My life in pictures #2

This is me in October 2012, taking part in the Whizz-Kidz Neon Nightwalk with 20 of my colleagues from both our Head Office and one of our branches. The challenge was to walk 10 miles through the night through the streets of London to raise money for children in need of electric wheelchairs and other mobility equipment, taking in the wonderful sights along the way.

 

All together through corporate and personal sponsorship, we raised over £6k, putting that towards the amazing fundraising total of £18,576 that our company managed to raise for Whizz-Kidz throughout 2012.

 

We started the walk at 7pm with over 100 other people and it was hard to keep all of our ladies motivated for the whole 10 miles, especially with the hustle and bustle going on all around us! We finally got to the Mall at 11.50pm just 10 minutes before our coach was meant to leave from Victoria station, and so unfortunately we missed out on the last five minutes of the walk (and missed out on enjoying the cupcakes and welcome celebrations back at Whizz-Kidz HQ!) but it was such a great feat to achieve - and I think we had actually completed 10 miles if you add on the accidental diversions when we got slightly lost along the route!

 

Whizz-Kidz is a charity that is all about giving disabled children the chance to lead a more independent life. They estimate that over 70,000 children at any one time are in need or on the waiting list for electric wheelchairs or other mobility equipment that will give them a better quality of life and help them to have what they deserve - the chance to be a kid. They have been our corporate charity partner since May 2011 and we are continuing to support them until the end of 2013. 2011 saw a shaky start for fundraising, as our company was not used to having a charity partner and this was all new to us so ideas were slow off the ground. But as Charity Co-ordinator I was so happy to achieve such an amazing amount last year. We had branch golf days, colleagues taking part in brilliant runs such as the Edinburgh half marathon and the Great North run, plus an event I organised a Back to the Floor Directors' Challenge, where branches put together a fundraising plan to bid for a Director to work at their branch for the day, doing whatever the branch decides they should do - whether that is making tea, sweeping the warehouse, answering the phone and more!

 

At our annual conference in January I invited a Whizz-Kidz ambassador to join us and give a presentation to show us first hand how Whizz-Kidz has helped his life and many others throughout the UK. It was safe to say that I have never seen so many grown men with a tear in their eye!

 

Whizz-Kidz really is an excellent charity and I can't wait for our branches to get into the flow of coming up with bigger and better ideas to raise even more money this year. I am hoping to somehow incorporate my new found love of running into a fundraising challenge, so any ideas you may have would be much appreciated!

 

Dans