At the beginning of this year we decided as a company we wanted to challenge ourselves to do something out of the ordinary. We decided if we were going to do something we should try and raise funds alongside it for charity. We decided to partner with the mental health charity Mind.
MIND campaigns to improve services, raise awareness and promote understanding. Whether you’re living with a mental health problem or supporting someone who is, having access to the right resources is vital. Mental health affects each of us in different ways and this is the reason we have decided to partner with MIND.
As a challenge, we decided that we would cycle to Pairs over 3 days totalling over 315km. We are a relatively small business and we wanted to raise as much money as we could for charity, so we decided to open the cycle up to friends, family and clients. Somehow we managed to convince 25 people to commit to the challenge.
We set a goal to raise £30,000 amongst us all. This was an ambitious target but we knew that this charity sits very close to a lot of us and was one we could all whole heartedly get behind.
Everyone was training hard the months prior with a few practice group cycles around London. On the 17th of August we set off from London Bridge cycling down to Newhaven, totalling 104km. We all made it in one piece and in time for the ferry!
On day 2 we set off from Dieppe and made our way to Gisors this was a long but relevantly flat day (well compared to the day prior anyway) totalling 127km.
On day 3 we set off from Gisors to Paris, thinking this was going to be the easiest day however a few wrong turns later (giant hills, a fun fair and a few corn fields) we were proven very wrong.
Despite all that, we arrived in Paris all together and did our victory lap of the Arc du Triomphe. We were greeted with some familiar faces holding flags and cheering us in. This was swiftly followed by an evening filled of celebrations!
We are delighted to say that we have hit our target of £30,000 and that every person who took part on our cycle made it in one piece to Paris.
Travelling alongside us the entire way fuelling us with food, water, sweets and fixing our many many punctures were our two support vans. We honestly wouldn’t have made it without them so a huge thank you to Jan, James, John and David.
A special thank you goes out to everyone who contributed, donated and supported us throughout, with special mention to the wonderful companies that sponsored us, Agar Commercial Property Consultants, Portwest Ireland, EOACC in United Kingdom, Southgate Distribution, Thompson Leisure Ltd, cheqd, Cantor Fitzgerald, Ace Packaging, London Tech Drinks and RockCap.
And again this achievement would not have been possible without the support of our colleagues, friends and families who rallied behind us every step of the way.
We hope our efforts to raise funds for Mind will make a difference and raise even more awareness for mental health and how important it is that we take it seriously.
JustGiving: https://lnkd.in/eaXnGhRQ