Spire Edinburgh Hospitals is cycling around the world to raise money for charity
03 June 2019
Spire Edinburgh Hospitals is 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 Sunday 23 to Sunday 30 June.
Every hospital is organising its own activities 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.
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 local causes, chosen by each individual hospital. Spire Edinburgh Hospitals has announced that it will be raising money for It’s Good 2 Give, who support young cancer patients and their families.
Ken Hay, Hospital Director at Spire Edinburgh Hospitals, comments:
"We are delighted to be taking part in this Spire-wide fundraising event. It’s Good 2 Give is a charity that is particularly close to our hearts here in Edinburgh as they helped one of our consultants and his family through a particularly difficult time. It’s wonderful to be able to make a contribution to this great cause. Our staff will be taking part in a number of fundraising activities and we’ll do our best to smash our target of 1,000km."
Justin Ash, CEO of Spire Healthcare, added: “Every Spire Healthcare hospital has a responsibility to its local community and that includes giving back. We already have many strong relationships with good causes but we want to do more and by working together we hope to achieve a lasting difference both locally, and to other parts of the world who don’t have the same access to vital healthcare. This is the first time Spire has organised a company-wide fundraising week and I am delighted we are able to come together in this way.”
To find out more about The Spire to Spire Cycle Challenge or to donate, please visit our Just Giving page.