You may have seen our recent spate of tweets and Facebook posts featuring two strapping fellows on road bikes modelling Anglicus t-shirts. 160 characters (the Twitter limit) didn’t really offer enough scope to cover the story in any detail, but fortunately our blogger extraordinaire has been on the case.
Local boys Gary Donoghue and Gareth Yanulevitch are colleagues and friends who made the exciting decision to complete a sponsored cycle in the name of three worthy charities – ‘Railway Children’, ‘Sands’ and ‘The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award’. Gareth is a keen cyclist and although this was a new challenge for him, he would have been happy tackling the route for pure fun. Gary, on the other hand, likes the idea of cycling but never actively participates in the sport, hence the idea to incorporate sponsorship for additional encouragement. The men have raised a fantastic £900 so far through their Virgin Money Giving page, with a number of sponsors yet to donate, and we are sure their total will end up well above the £1000 mark they had hoped to achieve.
The whopping 170-mile, coast-to-coast route they chose to take is known as the ‘Way of the Roses’ in a nod to the Red Rose of Lancashire and the White Rose of Yorkshire – the emblems of the two English counties that span this course. Anyone who’s taken on this challenge before will know that this is a particularly tricky route with strenuous hills to clamber and rocky roads to contend with, not to mention a splash (or several, come to think of it!) of the gloriously unpredictable UK weather!
With so many incredibly worthy causes out there, you may be wondering how Gary and Gareth settled on these three in particular. Sands supports families whose babies have died, a subject close to Gary’s heart as he has had friends and relatives unfortunately suffer with this form of bereavement and the charity has helped them through it. As a father of two children, Gary thinks the idea of any child being on the streets is unbearable and endeavours to help end this issue, or at least contribute towards doing so. The company Gary and Gareth work for already donates to The Duke of Edinburgh Award, so our intrepid adventurers felt it was only appropriate to make a further contribution since it was their company that helped them to take on this challenge as part of its annual ‘Community Day’, allowing staff to take time off to partake in charitable activities.
The love for travel and exploring new places is understandably close to the hearts of the Anglicus team and, as firm advocates of supporting the next generation, we were more than happy to sponsor our local heroes and support charities that help children not only in the United Kingdom, but also around the world.
After an extremely gruelling weekend of rainy weather and exhaustion, our head translator Melanie was there to meet them at the finish line with nothing more appropriate than fish and chips and a seaside view! As for Gary’s take on the weekend: “It was much harder than I anticipated, my bum is numb and my legs are like jelly but knowing the money we have raised for the three amazing charities sure makes it all worthwhile”.
All there is left to say is a huge well done and congratulations from us all here at Anglicus! If anyone would still like to donate, please visit their Virgin Money Giving page.