Spire Harpenden and Mr David Gordon raising vital funds for suicide prevention
04 October 2019
On Friday 28 June 2019, Consultant Foot and Ankle Surgeon, Mr David Gordon and a team of Spire Healthcare colleagues took on the gruelling challenge of cycling over 200 miles in just one day. Throughout the week of Sunday 23 – Sunday 30 June 2019 Spire Harpenden Hospital arranged multiple fundraising challenges and events to raise money and support the cycling team. This involved a cake sale, raffle, local bike ride and even David waxing his legs! Half of the money raised went to the national charity THET, who work to create a world where everyone, everywhere has access to healthcare, and the other half to Harpenden’s local charity, The OLLIE Foundation.
David and Spire Harpenden raised the fantastic sum of £2,776.13, with £1,770.53 going to the local St Albans charity, The OLLIE Foundation. In society today, there are very few people who have not been touched by suicide. The OLLIE foundation is a local St Albans Charity whose mission is simple: to stop young people from taking their own lives. OLLIE delivers training in suicide awareness, prevention and intervention to communities in Hertfordshire. They train all sorts of people including parents, teachers, health professionals, sports coaches, youth club leaders and young people themselves.
We spoke with Mr Gordon about the fundraising, he said: “It was a fabulous day. Getting up at 3am is never fun, but the Spire Team camaraderie was brilliant. We were well fed in all the Spire Hospital stops which kept the legs well fuelled and the weather was perfect, not a drop of rain. After 15 hours in the saddle, I was glad to reach Bristol along with everyone who started, and proud to raise money for such good causes, including our local charity, The OLLIE Foundation. Thank you to all my sponsors and even to those who waxed my legs!”
September saw Verity Bramwell, Operations Manager, visit Spire Harpenden Hospital to meet with David and Hospital Director Julia, to pick up the last pounds raised! Verity said: “When Spire Harpenden approached OLLIE to say they wanted to choose us as their local charity to support we were ever so pleased. Working with healthcare providers that support our local community is really important to OLLIE. We were even more impressed when we found out that Consultant Mr David Gordon, Consultant Foot and Ankle Surgeon, was going the extra mile to raise much needed funds for OLLIE by having his legs waxed by colleagues and patients, and that was before he embarked on his 200+ mile cycle ride. We can't express our gratitude enough for the £1770.53 he raised for OLLIE which will allow us to train 23 people in suicide intervention skills training. A real community champion!”
Spire Harpenden were very pleased to be able to raise vital funds for such an important charity and look forward to working with OLLIE in the near future. For more information about The OLLIE Foundation, please visit: https://theolliefoundation.org/