It's Secret Santa... With a Twist!

[caption id="attachment_7518" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Christmas presents by the tree ready to take to the refuge[/caption]

Lisa Lynn added a fresh twist to the IT department's Secret Santa at Rowan House last week, by arranging for everyone to buy presents for children at Swindon Women’s Aid.

[caption id="attachment_7519" align="alignright" width="191"] Lisa with the presents[/caption]

“I thought that instead of doing Secret Santa for ourselves and getting something that we don’t really need, we could buy something for a charity that caters for people who won’t be spending Christmas with family. The Women’s Refuge is a great idea, as many of the women here have children that do not receive much – if anything – on Christmas Day.”

She and her generous colleagues presented gifts to a total of 28 children aged between 1 and 18 on Thursday. Lisa even got in touch with the refuge beforehand to find out the gender and age of the children staying there, so every child received a gift that was appropriate for them.

Lisa put a lot of thought into how it would work and put together a spreadsheet of everyone taking part, plus the ages and gender of the children who would get a present. You can see from the pictures she gathered masses of them!

Lynsey Bull added: 

"...it seems the twist to secret Santa has gone down a treat and everyone is really happy about doing it."

A Week For Children in Need

[caption id="attachment_7346" align="alignleft" width="300"] NAC and BLS staff had their own version of a "bush tucker trial" with the Feel the Object competition[/caption]

For Children In Need, the NAC held a number of activities which raised almost £180.00 for the charity. As usual, BLS also took part in the fun!

Tina Cronin, Jackie Atkinson, Andrea Briggs, Vicky Rhodes put their thinking caps on to devise a whole week of activities from 11th to 15th November. Jackie reports:

"Tina organised a name the bear competition which raised £60, a great start.

As well as a fun quiz on Friday afternoon, Jackie organised a guess the toddler photo competition which raised some laughs. It’s amazing how you can see features in photographs that you can recognise in people 50 years later.

Andrea had great fun in putting together a feel the objects competition for staff to take part in on Friday afternoon. All the objects were either food or from the kitchen, including things like coconut, tomatoes, radishes and Weetabix. It was very amusing to watch the horror on people’s faces as they put their hands into the unknown boxes and the relief when they realised the contents weren’t alive.

As always we had a few food activities as well, Mo Uddin brought us some of his home-made curries and starters to buy for lunch whilst Mumtaz Sultan kindly brought in some of her home baking for us to sample as well. Both were very much appreciated by the always hungry NAC staff and of course helped towards our overall fundraising total as well."

Fantastic news, thanks Jackie. That makes a combined total (along with Monday's report) of £549.37.

Ahoy Children in Need!

[caption id="attachment_7308" align="alignright" width="300"] Pudsey says 'Hurrah!' :)[/caption]

We have news of another virtual Link-Up!

Following last week's Children in Need preview, Newport, Rowan House and The Consortium have all been in touch with news on how they're taking part this year.

Newport's Judy Read says:

"It will be cakes / bacon rolls on Thursday and we are going to be wearing hats for the day – the sillier the better.  We will be charging 50p to wear a hat but fining people £2.00 if they don’t join in!"

...and this from The Consortium's Joanne Kent:

"We are having a Children in Need day with people invited to come in wearing spotty clothes and bringing teddies in."

... and I hear there's a sweetie stall at Rowan House with home-made honeycomb. Save some for me!

We're standing by to take on board all the pictorial evidence and news on the amount raised. If your location is also taking part, grab that camera phone now and add your news and pics! Pudsey gets an extra £20 if you do so :)

Bertrams Bravehearts bring it on!

[caption id="attachment_6179" align="aligncenter" width="597"] Bertrams Bravehearts team photo - stop looking so cheerful, we need to look scary for the opposition![/caption]

Well, after all the speculation in the last post on what the Bertrams Bravehearts would be wearing last Sunday, of course we should have guessed from the clue in their name! Frances Plant reports on a team which tried their best, and had a lot of fun in the process...

