Despite the snow, on Wednesday 8 March, our 28 fantastic firewalkers handled the heat at the Maggie’s Firewalk in the car park at Chargrove House.
It was an incredible evening of facing our fears and walking across hot embers, all while raising money for Maggie’s to support people living with cancer their family and friends. The team have raised over £5,500 collectively!
The evening started with the fire walkers taking part in a 90 minute briefing which was facilitated by Karen Sterling, Head trainer at BLAZE Fire walk. Established in 1984, BLAZE prides itself with ensuring that the safety of the participants is a priority, as well as providing them with the encouragement to face their fears.
When the spectators arrived there was a brief break in the training as everyone was invited to watch the BLAZE expert technician light the fire.
At 8pm the hot embers were raked evenly over the fire pit and all 28 participants followed the advice given during their briefing and walked the fire (twice!) encouraged by the thunderous cheers from their fellow walkers and spectators.
Tim Watkins, our Managing Partner took part, along with Alice Prout and Mo Al-Houbani from our Accounts team, and David Jordan of Skylight9 our social media partner. All felt a great sense of achievement and had more confidence in themselves having faced their fears, saying they would definitely recommend it to others.
This second firewalk saw many of the husbands whose wives had taken part in the first one, and as a result of experiencing it as a supporter had felt inspired, or in Tim’s case after a bit of convincing…
Tim admitted that “After saying no way am I doing that, I got persuaded into it and had no regrets at all, it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience for a great cause (thankfully no one spontaneously combusted)”.
Gareth said: “An amazing experience for an amazing charity. The help, support and feeling over accomplishment are unreal. When’s the next one…”
Sandy described the evening as “positive and empowering”, and Paula said “It was an amazing night with the best people, firewalk ticked off my bucket list – can’t wait for the next adventure with this amazing charity”.
After everyone had completed the challenge, walkers and spectators were treated to a hot dog – a huge thank you to Joel Handy of Walter Smith (based inside Dobbie’s in Tewkesbury) for donating the sausages!
Anna Mason, the Community Fundraiser at Maggie’s, who took part for a second time, said “Thank you so much to everyone who got involved – you are incredible.”
