Latest news / 3 April, 2018

Venue Administrator Completes Gruelling 25 Mile Walking Challenge in aid of GOSH

Alice Pegrum, Venue Business Administrator at HQ’s Watford Colosseum undertook a gruelling 25-mile walking challenge on Easter Saturday to raise vital funds for Great Ormond Street Children’s Charity.

The Easter Walk was arranged as part of Action Challenge - an organisation who create mass participation outdoor events throughout the UK. More than 1,000 trekkers took part in the Easter Saturday walk following a route which started and finished at a basecamp in Windsor.Alice, a Charity Champion at HQ for the past four years said:

“We trained for 9 weeks, but never got above 15 miles in training – so it was an enormous upshift to complete the full 25 miles on the day. The conditions were gruelling and the route was extremely muddy – we managed to complete the challenge in just over 8 hours, but we had to change our socks several times en route! In total, I’ve raised almost £700 for GOSH, whilst my friend who walked in aid of Diabetes UK raised a further £700.”

Qdos Entertainment Group, of which HQ Theatres is a part, has now raised well in excess of £1m for GOSH through an ongoing programme of fundraising initiatives, bucket-collections at theatre performances and at the company’s nationwide pantomime productions. Chris McGuigan, Group Director of Marketing & Sales at Qdos Entertainment said:

“We’re enormously proud of the ongoing commitment of all HQ Theatres and Qdos staff in their fundraising efforts for Great Ormond Street Hospital. In 2017 we reached our target of £1m raised for the hospital’s Theatres For Theatres appeal and we were proud to be included within GOSH’s Friends of Adeona – a group recognizing major donors and fundraisers for the hospital. At the same time we reaffirmed our commitment to Great Ormond Street as our primary charitable partner. In 2018 we are now focussed on raising funds for vital neurosurgery equipment. Our Charity Champions are staff members who are particularly active in encouraging fundraising in their individual venues - they play a really important role in making sure that GOSH fundraising is always foremost in the minds of our colleagues and often, leading from the front in those efforts.”

Numerous other fundraising events are already planned for 2018 including members of staff participating in the Three Peaks Challenge and the Tough Mudder challenge.