[caption id="attachment_6181" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Now let's have a group hug and discuss team tactics![/caption]

On the day we needed 10 paddlers plus a drummer and we ended up with a team of about 16, so we had lots of reserves and most of the team still got at least 2 races in.  The team consisted of Frances Plant, Sarah Bunting, Dale Pascoe, Bernadette Nyulasz, Daniel Fridd, Robin Denton, Mike De’Ath, George Jacobi, Donna Tallent, Chris Bone, Emma Harris, Shuzhen (Sue) Wang, Paul Whittingham, Chris Keevan, Lee Ladbrooke, David Cook & Ben Fridd (aged 13 – Drummer).  The team comes from various areas of the business including; Operations, Sales, IT, Finance, HR, C/S and Digital.

[caption id="attachment_6182" align="aligncenter" width="640"] OK, let's push off and go![/caption]

It was a disappointingly grey and rather cold morning, especially when the previous week has been so lovely and warm.  But spirits were high as we waited, shivering in anticipation for the first race.  Going with the Bertrams Bravehearts theme we had ridiculous tartan Scottish hats with red hair, fabulous Bertrams green team name printed t-shirts and even some blue warrior face paint on!  We certainly looked the part!  The crowds started to build, as colleagues, friends and family all arrived to cheer us on.

[caption id="attachment_6167" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Getting to grips with everything...[/caption]

The races themselves proved rather hard going, and having lost the first two races we were determined to improve on race three.  We had stories of George and Donna nearly falling in, paddlers being shouted at to get in time to the beat and lots of camaraderie from the other local businesses taking part.  Race three arrived, the team was picked, we decided tactically that as the yellow boat had won most of the races to date, this must be the quicker boat as opposed to the red boat which we had been in for race one and two, so we ran to get the fast yellow boat! 

[caption id="attachment_6168" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Hurray, we have the yellow boat![/caption]

We then had some last-minute seat changes in the boat to maximise our paddling potential (advised to us by the event organisers), I think they could tell we were getting competitive, or maybe desperate!  And we were off!  I don’t really know what happened then other than we all paddled and chanted so hard, that once we got to the end we didn’t know who had won, it was that close.  The other team believed they had tipped us to the post, and to be honest the crowd and ourselves all believed them.  However as the results came in to our surprise we had just won our last race by less than a second! Phew!

[caption id="attachment_6169" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Putting everything into that last race...[/caption]

Unfortunately our overall times were not enough and we didn’t qualify for the semi finals, but what a fun day we'd had.  Finally to our surprise at the end of day when the awards were presented we did win the best dressed competition, bringing home a lovely East Anglian Air Ambulance paperweight for our efforts!

[caption id="attachment_6183" align="aligncenter" width="640"] ... and the spray flew by![/caption]

We have raised to date a staggering £727 with further funds still to be added, so we hope to reach the £800 mark.  The charity is one that is close to many people’s hearts in East Anglia and thanks must be given to everyone who has contributed by sponsoring us and buying raffle tickets as well to everyone who took part and supported us on the day.

Bring on next year!

Fantastic news Francis! It's good to see that Bertrams is carrying on the tradition of winning awards at dragon boat races! You've done brilliantly to raise so much for the East Anglian Air Ambulance.

Update: Frances's Just Giving Page shows the Bravehearts have now raised over £800 - well exceeding their original £500 target :)

Introducing the Bertrams Bravehearts!

[caption id="attachment_6126" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Dragon Boat Racing last Saturday in Chippenham - can Bertrams Bravehearts top those outfits?[/caption]

With just a couple of days to go until the Norwich Dragon Boat Race on Sunday, there have been a number of last-minute team changes! Tensions are high as new paddlers are sought, tactics are discussed and outfits finalised.

There will be 3 races for the first part of the day with the first race starting at 10.30am, the winners from the races will then go on to compete further races. With the final race, if the team are successful, being held at approximately 3.00pm.

So... let's meet the team!

• Daniel Fridd - Bertline


• Sarah Bunting - HR


• Dale Pascoe - Finance


• Bernadette Nyulasz - Finance


• Robin Denton - Digital


• Thirza Bettis – Finance


• Paul Whittingham – Sales


• Jason Cherrington – Sales


• Dave Hayward – Sales


• Mike De’Ath – Library Operations


• George Jacobi – Library Operations


• Donna Tallent – Library Operations


• Chris Bone – Customer Services


• Emma Harris – Customer Services


• Shuzhen (Sue) Wang – Library Operations


• Chris Keevan - Warehouse Operations


• Lee Ladbrooke - Warehouse Operations


• Frances Plant - HR

And most important of all, Ben Fridd (aged 13) is the Drummer.

