On Thursday 29 January, staff at Park Cameras, one of the UK’s leading independent photographic retailers attempted to run between both their stores in Burgess Hill and Central London in a single day, in an effort to raise as much money as possible for local charity St. Peter and St. James’ Hospice.
It was a chilly day outside Burgess Hill, with the temperature at just 5C. However, inside the Park Cameras store, things got pretty warm, as amongst the wide range of cameras, lenses, bags and tripods, a team of 13 employees set of on their challenge to run the equivalent distance between their two retail stores.
The team worked in relay fashion on a treadmill, each doing their leg of the 45.7 mile journey as quickly as they could physically manage. The store itself was still open for business as usual, and it was great to see customers donating what they could to add to the total amount of money raised for local charity St. Peter & St. James’ Hospice – although it wasn’t necessarily as easy for the runners to give any expert photographic advice when asked!
Park Cameras chose to raise money for St. Peter & St. James’ Hospice as this is a charity based in the local area that many of the staff feels particularly strongly about. The hospice receives just 14% of their funding from the government, and have to raise more than £2.6 million every year through fundraising events. That’s £7,200 every single day.
Park Cameras HR manager Adel Charles said, “We are delighted to have been able to raise £795.77 for St. Peter & St. James’ Hospice. Whilst the team here went through a bit of pain and quite a lot of sweat, and I certainly know this first hand, it makes it worthwhile knowing the money raised will help all at St. Peter & St. James continue with the fantastic care, love and support they provide for those in the community that need it.”
Their Just Giving page is still available to view and donate to, should you wish. Simply visit www.JustGiving.com/parkcamerasrun.
