoo or a Felix Hernandez neck tattoo