The racing takes place at the Whittlingham Country Park in Norwich, and Frances Plant has been drumming up support from her colleagues in Norwich to come and watch the Bertrams Bravehearts as they paddle across the Broads, hopefully to success. 

The team also needs to raise a minimum of £500 between them in sponsorship in aid of East Anglian Air Ambulance. If you would like to support the team and wish them luck in their challenge, then Frances has a Just Giving Page set up for your sponsorship. 

With the hot weather set to continue over the weekend, messing about in a dragon boat for a good cause sounds like a very good idea!

Newport Run a Mud Bath

Newport continue with their successful fundraising ways for 2013! Andrew Herbert has been in touch with news of a very wet and muddy event he completed recently.  Mud Runner events take place at Eastnor Castle in Herefordshire and would appear to be very popular, judging by the nearly 1,400 finishers who joined Andrew plus Vikki-Marie Green and Charlotte Lamont aka 'The Togglers' for the Oblivion event!

Here's what Andrew has to say...

Thank you for your sponsorship for the Mud Run on Sunday 30^th  [June - Ed] to raise money for TOGs * – so  far Vikki (1214)  Charlotte (1216) and myself (1213) have raised just over £450.

If you click on the link ** you’ll be able to see some of the photos from the event.  You can search by number (number after our names) and you can see some of the obstacles that we tackled.

Thank you again.

Editor's notes:

* = The Torfaen Opportunity Group (TOGs) is a charity local to Newport who provide services to children and young people with physical, learning or sensory disabilities, plus support to parents and families. They don't appear to have a website to link to, so here's a little bit more about their work...

"Built in 2000 from Lottery funds, the TOGs Centre is owned and run by the community and parent led group. A small specialist team is supported by a large group of young volunteers.

Children and families use facilities for a wide range of activities including a specialist crèche (run by NCH Cymru) and young people's clubs which provide evening social and educational activities, adventure trips and holidays. Respite for parents and involvement by parents and young people in decision-making are central, and TOGs activities are funded by trusts, grants, and local fund-raising."

** = the images are copyright, so sadly I can't use any of them to illustrate this blog post. It's well worth having a look on the website and searching on the numbers - I'm amazed how everyone kept smiling despite all the mud! 

If this kind of event takes your fancy - either as a spectator or competitor - here's a link to the Mud Runner website! NB the Classic course used for the next event in October is where Land Rover test their all-terrain vehicles :o

Cake and Drag News!

On Saturday Rowan House's Jennifer Taylor and friends turned out in great numbers and a variety of outfits for Swindon in Drag 2013! The photos show they had a lot of fun and I'm sure the warm weather helped to make it a great evening out on the town.

And Jennifer's efforts to reach her £1,000 target for Cancer Research UK continue! She's bringing in cakes today and all donations in exchange for a cake are welcome :)

Swindon in Drag 2013

[caption id="attachment_6037" align="aligncenter" width="640"] A look back at 2012 - I wonder how things went on Saturday...[/caption]

By the time you read this, plenty of participants from Rowan House will have taken part in Saturday's Swindon in Drag event for 2013.

Just like last year, Jennifer Taylor is the organiser and sent us the above picture from last year as a trailer for this year's event. Sadly there wasn't time to bring you the news ahead of Saturday, but I'm sure Jennifer won't mind if I use her words to describe what was in store...

The time of year has come around again where me and my friends make fools of ourselves, dress up in clothing of the opposite gender, and attempt to raise as much money as possible for Cancer Research UK :)

We’ve had some brilliant years previously but we’ve never managed to break the £1000 mark and we’re super determined to get there this year!! Any donation you can make via our Just Giving page will be hugely appreciated by myself and my friends. 

I also found out recently that someone from my past that had a huge influence on me as a teenager has recently died of cancer, so I’ll be dedicating my efforts to Stuart Holland, the man who gave me my first job at WHSmiths in Marlborough when I was 16! He even left me in charge of the store on Sundays when I was 17… brave man!

Thanks for your support!

I hope it went well Jennifer and you all had a fun evening raising pots of cash! 

Back From the Hills - The Magnificent 7!

