Donate £10 to Lumos and have dinner with JKR

[fromorbit]

JKR has made a very generous offer on Twitter:

J.K. Rowling
https://x.com/jk_rowling/status/1929113511004664078

I mean this, by the way. Donate £10 to lumos, I'll draw three names out of a hat and we'll have dinner. It could be KFC, but the wonderful JamesChiavarini has just suggested his restaurant, so it might be there instead (travel and accommodation on me if you're not in London).

Offer stands! Applications close at midnight on Monday. A £10 donation means your name will go into the draw.

https://wearelumos.org/how-you-can-help/donate/

If your name’s chosen and you’re outside London (or the UK) I’ll pay for travel and accommodation.

Once donations have been verified with Lumos I’ll select three donors’ names at random (can’t promise a literal hat, but who knows).

I’ll match the total sum donated to Lumos between first offer and midnight Monday.

And once my three fellow diners have been chosen, we’ll have a vote on whether we’re having KFC or going to Il Portico.

Additional offer from John Boyne:

John Boyne

£10 donated to Lumos. Whoever has the good fortune to win the raffle and have dinner with you, I'll donate £1,000 to the charity of his or her choosing.

This was inspired by JKR's ongoing twitter spat with Jolyon:

I've never sought to auction dinner with myself at a Michelin-starred restaurant with ‘a selection of wines from [my] own cellar’ as you have, Jolyon, but if anyone wants to bung Lumos £10, I'll draw a name out of a hat and we'll split a KFC bargain bucket.

Oh I agree. I wouldn't ask for a refund. I donate to Lumos as and when I can anyway.

I can't get the link in my email or the link on this thread to work at all. I will try again at a more quiet time!

The update says:
''IMPORTANT UPDATE ON KFC WITH JKR PRIZE DRAW🍗 I’ve been tangled in a certain amount of legal red tape after having this bright idea 😖, but the offer still stands and is, in fact, improved! If you generously donated – and I can’t thank you enough if you did - Lumos will be in touch with an update. For legal reasons, this now has to be a free draw, which means a) you have the right to un-donate and b) you will still need to enter the new draw even if you donated before. For everyone who’d like to enter, the free draw is now open until midnight (BST) on Sunday. Here’s where to register and the all-important T&Cs:

https://www.wearelumos.org/free-prize-draw/

''As I don’t want Lumos to lose out, I will make up the shortfall of anyone taking their donation back and will still match the total raised during the original 48 hours (I’ll announce how much was raised once we’ve got our winners.) As I don’t want original donors’ odds of winning to diminish by this necessary change to the prize draw rules, I’m doubling the number of winners. SIX people will now have KFC (or some vegan, vegetarian or fancier alternative) with me, rather than three. I have a plan for a very fun evening. Trust me on this. We are now legal-red-tape-compliant! Winners will be announced next week.''

I'm the same. I will try again later.

I filled in the free draw form but had no kind of confirmation. Hopefully it worked.

She really is simply the best. She's not afraid to act on impulse but also puts her hands up and explains the legalities involved. I love how she says she has for a very fun evening and to trust her on this. She is faultless in my eyes.

Good of her to donate travel and accommodation ( if not in London) but she can't afford a Michelin dinner for two?

Or have I misunderstood?

It’s a joke, that unfolded over time.

It’s almost certainly a meal at Portico in London, donated by the owner. It started as a joke about having dinner, sharing a bucket of KFC or whatever you prefer. It has extended to a proper plan but is still being referred to as kfc.

The server is down for me too. Lots of people wanting free kfc!

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.

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

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!

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...

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.

My email was in Spam- do check.

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.

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?

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.

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...

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

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

I think that was always the plan.

Then why set up this dodgy 'joke' fundraiser?

What’s wrong, Words??

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

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