Donate £10 to Lumos and have dinner with JKR

I certainly don't think she's a saint, nor would I say she qualifies as a genius and I haven't read any of her books so I can't comment on her writing skills. However I would like to personally thank her for giving me the strength and bravery to stand up for women's rights at a time when it was very dangerous to do so.

A very fair point @DialSquare . I will bow out now and observe. Good luck with the raffle!

Oh the fucking irony. I think you’re the one being patronising by accusing us of “fangirling” and then acting all superior about her being average. You don’t like her? Fine. Don’t enter the competition to have a chance of dinner with her. But then you wouldn’t have been able to come on here and sneer if you just ignored it would you.

chimp because I am neither her publicist nor her lawyer.

Anyway we are derailing this thread so I will sit back and see what happens next.

Good luck to all those desperate to share take away fried chicken or a slap up Michelin meal with the Great One

@tellmewhenthespaceshiplandscoz - you might be able to fish the deleted email out of a bin - sometimes they only really delete after 30 days or something.

The links in the email are not currently working. I'm guessing there is huge demand. But the competition is free to enter anyway (because of the law) so you don't need to be 'linked' to your donation. If you can get onto the form, you'll be able to fill out your details.

You're entitled to your opinion absolutely and I don't think JKR will mind in the least. I have to say for a 'mediocre' writer she's doing pretty good.

Is there something bothering you in particular about this free raffle? I can't see who or what would be the loser here. It's fun and a little exciting and Lumos benefits from extra funds.

Gah - so I had the email earlier, clicked the link to again say yes, definitely still include me in the prize draw but like an idiot deleted the email. Then tried to enter my info on lumos when site crashed …

I now cannot find the blinking email in my deleted items or anywhere but can’t be sure my consent got through …

Any suggestions? I know I won’t win but still absolutely want to be in that hat!!!

Why don’t you tell her how you feel and i’m positive she’ll see it from your perspective and pull the plug on the whole thing. 🙄

Don't be so patronising please.

I've been here for very many years and always been puzzled by the massive fangirling of JKR. She is in my opinion a very average writer who managed to hit it big with clever marketing.

I don't think she is quite the saint or genius people make her out to be.

Server still down I’m assuming it’s a dos attack tbh (or am I just cynical?)

What’s wrong, Words??

I don’t think Mumsnet, or this thread is the best place for you.

Then why set up this dodgy 'joke' fundraiser?

I think that was always the plan.

The Lumos server is clearly down. I'll try again later

She founded the charity. I'm betting she's given them a fair few million and then some over the years.

I think she is matching any withdrawn donations - not all donations - but then I suspect a big chunk of her money probably already supports Lumos...

That nothing a half decent solicitor couldn’t remedy, and she’s matching the donations, so Lumos will get double-bubble.

Everyone’s a winner.

We’re all different, Words.

Some of us love her, so we would love to have dinner with her.

Who would you like to have dinner with, celebrity-wise?

Oh dear. Seems as well thought through as a Meghan Markle business plan!

She should shelve the whole idea, donate a few spare million to this charity and bung her friend at Portico a handsome amount also.

My email was in Spam- do check.

It would be very poor form if anyone were to request a refund now they know they can enter the draw for free.
I hope there aren't many people who will do that.

there is British law that if you have to make a payment for entry to a competition - it becomes a lottery, and then you need to be licensed - the simplest way around that is to allow free entries and then it effectively becomes unlicensed.

I think that is probably the small legal bump - but it doesn't really matter - I donated quite a bit to Lumos on the basis that:

• I like what they do
• I love JKR's sense of humour in putting this up as an offer...
• If I won a slot to eat KFC with JKR that would be amazing, but I suspect the lottery might be a better option in terms of odds...

Thanks my place. I get it now. Good publicity for the restaurant I guess.

I won't be taking part as I am in the tiny minority who think her books are hugely over rated so conversation might be a little stilted!

I would remove the link from posts here fairly urgently PPs…

I made my donation earlier in the week (Tuesday, I think). At the time I thought I'd missed the deadline but wanted to donate anyway. I can access the site and hope that this means Lumos is inundated with support. Will try again later and let you know if I succeed.

I'd be grateful if people here can say if they do manage to get onto the site.