[caption id="attachment_5998" align="aligncenter" width="640"] At the top of Ben Nevis - Alan Stone, Brinn Jardine, Vicky Enebeli and Andrew Caple[/caption]

At the weekend The Magnificent 7 from Smiths News IT at last put all their hard work and training into practice, when they tackled the National Three Peaks Challenge. Vicky Enebeli reports on her experiences...

We started Ben Nevis at 4:30pm on Saturday and the last ones came down from Snowdon at 7:30pm on Sunday.

Overall I did enjoy it and the team building and bonding was brilliant fun.  In particular Andrew Caple and Alan Stone were really motivational and supportive of me throughout the whole experience!!

However, I completely underestimated the intense level of mental and emotional stress that climbing a mountain would involve and I don’t think anything could have prepared me for that.  Ben Nevis was a real hard slog and when you are going up you just don’t know how long it will take and I was afraid to ask anyone coming down in case I didn’t like the answer! 

It was a great sense of achievement getting to the summit though and coming down felt a bit easier as you then knew how far it was down.  But halfway down, the rain set in and made the rocks and boulders really slippery so it was really easy to twist your ankle or fall. 

I found Scafell Pike harder though as the climb up is much steeper with bigger boulders to climb and there is a sheer drop on the side with a waterfall/stream that had a strong current, so that was quite scary as you are more aware of this coming down than going up!

I think at this point I was thinking of my two girls and that was quite an emotional point for me!  That is when I knew I had reached my limits and I actually just wanted to come down. 

[caption id="attachment_5999" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Andrew Caple with 'friend 'at the top of Snowdon[/caption]

I didn’t manage Snowdon as the weather got really bad and for me at that point I was pleased with myself and what I had done but I really couldn’t do it again – physically or mentally!

The support team were brilliant and it was so great to see them waiting for us with cuddles, tea and hot food!

And finally news of how the rest of the team fared and fundraising...

Andrew Caple did Snowdon in 3 hours – 3pm – 6pm, and Brett came down about 6:15pm and Marcus at 6:30pm.  Alan and Brinn came down about 7pm and Andy and Sally at about 7:30pm.  The weather conditions really slowed us down and affected the driving too.

Our fundraising total for CLIC Sargent is currently £2,150 (not including Gift Aid). We're really pleased with the money raised. On the bus as the emails kept coming through on the Just Giving page, this really did help to hear the names of more people donating.

Editor's note: here's a very well deserved full name check for The Magnificent 7 and their support team! They are:

Andrew Caple, Marcus Cotes, Andy Taylor, Brett Hanley, Alan Stone, Victoria Enebeli, Brinn Jardine and Sally Willovoys.

The all important support team were Terri Baylis and Cathy Flynn . NB Cathy is auntie to Joshua Flynn,  the little boy whose cancer treatment has inspired The Magnificent 7's efforts.

The sharp-eyed amongst you will have spotted that the Magnificent 7 became the even more Fantastic 8! Some of you will remember Sally from her days at Smiths News :)

Bertrams Bravehearts Face the Dragon

In the wake of last week's Race the Dragon, we have news of another intrepid team!

Bertrams Bravehearts are taking part in the Norwich Dragon Boat Race on the 21st July in aid of the East Anglian Air Ambulance. This is an annual event and is one of the Air Ambulance's main fundraisers.

On their Just Giving page, Frances Plant says:

"We are all volunteers, who are total novices and are a little scared at what we have entered ourselves into. The team is made up 13 paddlers namely; Carole Fletcher, Liza Wrigley, Daniel Fridd, Ben Beach, Bernadette Nyulasz, Will Ratcliffe, Sarah Hitcham, Lisa Scrivens, Sarah Bunting, Dale Pascoe, Robin Denton, Paul Whittingham and myself. On the drum, with the most important role we have Ben Fridd (aged 13) who will be keeping a strong beat going as he drives us across the finish line, hopefully to success!"

The day is set to be great fun, but we need your help to get us there!"

If the Worcester event's anything to go by, It looks like you're set to have a great day!

Here Be Dragons

[gallery type="slideshow" ids="5897,5917,5899,5898,5901,5902,5903,5918,5905,5906,5907,5919,5900,5908"]

Sunny Sundays are made for messing about on the river! And that's precisely what plenty of people from Smiths News got up to last weekend :)

Team Blazing Paddles (The Consortium), No Pressure (Rowan House) and Get the Word Out (Worcester MSC and Instore) all put their pride on the line when they came together to compete for company honours in the Race the Dragon regatta at Worcester.

