A 10 person strong Rossendales football team put their boots on and took part in a ‘Legends Charity Soccer Tournament’ recently, helping to raise over £500 for the McMillan Cancer Relief Charity.

The Rossendales’ team took on 21 other business teams throughout the UK who all travelled to the JJB Soccerdome, Blackburn just as the football season kicked off earlier in the year.

They played against footballing legends such as Ronnie Whelan, Gary Gillespie, Alan Kennedy, Jan Molby, John Durnin, Bruce Grobbelaar and Michael Thomas. 

The 21 teams were split into four groups with the top two teams from each group progressing through to the next round. Each team also had the chance for a ‘legend’ to play for them in one of their games in the group stage and the eventual winners of the tournament had the once in a lifetime chance to take on the legends.

Rossendales managed to get through to the quarter finals and had Bruce Grobbelaar and Alan Kennedy playing for them during the competiton.

Later the teams attended a gala dinner at Blackburn Rovers Football Club where ex-England goalkeeper Peter Shilton was the guest of honour.

Once again staff at Rossendales helped to raise funds for Children in Need. This year we raised £117.00 for the charity.  Staff had a dress down pyjama day to raise money, while the bakers among the team made and sold cakes supported by a raffle.

The company also helped to raise £65.05 for the Royal British Legion’s annual poppy appeal.  Finally we also received a thank you from Breast Cancer awareness for raising £207.95.

Thanks to everyone who helped raise the money – it goes to very important charities.

On the 5th November 2010 our bailiff Jamie Lee Bills climbed for four days to get to the Ancient Inca Site of Machu Piacchu in the South American Country of Peru.

Jamie raised £3,600.00 for the Cornwall Hospice Care which treats terminally ill patients.  Jamie lost his mother to Cancer and she was cared for at the Hospice.  He said that it was extremely challenging but  great fun and he is even thinking of doing The Three Peaks of Britain in Twenty four hours in June for Charity, That’s Three mountains, One in England, One in Scotland and One in Wales in 24 Hrs, which two of our office staff Chris and Gary Dobson completed last year.

http://www.cornish-hospices.co.uk/

When my daughter was two years old, she was diagnosed with a condition called Von Willebrands Disease, which is a bleeding disorder.  She receives her treatment at the Manchester Children’s Hospital.  From visiting the hospital, I have seen first-hand how amazing the work that they do is and how fantastic all the staff are.  Unfortunately, I have also seen some very poorly children and I know that any money we raise will make a huge difference and will be very much appreciated by the children, their families and all the staff at the hospital.

I saw the Gold Challenge on the Children’s Hospital website and thought this would be something I would like to take part in.  As a team we have to cover 2012km by July 2012 by walking, running, swimming, cycling or rowing. After speaking to colleagues at work, we agreed it would be a good challenge, something to work together as a team, a good way to keep fit and also a good way to raise money.  I was aware that Rossendales had raised thousands of pounds for the Children’s Hospital when staff had taken part in the Greggs Run which was an annual event.

Our team members are of different ages and have different abilities but we appreciate that we are working together and this is a yearlong challenge and I am sure we will have a laugh along the way.

We have made a good start but with the long winter months coming up, I’m sure going out for a run or a power walk won’t be quite as appealing.  We all know what a good cause it is for so I am sure that, and the support of our team mates, will keep us going.

Annaliese Nolan

Mike Shang and David Chapman at Rossendale Hospice giving tree

Rossendales was delighted to be awarded with a leaf on the Rossendale Hospices’ ‘Giving Tree’.  The leaf was awarded for the company’s outstanding fundraising achievements. Staff and bailiffs have raised over £9000.00 for the hospice, an achievement we are delighted with.  Rossendales Hospice showed their gratitude by inviting us to have an engraved brass leaf on their ‘Giving Tree’ situated in their reception area.

Chris Bloodworth presenting the cheque to Sam Morris of Rossendales Hospice

Led by our Operations Department the whole of Rossendales held a special summer/holiday themed dress down! – Hats, sunglasses, flip flops, maxi dresses and shorts.

We also held games, organised a quiz and had an international Jacobs Join (where every team brought foods in from different countries!) France, India, Italy were some of the Countries represented on the day.  Suffice to say all staff had a great day.

Members of staff donated £1 to the Royal Manchester Children’s hospital in support of our High Court Enforcement Team who are embarking on the 2012km gold challenge. We raised a total of £165.00

The competition took place on Wednesday 19^th May during Rossendales’ Learning at Work Day.

When the day finally arrived and Training Room 1 was cleared of desks and computers, the room lay silent and still, until 10am struck and Staff from every department swooped in, including various Directors! Suddenly the room was full and the atmosphere buzzed with excitement and anticipation.

Seeing the mass of grown-ups having fun as they did in their childhoods was amazing.  The room was filled with blue hula-hoops and the staff were allowed a practice round to restore hip wiggling skills from their youth! The serious hula hooping began as they were timed against the clock but the laughter remained as they faced difficulty mastering the skill of keeping the hoop spinning, resulting in more time being spent picking it up off the floor and asking over and over if they could ‘please have just one more go?’.

Everyone learnt that hula hooping isn’t an easy pastime but that it is certainly good for the waistline!  On the other hand, there were a few who made it look effortless; Nina Frain who won the competition, Charlie Townsend following in second place and Karen Fay-Booth who was third.  All in all, as Wallace and Gromit would say, it was ‘A Grand Day Out’!

