Stepping out for Cardiac Risk in the Young
Last weekend, three of our Corby team took on the North Downs walk. This is a fabulous event organised by Ultra Challenge to raise funds for a huge number of charities.
We chose to put our efforts towards one of our charities of the year, Cardiac Risk in the Young. CRY does fantastic work to raise money and awareness to help prevent sudden cardiac deaths in young people. The charity also supports affected families and offers subsidised ECG and echocardiogram screening to young people between the ages of 14 and 35.
The team was dealt a bit of a blow in the run-up to the event as our UK Sales Manager Chris Angel suffered a freak leg injury! This meant that Jack Sawford had to step in to join Harvey and Joff on the walk at short notice. Fortunately, Jack’s a fit lad and more than a match for the other two, so a quick 25km jaunt around the lovely North Downs from Loseley Park, which is between Godalming and Guildford, was never going to trouble him.
The team was up early on Saturday and made it to the start in high spirits which, surprisingly, were maintained throughout the challenge. The beautiful weather helped, though the heat did become a little enervating on the haul up the daunting St. Martha’s Hill. The wonderful church and glorious view from the top over the rolling downs more than made up for that, though, and the team soon set off again, restored and ready for whatever the route could throw at them.
The walk continued through lovely scenery with few mishaps, though the narrow, sandy lanes proved a challenge for walking on at times, especially when the runners on the 50km course started to catch up. Much respect to these individuals, who the team thought must be slightly mad to taking on that sort of challenge in the plus-25-degree heat. Hats off to them.
A quick stop to replenish energy was made at the 17km mark, where the Ultra Challenge team had set up their main rest stop. Fuelled by electrolyte drinks, pastries and a few handfuls of jelly babies, our intrepid trio embarked on the last leg. After a few kilometres of increasingly hard trudging, the team rounded a corner to see an open field with an extremely inviting finish line at the bottom of the slope, so, with a renewed spring in the step, they bounded down the hill to cross the finish line.
Warm prosecco, a few bites to eat and a bit of a sit down were all it took to reinvigorate the team before it was back up towards Corby for the three.
It was a brilliant day for a fantastic cause, so thanks to everyone who’s donated so far. Our Just Giving page is still open if you’d like to donate. The total is £622 so far and the company has generously offered to match the final total, so feel free to give!
