Partner Victoria Sampson, who is completing the challenge over two days – and camping overnight – welcomed everyone and said that this is, by far, the hardest challenge #TeamCB has untaken, even more so than cycling from London to Paris in 24 hours. She reminded people that the team is completing the course over either one or two days and the incredible Ayla Clissold is running the whole 100km on a single day!
“Thank you to everyone for your support,” she said. “Completing a distance of this length will be such a mental challenge but we are doing it for Demelza and for the incredible work they do.”
Partner Sarah Strong is preparing to walk the 100km in just one day.
“The training has been absolutely gruelling,” she explained. “We’ve been out on group walks and on solo ones too. I’ve been out for seven or eight hours at a time and my poor children have forgotten who I am. We are doing this for one reason and that’s to support Demelza, which provides a fantastic service to families going through their ‘worst nightmare’. Please do support us.”
Petra Bones, Head of Corporate Partnerships at Demelza said: “Here at Demelza, we provide extraordinary care to extraordinary children from babies to late teens. We currently support 2,500 children and family members and these are people who live here in our community. We only receive a very small percentage of our money from Government and the rest is from amazing people like the ‘magnificent seven’ from CooperBurnett. We are so grateful for what you are doing.”
The fundraising total last night stood at £4000 and Petra explained that a sum of that amount could provide 78 hours of specialist nursing care for a child.
Petra added: “Demelza is behind you every step of the way. As a charity, we provide unique support to our families and we know that CooperBurnett provides unique support to your clients.”
Partner Joseph Oates, who is walking the 100km over two days, said: “Without the support and care of Demelza, I’m not sure how these children and their families would cope. As Partners, we have pledged to pound-match all the money which is raised, so we encourage you to please support us.”