Whilst Action for Brain Injury Week was a great opportunity to raise awareness of brain injury and its effects, there was still plenty of time to have fun hence “Hats for Headway Day”.  Thanks to the support of the Directors and Social Committee here at Rossendales we had an extra dress down day to raise money for this worthy charity and highlight its importance.

As always the staff showed fabulous enthusiasm and created some extremely imaginative hat designs.  The winning hats included a representation of the brain (Zara), an intricate birds nest (Paul Fellows) and a Mad Hatters tea party (Charlotte Lambert and the team from Client Services).  Along with the fun and frivolity staff raised money by paying £1 for dressing down and buying cakes from the trolley that were kindly provided by the Social Committee.

Headway is a national charity organised and run by volunteers who have experience of caring for people with an acquired brain injury (ABI) or simply those who have an interest in ABI.  The objectives and aims of this local branch (Blackburn with Darwen, Hyndburn and the Ribble Valley) are to support the survivors of brain injury, their families and friends and carers by holding fun social events and time-out meetings for them to enjoy, to meet other survivors/carers and to gain support and information.  The group relies solely on fundraising activities and donations that go towards the cost of meeting rooms, resources, educational books, transport and funding the activities and monthly social group meetings.

“A big thank you goes out to the directors and staff of Rossendales, Wavell House, Holcombe rd, Lancashire for their enthusiasm in supporting Headway Blackburn, raising £160!!” 

The website for Headway for people who may be interested to know more is www.headwayblackburn.co.uk

Chris after finishing the London Marathon

After lots of training and numerous pairs of trainers, Chris completed the London Marathon in 4 hours, 33mins & 30secs which considering it was his first marathon, was not a bad effort (although he had set himself an ambitiously hard target of sub 4 hours)   which also resulted in Chris raising £830.00 for the Alzheimer’s Society – so many thanks to the staff, clients, family and friends for supporting him.

For those of you that are interested or even perplexed why a marathon is 26.2 miles – the marathon originates from 500BC when Pheidippides, a Greek soldier, who, legend has it, ran with news of a battle from the plains of Marathon to the City of Athens, which was just less than 25 miles away.  He finished the distance, managed to cough out the word ‘niki’(victory), collapsed and promptly died – not a great advert for running a marathon.

At the first modern Olympics in 1896, officials held a marathon to commemorate Pheidippides’ run.  The distance was 24.85 miles and was won by Greek Spiridon Louis in just under 3 hours.  It wasn’t until 1908, with the London Olympics, that the distance of 26.2 came into being.  Organisers wanted to start the race at Windsor Castle and end it at the White City stadium, 26 miles away.  They then added 0.2 miles so that the race could finish right in front of the Royal Family – and so the official distance of the marathon was changed from 24.85 to 26.2 miles.

Chris talked about his marathon journey…

“I remembered an article I had read prior to the marathon which stated that ‘running a marathon isn’t just about lacing up a pair of trainers, turning up on the start line and running 26.2 miles. It’s so much more than that. From the moment you decide a marathon is your personal mountain to climb, it’s a journey that takes considerable motivation, planning, preparation and effort.  The marathon is more than a race, frequently littered with obstacles, fear, anxiety, disbelief, hope, courage, smiles, grimaces, pain and glory’.

“How true all the above was!  I started training in earnest back in October 2010 after receiving confirmation I had been successful in my application after seven years of trying to enter the London Marathon via the general ballot system.

“You have to be motivated to run in the winter months when it is dark, wet and cold.   I put in plenty of planning and effort for my long runs on Sundays which peaked at around 19 miles plus. But then the obstacles of hamstring injuries and the anxiety of not being able to make my regular runs compounded my training schedule, questioning whether I would be able to complete and finish the course.   Then the big day arrives and the hope and courage you gain from talking to fellow competitors drive you on. I am told by everyone just to enjoy the day and keep smiling as you run. No one told me that it would be one of the hottest days and did I suffer trying keep to my split times whilst at the same time trying to rehydrate myself and cool my overheating body down.

“Then at 23 miles, I hit the dreaded ‘wall,’ the point when you simply run out of juice (Glycogen). You feel disorientated, dizzy and exhausted and there is nothing you can do about it. The pain you feel in your legs as you try to run is very debilitating. However, the sight of the crowds cheering spurred me on and soon I was back running albeit at a slower pace to complete the final 3.2 miles and taste the glory of completing my first marathon…the emotions just wash over you.

“The marathon is an experience like no other. Thousands of spectators will cheer you along the route, helping to propel you to the finish.  Most people say they’ll never run another one when they finish their first marathon.  Not me,  I have already entered the ballot for the 2012 Marathon,  as I still want to get below four hours… just hope it is not another seven years before I am accepted again!”

Chris Bloodworth at the Cardiff 10k

Chris Bloodworth, Sales & Marketing Director, has been spending the winter months training hard for the London Marathon in April this year.  As part of his training schedule he completed the Cardiff 10k (49.33 mins) and Half Marathon (110.00mins) raising £250.00 for the Kidney Fund and Alzheimer’s Society.

Chris has chosen to run the London Marathon on behalf of the Alzheimer’s Society  and is aiming to raise another £300 .00