Over the course of May 2022, 42 incredible individuals took part in the inaugral ’70k Your Way’ Challenge (between 1st-31st May) covering a phenomenal 2,597km and raising a fantastic £1,857 along the way!
The final few km’s of the event took place on Tuesday 31st May with a small team of walkers and cyclists taking on the final 4 kms together along the River Avon. We were extremely privileged to be joined by Councillor Adbul Amin, Swindon Mayor who started the event and cheered our participants across the finish line!
A special thanks also goes to our wonderful volunteers from Nine Feet Tall, to Sea Mills Co-op for their goodie bag donations and to Sue at the Perky Coffee Co for opening up to provide us with delicious drinks and snacks!
70k Participant, Gayle Lui, said at the finale event:
“I’m here today to complete a fantastic challenge for a fantastic charity. Any opportunity for my husband and I to get some exercise and do something fit and healthy is a good thing, and it’s great to support such a good cause at the same time.
“We’ve cycled up from Corsham to get here today and we think we will have done 70 kilometres just today by the time we get home later today, but for now we’re going to enjoy some cake and a coffee and work out our route home.”
Mayor of Swindon Councillor Abdul Amin, was in attendance:
“It has been great to join the people who have been taking part in today’s event to raise money for Jessie May, a charity I am pleased to be supporting in my year as Mayor of Swindon.”
Community Engagement Fundraising Officer at Jessie May, Charlotte Bugler, gave her words of thanks to everyone who took part in the challenge:
We are all so grateful to all of those who participated in the 70k Your Way Challenge and raised vital funds for our Jessie May nurses, children and their families.
It was amazing to see you all step up to the challenge and find so many ways of getting active to cover the distance. We had cyclists, runners, walkers, horse riders, carriage drivers and swimmers to name a few and many smashed through the target and doubled their distances across the month.
As the first event of its kind for Jessie May , it was a real pleasure to meet some of our participants in person for the final few km and we hope to grow this year on year.
Thank you and congratulations #TeamJessie for truly doing something incredible and for making a difference to the children and families we support. I look forward to hearing any feedback from you and will leave this with you from Arthurs Mum, Melanie:
“Thank you for giving money. It’s such a massive thing for us as families. Jessie May know how to help us, they are highly trained with years of experience which is so valuable to families. So the best support you can give is to make sure we have Jessie May.”
If you’d like to take on an event in support of Jessie May, please head over to the Events page of our website, or alternatively you can get in touch with Community Engagement Fundraising Officer, Charlotte Bugler, via email charlotte.bugler@jessiemay.org.uk or by phone on 0117 9582174.