There may have been 22 teams competing for the top dragon boat trophy, but none was fought more keenly than that for best Smiths News team. In the end, Worcester ensured their home advantage counted, though everyone agreed a lot of fun was had in the process.

Laura Morris said:

From a ‘No Pressure’ point of view, the day was really enjoyed by all. Despite not having any water practice, the crew did really well and improved with every race, even winning one of their heats! Special thanks to Nic Black – without her coaching and pre-race warm-ups I’m sure the aches and pains would have been much worse! Really looking forward to next year!!

And Jane Kingman (The Consortium) added:

Arms ached a bit on Monday but it’s all settled down now.  The t-shirt tan is still there though!

What a brilliant, fun day!  No one from our crew had ever been on a Dragon Boat before, so it took a couple of races to get our technique just right.  We ended the day slightly soggy, slightly pink, and with smiles on our faces.  We will definitely be looking forward to the regatta again next year. 

Get the Word Out took double honours with a trophy for 9th place overall (as well as Smiths News top dog), plus a trophy which sums up exactly what they're all about: the most inspirational team.

Vicky Wheeldon said:

“We had a fabulous day and hope to do it again next year. We were all really touched to win the trophy for the most inspirational team.”

Worcester also 'went the extra mile' fundraising-wise as they went around the event with their buckets to top up their efforts so far. The Consortium raised £600 and Rowan House have nearly raised their £300 target for the day. Here's the Just Giving pages for Get the Word Out and No Pressure, and the My Donate page for Blazing Paddles if you fancy topping up their coffers :)

Alongside the team lists blogged already, here's the roll of honour for The Consortium, team Blazing Paddles:

• Jane Kingman (Captain)


• Oliver Levitt (Drummer)


• Helen Reid


• Tania Lewin


• Nick Scraggs


• Andy Pickernell


• Tarnya Jinman


• Louise Hawkins


• Chris Hubbard


• Matthew James


• Adam Tillsley


• Cathryn Petchey


• Nigel Taylor


• Jackie Winchcombe


• Paul Sambrook


• Tanith Pike


• Diane Levitt


• Lee Davey and James Hearn (Reserves)

The Bistro Bites

[caption id="attachment_5817" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Bistro Bites Recipe Book[/caption]

Fancy making your own flap jacks, soups, plum chutney or onion bhajees?  Then this is the fundraising event for you!

The NAC's site services team (Jackie Atkinson, Site Services Controller; Sue Garside, Bistro Caterer; and Nasima Hussain, Administration Assistant) have compiled a recipe book of the favourite cakes, soups and meals that are regularly provided in our staff canteen as well as some favourite recipes donated by the NAC staff.

This has been a great team effort, Sue has collated the recipes, Jackie has produced the book and Nasima has assisted with final design work and printing/production. 

This may not be a professional Delia or Nigella hard back.  But we can guarantee it is an original, practical recipe book full of things that you will want to make.  There are no fancy ingredients that you need to buy from remote corners of the earth and unless you are brave enough to make the potato wine, no specialist equipment required either.

And you can own your own copy for a minimum donation of £3.50 which will be donated in full to our chosen charity, Bradford and Airedale Cancer Support.

This is a local charity.  The Cancer Support Centre offers support to local people suffering from all types of cancer and most of us are affected by this disease in one way or another.

Jackie Atkinson adds:

We are taking orders from right across the business. The details are below, but if you need anything further, please let me know.

The recipe book is on sale now for a minimum donation of £3.50 with no maximum.  To order your copy please send an e-mail to NAC-HR quoting your name, the number of books you wish to buy and your house/work address for delivery.  Please then send your cheque for the total value of your donation (minimum £3.50 per book)to:

Jackie Atkinson
Smiths News
Centurion House
Cleckheaton
BD19 3QE

Please make cheques payable to Smiths News and write your name and work delivery address on the reverse so that we can match this to your email order.

