Charity: John Cotton Group staff complete Poland to Mirfield charity ride; Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank team hike for Hospice UK; and more
SIX staff from bedding manufacturer John Cotton Group were cheered over the finish line last week as they completed their 761 mile charity bike ride from Poland to Mirfield.
Friends and family of the team were joined by Welcome to Yorkshire’s Sir Gary Verity, Tour de France veteran Brian Robinson, the Cotton family, Sam Wood and Tom Symonds from the Huddersfield Giants and charity representatives to welcome the cyclists home.
The riders raised £9,888 which was added to the final total for the fundraising activities throughout the company’s centenary year.
This brought the total to £120,000 for its six chosen charities which include Macmillan, Forget Me Not Children’s Hospice, Kirkwood Hospice, Yorkshire Air & Ambulance, Yorkshire Cancer Centre Appeal and Derian House.
David Page, sales and marketing director at John Cotton, was one of the riders who took part in the ride. He said: “The team has done so well, the hot weather was something we couldn’t anticipate or train for, however the fitness across the group helped get us through the more challenging moments, it has been tough, we are so pleased we made it through without any major issues.
“Thank you to everyone who donated and supported us throughout this. It is definitely going to be an experience I will never forget.”
John Cotton was joined by his wife Barbara, son Mark and daughter Annabel to congratulate the team on their achievement. He said: “This is a fantastic achievement by the team and rounds off a truly memorable year for the company.”
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MORE than 120 employees from Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks have trekked along the Nidderdale Way to raise over £90,000 for the Banks’ charity partner Hospice UK.
The team completed the 26-mile hike to celebrate the £5m fundraising milestone already reached for hospice care.
Helen Page, propositions and marketing director at Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks, said: “The marathon hike was the latest phase in our history of large scale employee fundraising events and we congratulate our team on completing the demanding challenge. The £90,000 raised for Hospice UK will provide our charity partner with vital financial support in delivering its invaluable services.”
Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks have been working with the charity for eight years, raising more than £5m for hospice care to date.
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A 57- strong team from the Leeds office of property consultants JLL took on the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge raising nearly £9,500 for Wakefield Hospice.
The team completed the 24-mile walk in memory of their colleague, Wendy Nash, who lost her battle with cancer earlier this year.
Henry Burton from JLL’s Leeds office, who organised the charity walk, said: “Despite temperamental weather conditions ranging from sunshine to hail storms and everything in-between it was fantastic that so many of walked together to remember Wendy and fundraise for Wakefield Hospice, a charity very close to all our hearts. We are delighted to have raised nearly £9,500 for such a deserving charity – we know first-hand that Wakefield Hospice will use every penny to benefit their patients and relatives.”
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A SALTAIRE-based social enterprise is now able to further tackle the issue of food wastage thanks to assistance from a local marketing agency.
Saltaire Canteen, part of the national Real Junk Food Project, makes use of surplus food from local supermarkets and community donations to provide high quality, nutritious food on a ‘pay as you feel’ basis for diners.
The community run bistro has a new website with a professionally made animation to communicate its offering, which was created by Saltaire-based marketing agency Xpand.
“We desperately needed a new website to help communicate what we’re trying to achieve,” said Saltaire Canteen founder Duncan Milwain.
“Thirty per cent of food in the UK is wasted. To put that into perspective, an area the size of Wales would be needed to grow all the food that goes in the bin. We work to put this surplus food back into circulation and tackle the issue of over farming. We approached Xpand to help communicate this through a new website and we’re delighted that they were so supportive in going way beyond what was asked for. The website has only been live for a few weeks and has already had some fantastic feedback.”
The bistro on Victoria Road also services the community by providing meals for school children and cooking classes for selected community members such as recent widowers.
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KEITH HEMMINGS, company secretary at Harrogate-based event services company Joe Manby, joined more than 450 cyclists to complete this year’s 105km Big Bad Bike Ride around the Yorkshire’s Wolds.
His participation brought the sponsorship amount he has raised for Ataxia UK over the past six years to over £5,000 and helped the total raised by the ride to smash through the £1m barrier.
This year marked the 25th anniversary of the first Big Bad Bike Ride, a sponsored cycle event held to raise funds for Ataxia UK. The charity supports research into potential cures for Friedreich’s Ataxia, a genetic degenerative neurological disorder affecting children and adults.
Building on the legacy of previous rides which raised around £960,000, this year’s ride has already raised at least a further £90,000 for the charity, taking the total raised since the first ride in 1991 to more than £1m, which it itself represents a sixth of all research funds invested by Ataxia UK in the same period.
The bike ride was set up by York businessman Graham Kennedy after discovering that two of his children suffered from the genetic disease, for which there is currently no treatment or cure.
