With Cancer Research UK as its charity of the year, Quill’s [1] in-house voluntary charity committee has been busy planning 2019’s main fundraiser aptly named a “Quillathlon”.
Beginning on 7th September and continuing to 22nd September, the Quill team intends to ‘travel’ to its furthest-away client which is Falklands Legal located in the Falkland Islands. As Quill’s head office is based in Manchester, the total distance between the start and end points is 7,940 miles.
Using a mixture of exercise bikes, rowing machines and treadmills in its regional sites, and combining with walks and cycles on the commute to and from work, and adding into the pot any lunchtime, evening and weekend walking, cycling and swimming activities, Quill aims to complete the ambitiously long route within the 15-day deadline.
To kick things off, there are two long Quill-wide walks. The first is a canal walk across a stretch of the trail from Leeds to Liverpool, a fitting choice as its Manchester headquarters is situated next to the Bridgewater Canal. The second is the Fairfield Horseshoe, a circular hillwalking ridge walk in the Lake District, starting from Rydal or Ambleside and taking in all the fells that surround the valley of Rydal Beck along a 10-mile course.
While Quill fully appreciates the mammoth task ahead, it’s trying to make the challenge slightly more achievable by allowing friends and family to get involved too. Mileage logged by Quill employees also applies to other participants. And everything counts, even a walk around a shopping centre.
Quill’s utilising technology to assist the tracking process where possible. Fitbits, mobile phone apps, and journeys calculated on cycling, rowing and running machines are all in on the act. To make sure every entry is legitimate, Quill’s asking for photographic evidence using the hashtag #quillathlon. Cheating is most definitely not permitted.
Finally, always keen on healthy competition to motivate everyone at Quill towards its goal, there will be prizes to the best-performing teams.
You can support the Quillathlon initiative by pledging sponsorship money. Please visit https://fundraise.cancerresearchuk.org/page/quillathlon2019 [2] to make a secure online donation. Every penny counts and helps Quill get that bit closer to its £3,970 target.