News of the Dragons

With just one week to go until the closing date for the Dragon Boat racing, we hear that Worcester now have competition! Yes, a team from Rowan House will be joining our intrepid crew to provide Smiths News' own 'mini regatta' with the Regatta :)

The teams are as follows:

Worcester - Get the Word Out

• Vicky Wheeldon (Captain)


• Lisa Pass (Drummer)


• Wendy Cane


• Mike Frost


• Kay Oakes


• Andy Wheeldon


• Rupy Dharmi


• Mike Falcon


• Lesley Alcock


• Chris Townrow


• Charlotte Keen


• Ross Jones


• Rebecca Edwards


• James Lamb


• Jess Beard


• James Webster


• Derek Hampton


• Gavin Spares


• Alex Williams, Charlie Bradley and Laura McDonald (Reserves)

Rowan House - No Pressure

• Laura Morris (Captain)


• Viv Heydon (Drummer)


• Paul Smith


• Brett Hanley


• Andrea Kreugel


• Dan Giles


• Si Sargeant


• Mark Charlton


• Sam Hemphill


• Sam Marlow


• Lauren Devine


• Fred Pavone


• Tim Weaver


• Lucy Manfield


• Lisa Coate


• Sophie Morris


• Mike Andrews


• Chris Wilding and Tom Shaw (Reserves)

Anyone else fancy joining them? Have a look at the Race the Dragon Flagship Fundraiser page and contact Laura Morris now!

Over the Hills... The Magnificent Seven

[caption id="attachment_5615" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Image of Ben Nevis courtesy of Graham Scott. Licensed for free re-use under Creative Commons SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons[/caption]

A small team from Smiths News IT are taking on the National Three Peaks Challenge as the main department Community Week fundraising event to raise money for CLIC Sargent.

Andrew Caple explains...

"We will be climbing the three highest peaks in England, Scotland and Wales in less than 24 hours on the weekend of 22nd & 23rd June. We will be supported throughout the weekend by our support crew, Terri Baylis and Cathy Flynn.

Our challenge starts at the base of Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the British Isles at 5PM on Saturday 22nd June. A 10.5 mile route taking in the summit at 4,409 feet sees us back at the car park 5 hours later, this is followed by a 6 hour drive to the Lake District for an early morning ascent of Scafell Pike starting at 4am Sunday 23rd June via a 9.5 mile route taking in the summit at 3,209 feet.

Arrival back at the car park by 8am for a 5 hour drive to the Snowdonia National Park for our final peak starting at 1pm on , a 7 mile route taking in the summit of Snowdon at 3,560 feet. Our adventure reaches its climax in a race back to the car park for 5pm on the Sunday to make the 24 hour target.

The main driver for us taking on this team challenge is to raise much-needed funds for CLIC Sargeant.

CLIC Sargent is the UK’s leading cancer charity for children. Every day 10 children and their families are told the shocking news they have cancer. Treatment normally starts immediately, is often given many miles away from home and can last for up to three years. This is a frightening experience and the emotional, practical and financial implications of treatment are intensely challenging for the whole family. CLIC Sargent is the only organisation to offer them all round care and support, they provide clinical, practical and emotional support to help them cope with cancer and get the most out of life.

Our Challenge is linked to the Joshua Flynn Team page [a Just Giving page which has details of all of the many fundraising activities feeding into the Joshua Flynn Fund  - Ed]:

Joshua is a 4-year-old boy, a close family friend of a colleague, and is currently undergoing treatment for a very rare and aggressive form of cancer. The Joshua Flynn fund is hoping to raise a total of £11,880 which would pay for a family room at one of CLIC Sargent’s “Home from Homes” for a year.

CLIC Sargent has eight Homes from Home in the UK and are located within a 10 minute walk of the principle treatment centres. Staying in a Home from Home allows the family to be together while their child is undergoing cancer treatment. Something small like a family sitting down and enjoying a family meal together can be a very precious moment.

Every donation, however small, will go a long way towards helping other families who find themselves in this situation.

Thank you,

Andrew Caple, Marcus Cotes, Andy Taylor, Brett Hanley, Alan Stone, Victoria Enebeli, Brin Jardine

If you would like to donate to our team challenge, we have a Just Giving page."

Wow! Good luck everyone and we look forward to hearing more about how you're getting on!

Eugene's Final Countdown For Paris

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Eugene Howson, Distribution Manager at London Travel News (LTN) will be running in the Paris Marathon (26.2 miles) this Sunday (7th April).

