For the second year running we’ve come together to complete a month-long challenge to each do the equivalent of a marathon – 26.2 miles. The aim was to get active, boost our mental and physical health and raise money for Mind at the same time.
Mental health support is such an important subject at Two Saints for both our staff and clients. It’s something we deal with and provide support for every day. Therefore, Mind was an obvious choice to donate to as it’s a cause that’s close to our hearts.
We first ran this challenge last year after a health and wellbeing survey identified that many staff felt isolated during lockdown, but the feedback received after the event showed they enjoyed it so much they wanted to do it again this year.
Hazel Newton, one of our operational support leaders took part this year and said,
“I really enjoyed having the incentive to get out and get active, especially for a cause that I fully support. I also loved the team spirit I felt during the challenge, including the friendly rivalry!”
Staff were able to do the challenge individually or as part of a team and we had teams sign up with inventive names such as Scrambled Legs and Oak Beans. Staff joined from our services in various geographical locations including Basingstoke, Andover, Portsmouth, Isle of Wight and Fareham. Among the participants were support workers, homeless recovery workers, team leaders and members of the executive team.
Emily Brock, executive director of transformation and business improvement signed up as part of The Staff Council Crew, and said,
“I loved getting involved in this for the second year running. I enjoy the camaraderie that comes from doing a challenge with staff across the whole organisation and everyone seems to have benefited from getting out and about more – a good to see a bit of friendly competition thrown in too!
“The idea of this activity was to help unite staff in different areas of the organisation to be a part of something that creates a feeling of togetherness and helps boost people’s mental health and wellbeing. I’m hoping staff will be up for doing something similar next year”.
Altogether staff walked, ran, cycled and even paddle-boarded more than 1,280 miles (further than the distance from the UK to Hungary) following a virtual map of the London Marathon.
We were delighted to have raised a whopping £1,350 against our original target of £1,000, this also smashed our target from last year and included a combination of staff raising their own sponsorship as well as generous donations from our partners Service Master, White Knight Recruitment and Coombs Catering.