Take some of the more unique or just plain weird fund-raising ideas from the last few years. Most notable of these was the Original Ditch Monkey - real name Hugh Sawyer - who in 2005 decided to spend 12 weeks living in nothing more than a ditch to raise funds for the Woodland Trust, whilst also continuing to travel to his day job at auctioneers Sotheby's. After spending his allotted time in the woodland ditch the 32-year-old Oxford law graduate decided to extend his effort to a whole year, in an attempt to raise £8,000, and got very close to his target before calling a halt. He is now reported to be holed up in the Rainforest.

In the same year, and all in aid of Cancer Research, the 'Booby Sisters' - Tania Amazon and Laura Hawkins - raised an impressive sum of over £5,000 by walking from the London Eye to Parliament Square, a relatively short sponsored walk. However, the brave girls opted to reveal their ample assets along the entire route, in mid- November no less, which probably explains the high level of contributions, and also the reason why so many of their sponsors turned out to ensure the girls made the trek!

As those humorous examples prove, there are many different ways of giving to charity and indeed some people dedicate a significant part of their life to raising funds for various causes. This month it has been widely reported that the late Jeremy Beadle was responsible for raising in excess of £100million on behalf of Leukaemia research before ironically becoming a victim of the disease himself.

But, somewhere in between those examples of weird and wacky and lifelong devotion fall the majority of fundraisers. Most of us at some point or another have done a sponsored run, hike or bike ride in favour of a favourite charity. You can even give to those less fortunate by doing nothing more strenuous than drinking a cup of coffee! The 'World's Biggest Coffee Morning' is quite possibly the largest single cause co-ordinated, indoor , and raised almost £7.5million in 2007.

Whether it's crazy stunts, dogged determination or just a plain old-fashioned sponsored walk, it seems the great British public will always stump up for a deserving charity.