But that’s not all. As reported previously he's been preparing for the big event by running a couple of half marathons! In addition he ran from Slough to Reading on a home run and challenged colleagues to guess how long it would take. Eugene explains:

"I've been following a strict 12 week training plan which included daily jogging and also a few competitive half marathons.

• Bath on March 3^rd- I was pleased with the time- my chip time was 1:35:36, it was a good run and it’s beneficial to be competitive to improve fitness levels.


• Reading on March 17^th- It was cold and wet, not ideal running conditions, but I improved the time – my chip time was 1:34:06

My fund raising pledge is £1000 and it would be great to achieve this target and make an incredible difference to Stroke care. I've have received tremendous support from family, friends and work colleagues in order to reach my pledge."

[gallery type="rectangular" link="post" ids="5344,5343,5340"]

"To help reach my target, I've also held the following events:

• Digital Camera Raffle - in February the London Travel Team held a Raffle, £1 a ticket to win a stylish digital camera. This event raised £85 and the winning ticket belonged to Roy Heavens, Night Driver at LTN.


• Pool Competition - during February/March, the warehouse teams arranged a knock out Pool challenge, 50p a game. To add to the fun, there was a further sweepstake (£1 a tote) to bet against the eventual winner. This has proved to be a good fund raiser which has already raised £125, and has helped build team camaraderie, with staff mixing between departments.


• Cake & Curry Day - The LTN Team held a cake and curry day on Friday 22^nd March. Everyone at LTN joined in the feast and the curry’s sold out within the hour. The staff generally appreciated the effort made by those who cooked and baked, and commented that it should be done on a monthly basis! This event raised £76.


• Guess the ‘Home’ Run - as part of my training, I decided to plan a final long run, and came up with the idea to run from work to home (Slough to Reading) a distance of 21 miles. I challenged everyone to guess how long it would take (£1 a guess); the winner to receive 25% of the pot with tins of Quality Streets as runners-up prizes for 2^nd & 3rd. 

The challenge form was circulated amongst the Eastern Regional Managers meeting, Borehamwood Group and LTN teams. Guesses ranged from 1 hour, 8 hours, 2 days and never (these were the comedians!)

It was one of those days where the weather kept changing. The first 6 miles was dry, but when I got to 10 miles it started to snow, and then the weather turned to sleet and rain. I hit the ‘wall’ at 20 miles and slowed his pace, and finished in a time of 2:34:26

The winning guesses, were joint winners Kam Patel (Borehamwood) and Mike Doyle (Peterborough) who both guessed 2:35:00. This event raised £100.

The team in Borehamwood have supported me along the way, and have made a donation of £200. To date staff at LTN Group have raised an amazing £417 and this is still on-going."

Fantastic Eugene, thanks for the update and photos! Eugene has a Just Giving page, and the current donations total £1,232, smashing his target!. The support is really valued and appreciated. All monies raised will go to the Stroke Association.

He adds, "My training is going to plan and everyone is being really supportive - my personal thanks to all."

Good luck for Sunday, Eugene - here's to a great time and atmosphere in Paris!

Newport Get Funraising

[gallery type="rectangular" link="post" ids="5208,5207,5205,5204,5203,5202"]

Newport made sure they had plenty of funraising last week when they held a two-day extravaganza in aid of Comic Relief! Hover your mouse over the pictures for more information and a who's who :)

As well as zipwire, wiggy, biking and onesie action, they sold bacon and sausage baps to warehouse staff on Thursday, together with cakes made by Connor Yalland. Connor is the 10 year-old son of Michelle who works in the office (she's pictured in the middle of the front row in the group photo).  They also held a sweepstake to choose the hairstyle Jessie J would choose after she had her head shaved.

It looks like a lot of fun was had by all! A total of £82.70 was raised for Comic Relief.

Newport haven't forgotten the cause closest to their hearts either. Some of the above pictures also introduce their latest activities in support of St David's Foundation.

On Sunday, there was a 28 mile cycle ride from Caldicot to Newport and back. Saturday sees more zipwire action in Chepstow – a 800ft zip slide over a 250ft lake! Finally in May there's a 'onesie walk' across the Severn Bridge - a total of 11 miles.

