Spire Alexandra is cycling around the world to raise money for charity
14 June 2019
Staff from Spire Alexandra are taking part in a charity challenge with the aim of covering 1,000km as part of a company-wide initiative to cycle around the world in just one week.
Spire Healthcare, which owns and operates 39 private hospitals across the UK, is staging a week of events with a collective target of cycling 40,000km – the equivalent of the earth’s circumference – and raising £40,000 at the same time.
The week has been named ‘The Spire to Spire Cycle Challenge 2019’ and will take place between 23 June to 30 June 2019.
Every hospital is organising its own charity cycle rides - indoors or outdoors - as well as hosting park runs and walks to meet the 1,000km targets. To support this, a team of Spire employees, including the CEO Justin Ash and CFO Jitesh Sodha, will be riding a gruelling 333km from Spire’s head office in central London to its hospital in Bristol all in one day.
The cyclists will be accompanied by Mark Beaumont, the world-renowned athlete, broadcaster and ambassador who currently holds the world record for cycling the route around the world in 79 days.
Alongside Mark, our very own David Blackwell is taking part in the central 333km ride on behalf of the hospital. David is a Quality Governance and Resuscitation Lead at Spire Alexandra and is excited to be taking part in the central team.
Half of the proceeds raised will be donated to small international charity, THET, who works tirelessly to give developing countries access to affordable and quality healthcare by training healthcare workers. The other half of the proceeds will go to Alzheimer's Society.