Employees from energy company SSE, which supplies energy as SWALEC in Wales, have donated £2,000 to the Velindre Cancer Centre after completing a five week walking challenge.
The ten employees from SSE’s Learning and Development Team, walked over 4 million steps, as part of a company ‘Walk around the World’ initiative to help get employees active and celebrate the Commonwealth Games.
The challenge encouraged colleagues working in teams of ten to collectively “walk around the world” via five Commonwealth countries. Setting off in Glasgow, Scotland, the teams ‘walked’ to Abuja, Nigeria before heading to Delhi, India then onto Canberra, Australia and Georgetown, Guyana before finishing back in Glasgow.
The team, made up of employees based in Wales, Scotland and England, were one of the lucky 13 teams to receive prize funds for their chosen charity as part of the challenge.
Trystan Dafydd from SSE’s SWALEC office in Treforest explains how his team managed the mammoth walk. He said: “The challenge was fantastic fun but wasn’t easy, we were taking on extra activities and walking at lunchtimes, evenings and weekends in a bid to ramp up the miles.
“There was great team spirit and competitiveness which helped us along the way and gave us a chance to win for our team’s chosen charity.
“Although excellent progress has been made in the fight against cancer, it unfortunately continues to affect those near to us. This donation to the Velindre Cancer Centre will contribute to their sterling work in providing specialist cancer services in South Wales.”
Andrew Morris Head of Fundraising at Velindre said “We are very grateful for this generous donation from SSE, and particularly grateful to the 10 people who gave up their lunch hours and weekends to support Velindre. This challenge required a lot of commitment and we are really pleased that so many people wanted to support cancer patients in Wales, many thanks from everyone at Velindre for your magnificent efforts”
Every week, successful SSE teams were entered into a prize draw to receive funds for their chosen charity. A total of £20,000 has been donated to various charities from the 13 winning teams across SSE.