Their efforts have also caught the attention of their local newspaper, who report the team has raised over £4,000 so far.

Look out for more Friday funraising later in the week as we're expecting further reports of red noses seen from around Smith News ;)

NB The watermarked pictures are courtesy and copyright of South Wales Argus.

Paul Jumps in Feet First to Make Headway

[caption id="attachment_4096" align="alignleft" width="200"] Coming in to land[/caption]

Paul Adams, Distribution Administrator at Birmingham House chose a spectacular way to make his contribution to Community Week by making a Tandem Parachute Jump!

His leap into the unknown raised £300 for Headway, a West Midlands based charity which works to improve life after brain injury.

Paul made his jump on May 18^th at Hinton Skydiving Centre, Northamptonshire.

NB We're still keen to hear all your Community Week news, even if it happened a while ago :)

Putting the Fun Into Fundraising

[caption id="attachment_3584" align="alignleft" width="300"] The tombola in full flow. From left to right are Chloe Webb, Aileen Newsome, Vicky Rhodes & Kate Jewson[/caption]

We're still catching up with all your fantastic news from Community Week! First up for this week's blog posts is the following report from Chloe Webb and Vicky Rhodes...

[caption id="attachment_3585" align="alignleft" width="300"] Mike Ward with his tombola loot[/caption]

The NAC used Community Week as an opportunity for some Fun-Raising.  Having already held our main events in April and May, our thoughts turned to sweets, cakes and ice cream, all of which helped us reach and beat our original fund-raising target of £1600 by £400.  The now infamous NAC Baking Sale was arranged by Chloe Webb and Vicky Rhodes and this raised a fantastic £103 in one day with BLS and Aldermore Finance who also occupy the building joining in.

Chloe and Vicky also arranged a Tombola which was great fun and again raised £120 in less than an hour!

Many of the staff paid to dress down for a whole week and we rounded off the fun with an ice cream parlour treat for everyone on Friday afternoon.

[caption id="attachment_3586" align="alignleft" width="300"] Kathryn Johnson, Kristy Carr and Vicky Holdsworth finishing their well-deserved ice creams[/caption]

You may remember the Smarties Challenge that we started in March which involved filling an empty Smarties tube (having eaten the Smarties first of course) with spare 20p coins.  Around 50 people took part and we raised £550 in total, smashing our £500 target.  A great result.

Fun-tastic everyone! The money raised goes to NAC's nominated local charities: Cancer Support Bradford and Airedale, and SACAR.

It's a Triathlon... But Not As We Know It, Jim

We've news of a triathlon with a twist - all the hard work was in the gym!

IT's Sally Willavoys, Andrew Taylor, Andrew Caple and Alan Stone of Wakefield House 'worked out' in the gym at Swindon's Marriott hotel on on Monday 25th June. They each  rowed, cycled and ran a quarter of a marathon in each discipline (10.55km each time), with rowing replacing the swimming leg of a traditional triathlon event.

Thus they ran/rowed/cycled a total of 19.623 miles (31.65 kilometres) each. The first person completed the challenge in 2 hours 15 minutes and  the last in 2 hours 35 minutes. Impressive!

All their efforts were in aid of Prospect Hospice in Swindon, which offers dedicated end of life care and support to patients and their families in the Swindon and North Wilts area. Their care takes place not only at the Hospice, but also at Great Western Hospital and in patients' homes. The service is free to all who need it.

The team's imaginatively titled Just Giving page, Shattered R Us is here.

It's Rainbow Friday!

Helen Ives and her HR colleagues at Bertrams have come up with a fresh twist on the Dress Down Friday theme (or up for that matter) to raise funds for Sense.

Since the end of May, they've been holding Rainbow Fridays. Participants pay a £1 to dress in the nominated colour for that week. Each one is different and it all comes to a colourful end in Community Week, with orange designated as the final colour.

I wonder if this was chosen in view of Dispatches' main header colour? Today's colour is Green, and Purple will be  on view next Friday.

[caption id="attachment_3162" align="alignright" width="300"] Jubilee colours[/caption]

A patriotic red, white and blue were chosen for the Friday before the Jubilee weekend, with staff showing a number of ways in which they complied with the new 'dress code'.

Sadly Dispatches wasn't offered photographic evidence of the boys dressed up in pink ;)