Black Country legal professional walks the walk for blind veterans

A BLACK Country legal professional swapped her day job for a gruelling endurance test to raise more than £2,500 for Blind Veterans UK.

Fleur Meacham, a team leader in Talbot’s New Build Property team, completed a demanding 100km run from London to Brighton, overcoming steep hills, muddy bogs, obstacles and hedge rows in the process.

The reservist for the Royal Engineers surpassed her own expectations by finishing in just over 19 hours and her efforts follow on from the Three Peaks Challenge she underwent in 2015.

Impressed by her dedication and will power, bosses at Dudley-based Talbots agreed to donate £2,000 towards her fundraising efforts and this money will be used to support blind veterans by purchasing talking tin lids to help them identify food, talking watches and jumbo keyboards to help them use computers.

“It was a ridiculously tough challenge but when the rain is lashing down, the blisters are starting and the aches throbbing you just remember what you’re doing it for and nothing else seems to matter,” said Ms Meacham, who joined Talbots last year as a paralegal.

“With my background as a ‘reservist’ it was an event I wanted to be involved in and the money raised goes a little way to helping some of our blind veterans regain some of their independence.”

Mary Mocklow, chief executive of Talbots, said: “We are very passionate about supporting good causes and charities that make a real difference.

“All of our staff are encouraged to take on new challenges outside of their day job and Fleur’s determination in completing 100km is a real stand-out achievement that we wanted to mark with our own donation.”

Talbots has recently invested £1m into a major expansion drive that has seen it rebrand, take on more staff and launch its new Wolverhampton office.

The company is now one of the largest independent law firms in the West Midlands, employing 190 people across seven locations in Codsall, Dudley, Halesowen, Kidderminster, Stourbridge, Stourport and Wolverhampton.