Olympic effort as relay challenge raises more than £6,000 for CancerCare

Staff at North West holiday park company, South Lakeland Parks has raised an impressive £6,369 for local charity CancerCare after taking part in an alternative Torch Relay through the heart of the Lancashire and Cumbrian countryside.

More than 30 of the group’s staff including Managing Director, Nigel Wimpenny and even the parks’ mascots raised the money by staging a relay between their 10 Lancashire and Lake District locations last month.

In keeping with the topical Olympic theme, staff ran, cycled, swam, rowed, canoed and even rode a horse between the parks covering more than 106 miles over a two-day period through some fairly challenging weather conditions.

A support crew cheered them on during the route and collected bucket loads of donations whilst passing through cities and towns including Lancaster, Morecambe and Windermere.

Holiday home owners and holidaymakers came out in strong numbers to support the relay with one park, the 4-star Ocean Edge Park in Heysham raising more than £1,000 for the charity. This was helped in part by the efforts of the park’s Assistant Manager, Vicki Jones who did her bit by swimming 180 lengths – the equivalent of two miles - in the indoor swimming pool in an hour and forty minutes.

The charity relay got underway at the group’s southern-most park at Todber in the Ribble Valley on Wednesday 20th June and finished the following day. The final leg was completed by canoe between the two Windermere lakeside parks, White Cross Bay and Fallbarrow by MD Nigel Wimpenny just before the official Olympic Torch came through the town.

Nigel said: “I am hugely proud of the efforts of all the staff who took part in the relay. The enthusiasm shown at the outset and throughout was heartening and the support we received along the way really gave us the extra push we needed to keep going – especially on the second day when we were handicapped by the Lake District weather!

“We are delighted with everyone’s generosity, which has seen us more than double our original target for CancerCare. The work that they do with cancer sufferers and their families in the local area is at times superhuman and in our eyes, there was no worthier a cause to donate to.”

Lynne Stafford, Chief Executive at CancerCare also got involved by running the last leg of the first day from Hawthorne Park in Morecambe to Ocean Edge in Heysham.

She said: “I had a great time taking part in the relay and even managed a personal best time of 2 miles in 16 minutes. Being able to get out of the office to see the enthusiasm of the people that take part in fundraising activities is such a special part of the job and they should all be applauded for their exertions over the two days.

“For the team to have raised over £6,000 is just absolutely fantastic and will make such a difference to CancerCare. We can continue our valuable role of helping local people whose lives are affected by cancer.”

Picture shows Vicki Jones, Ocean Edge_Lynne Stafford, CEO CancerCare_Billy the Beaver_Nigel Wimpenny MD SLP, Jane Staniford CancerCare, Natalie Swaby SLP copy.jpg