Spire to Spire Charity Cycle Challenge 2019

Between Sunday 23 - Sunday 30 June, Spire Healthcare will be hosting its first ever company-wide fundraising challenge.

Across our network of 39 hospitals and each of our support sites, Spire colleagues will be getting involved in a range of activities - including cycling - as we aim to raise as much money as possible.

The headline event of the week is the Spire to Spire cycle challenge. A team of colleagues including our CEO Justin Ash and CFO Jitesh Sodha will cycle a massive 333km from our Dorset Rise office in London to Spire Bristol hospital. The team will be in the saddle for over 15 hours and along the way they will stop off at St Anthony’s, Gatwick Park, Portsmouth Southampton hospitals.

They will be accompanied by Mark Beaumont, the record-breaking long-distance British cyclist, adventurer, broadcaster, documentary maker and author who holds the record for cycling round the world in just 79 days!

As well as the team cycle, Spire staff from all over the UK will be walking and running to clock up those all-important kms, as each site is challenged to cover 1,000km. By the end of week we are hoping to have collectively raised £40,000 and covered 40,000km - the equivalent of one lap around the world!

Half of all the money raised will be donated to Spire Healthcare’s national charity *THET, a small international charity, who work tirelessly to give developing countries access to affordable and quality healthcare by training healthcare worker; with the other half donated to a local cause chosen by each hospital or site.

At Spire Leicester, a number of departmental teams will be trying to cover 50 km each over the week, through a mixture of running, cycling and swimming; with individuals totting up the kms covered doing day to day activities such as taking the dog for a run, walking up and down the wards at work and walking the kids to school.  We will also be having a cake sale and a raffle to try and raise as much money as possible!

Our chosen charity, to which we will be donating 50% of all the money we raise, is the Bone Cancer Research Trust; a charity selected by staff here at the hospital and which we are proud to support. The Bone Cancer Research Trust is dedicated to fighting primary bone cancer and their mission is to save lives and improve outcomes for people affected by primary bone cancer through research, information, awareness and support.

We will be posting regular updates about our fundraising activities on our Facebook page!

*THET works to create a world where everyone, everywhere, has access to healthcare, and they achieve this by training and educating health workers in low and middle-income countries in partnership with volunteers from across the UK health community. To give you an idea of how far the money we raise money can go, just £150 could fund a day of sexual and reproductive health training for rural health workers and teachers in South West Uganda, empowering communities, and especially young people, with vital family planning guidance. £2,000 could fund 30 days of stroke diagnosis, treatment and care training to nurses and physiotherapists in Ethiopia, helping to reduce the morbidity and mortality of stroke, particularly in remote areas.