Contributed article
Over 1,400 Marks & Spencer employees from across Great Britain, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, including two teams from Edinburgh, really went the extra mile last weekend by completing M&S’s BIKE 24 charity cycle challenge event. Covering over 150,000 miles during the challenge, M&S has already raised £850,000 and is now firmly on track to reach its £1.5million fundraising target this summer.
The ‘Le Mans’-inspired event, which took place at Rockingham Motor Racing Circuit in Corby, was the UK’s largest 24 hour endurance event. Each lap of the circuit, helped to raise vital funds for M&S’s charity partners Breakthrough Breast Cancer, Action Medical Research, the Marie Keating Foundation, Action Cancer and Prostate Cancer UK.
In teams of four, each cyclist individually covered an average of over 100 miles. In addition to the 350 teams taking part, 23 experienced solo riders staggeringly stayed in the saddle for the duration of the challenge, including David Styles from Edinburgh’s Kinnaird store.
Those from Edinburgh taking part in BIKE 24 were:
• M&S Gyle Centre colleagues – Bruce Burgess, David Murray, Aaron Michael Spicer, Gavin Neill, Michael Forrest, Kurt Russell, Illesa McClusky, Jennifer Winning, Lauren Victoria Rhodes, Ryan O’Donovan and Steven Food
• M&S Kinnaird – Connor Godsell, Chris Cowan, Derek Kidd, Fraser Nicol, Gayle Christie, Jen Cassidy, Rory Dyer and Michael Scott
Between them the Edinburgh teams covered an approximate total of 1900 miles of cycling.
Aaron Spicer, store manager at M&S Gyle Centre, Edinburgh, said: “It was a great experience to see all five teams take part in the challenge and we’re really proud of the efforts they put in to raise so much money for five very worthy charities. It was a great boost for the team knowing that the whole of M&S were behind them.”
Over the gruelling 24 hour challenge, 6,800 litres of water were drunk, 3,460 ready meals eaten and nearly 8,000 Percy Pigs packs were provided the much-needed sugar hits for participants and spectators.
With all teams taking part in BIKE 24 successfully crossing the finishing line on Saturday, M&S’s target to raise £1.5 million for the five charities is firmly on track, with £850,000 having been raised to date, and over two months of fundraising still to go. In addition to taking part in BIKE 24, and to further boost its fundraising efforts, M&S stored in Edinburgh hosted a range of in-store fundraising activities, including holding a staff bake sale, a sponsored walk and offering bag packing for customers.
Sacha Berendji, Director of Retail at M&S, said:- “This weekend’s BIKE 24 event was a fantastic achievement by our employees and we’ve already raised an incredible £850,000 for these five truly worthwhile charities. But there’s still time to get involved, with two months of in-store fundraising to go, we want to make this our most successful charity challenge to date by reaching our £1.5million target.”
Submitted by Lizzie Gordon
