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.

I just had another email saying it's back up...and successfully submitted my entry

Likewise.

Try your junk folder, both my emails today have gone in there. They were from Lumos.

Yeah, mine were in the spam folder.

Personally I wouldn't enter a draw to win a meal with a saint or a genius. That's not what makes me want to spend time with somebody, but to each their own!

Edit - but I have entered this draw!

Well... it would be rude not to wouldn't it!

So I got sent another email (I tried earlier but website was down) - it’s a link to a Google Docs form. I’m so paranoid though - is this what other people who already donated have received a link to?

Yes. At least I think that's what it was!

Yes i got the new email and have entered successfully. Then again I've been out and had a few so I assume it's all legit!

So popular the Lumos site crashed - so her coders have responded incredibly fast and on a Friday evening to get up an alternative method through Google Forms (so if you see a Google Form it is valid) - however big the capacity of Lumos’ website, Google is so much bigger it shouldn’t be overloaded, so a clever solution…

fun watching this and seeing a clever bunch of people fixing it almost in real time!

Cheers will fill it out now!

I managed it too. Even though the free entry thing and the extended time frame reduces my chances of success, I'm glad JKR is getting such a clear demonstration of just how many people are out there who support her after most of the powers that be tried to cancel her.

I remember on a milestone anniversary of the first HP film, Warner Bros held a big event or filmed a documentary or something (I can't remember exactly as I didn't engage once I realised what they'd done) without inviting or mentioning JKR.

JkR is an astonishing woman, bless her.

I’m in! And it’s done.

I’ve got a bulging ‘slipped’ disc at the moment so I may need to have stunt double if I win, if it’s more than a nice easy bums-on-seats dinner and conversation. 🙂

She talks about a "fun evening". Not karaoke. Please not. I couldn't survive that....

Somebody else can have my ticket if it's karaoke.

I galently volunteer to be your stunt double if you win!

I can shatter glass and send cats insane with my singing if you need a stand in!

I managed to get in at 3am this morning when getting up for my usual early hours wee. I definitely don’t want to take my donation back. I’d like to think that no one will go down that route.

I've checked my spam folder and haven't had any messages from Lumos. I donated previously and have since entered the free draw. Am hoping I still have a chance to win!

I’ve not received an email either, though it said my entry had been registered. Wish I knew what it meant.

Can I guess what the topic of conversation over dinner will be? Trans people?

Sounds exhilarating.

Stop projecting, you silly billy. We’re going to talk about hydraulic engineering in arid landscapes.

Christ. I hope not. How boring

I imagine that would be the last topic they would possibly consider if looking to have fun.