Charity heroes raise £8,000

A pledge to match every pound raised by employees resulted in a total of £8,000 being donated to the 2015 BBC Children in Need appeal. It was the first time a company-wide campaign had been staged for a single charity.

Employees across the country took up the challenge and raised just short of £4,000 with a series of events from cake making and raffles to five-a-side football and busking.

Marketing manager Steve Morton, who co-ordinated the campaign, said: “This year’s theme was ‘Dress up as your childhood hero’ but we encouraged staff to do anything they wanted. We set up a Just Giving page and provided a support pack to help promote specific events. We didn’t know what the response would be, but it turned out to be well supported.”

There were cake sales at Allington, Chipping Sodbury, Maidenhead and Southampton offices while staff at Maidenhead organised a charity five-a-side football match at the local sports centre.

At Baston quarry in Lincolnshire, weighbridge clerk Nicola Cook-Smith dressed in a different costume every day for a week and raised £110. Her costumes included the rabbit and Alice from Alice in Wonderland, a nun and a tequila bottle.

Earlier in the year, a bumper day for concrete sales on Red Nose Day led to a donation of £7,377 to the Comic Relief charity appeal. Hanson pledged to give 50p for every cubic metre of concrete delivered on the day – and shipped a grand total of 14,754 cubic metres. Other events organised by employees raised a further £1,300.