Green granny fasts in Maidenhead

By Emma Midgley
BBC Berkshire

Barbara raised £16,700 for Oxfam in 2008 from donations and sponsors

Cookham granny Barbara Walmsley, who has reached thousands on the internet with her energy-saving tips, is fasting for 38 hours for charity this weekend.

The 72-year-old, who has become well-known for her appearances on the video-sharing website YouTube, has taken part in the fast for 24 years.

"I used to stand outside with a sign around my neck saying 'Do not feed, I'm fasting for Oxfam," said Barbara.

"I fast for 38 hours, drinking only water and powdered glucose.

"I do get hungry, but the glucose stops me feeling sick. These days I stand just inside the door to keep warm."

Barbara's fundraising effort begins 10 days before the fast.

"I hold a coffee morning which raises between £500 and £700," she said.

"Every year I have a guest speaker. This year it was the master of horticulture Brian Fisher, but in previous year John Mortimer, Colin Dexter and Clare Tomalin have come to the coffee mornings.

Following the coffee morning, Barbara will stand inside Sainsbury's in Maidenhead from Friday October 30 to Sunday 1 November 2009, raising money while she carries out her 38-hour fast.

Barbara is known to thousands from her appearances on YouTube

She said: "I will fast from 0700 to 2100 on Friday on October 30, then from 0700 until 2000 on Saturday, and from 1030 to 1700 on Sunday."

Aged 72, Barbara admitted that she found the fast 'quite tiring'.

She said: "I am a practising Christian, but I am motivated to do this by humanitarian reasons. I do it to highlight how ever people live."

"We live in a world which is very unequal. People throw away things such as food and don't value what they have got.

"So many people in the world live on the breadline."

Barbara describes herself as a practising Church of England Christian. Her husband is a lay minister at Holy Trinity Church in Cookham.

Barbara began fasting annually in 1985, when the event took place across the country in order to raise money for charity.

"Oxfam used to run the fast nationally," she explained. "It used to be a very big thing. There were a lot of schoolchildren and students taking part in the fast. But then times moved on. People got worried about it promoting anorexia, or being dangerous to health, and it came to an end."

However, by then Barbara was raising so much money through her fast that she decided to carry on.

Last year Barbara raised £16,700 for Oxfam, and she hopes to increase that total this year.

She said: "Every year I raise more money".