Randall & Payne have been quick off the starting line having completed their first fundraiser in January resulting in a virtual run to Maggie’s Inverness and back.
Maggie’s Cheltenham won the staff vote to become the focus of Randall & Payne’s fundraising activities for the next two years. The team decided to beat the winter blues and opted for orange instead with the first fundraiser being the Maggie’s 50 mile Challenge. Ten of our team; Tim, Rob, Ryan, Andy, Karen, Natalie, Shelley, Mel, Pen and myself, pledged to run 50 miles over the month of January which meant covering 500 miles between us.
Mostly we completed our miles individually, getting a run in whenever we could, whatever the weather, and during one of the busiest months in the Tax calendar with the self-assessment deadline at the end of January.
In order to try to do something a little different Shelley opted to run her 50 miles in 24 hours, whilst Natalie chose to map out the word Maggie on her tracking app.
Meanwhile, Mel speed walked 50 miles in just a few days and kept setting herself new targets and completed an unbelievable 450 miles on her own! Andy used his Saturday football game to add to his total, whilst Rob took part in a competitive cross country race at Cotswold Farm Park. And on the last weekend several of the team came together to do a Parkrun in Cheltenham to complete the challenge.
I am delighted to say we have well and truly smashed our target by over 100% and have completed a total of 1072 miles combined! This is the equivalent of running to the most northern Maggie’s centre in the UK which is located in Inverness and back again.
Between the team’s Just Giving page and the individual fundraising pages, we have raised an impressive £1,353 from this first fundraiser. And as we are accountants, that’s £1.25 per mile!
Tim Watkins, Managing Partner, commented “Nearing the end, I was looking forward to finishing the challenge and was going to make myself a note to not do it again, but on reflection it has been a great stress buster. It has given us a reason to get out on those cold mornings and dark evenings and I’m proud of what the team has achieved. I would like to thank everyone who has supported us along the way.”
Maggie’s is a worldwide charity that provides free support and information to patients and their families in a specially designed centre that becomes a haven for people to take back control when cancer turns their lives upside down. We are fortunate to have our own Maggie’s located at Cheltenham General hospital. They offer a free drop in service where you can sit, relax in a non-clinical environment, talk to the professionals and share your fears or concerns either one-to-one or in one of the many group activities.
Here is the link to our fundraising page if you would still like to show your support: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/randall-and-payne-run-50-miles-in-january
This is just the start of our journey with Maggie’s Cheltenham and we hope that you will help us to support them over the next two years as we get involved with all sorts of challenges and events to raise both funds and awareness of this much loved charity.
