Rapid Supports the Isle of Wight Hospice for a 5th Year

Under the current guidance as a result of COVID-19, Rapid’s Business Manager, Marianne Edwards, has been making the most of her daily exercise allowance. 

Whilst Rapid & RentArc's chosen charity this year is Wessex Heartbeat, there is one annual fundraising event that Marianne always takes part in on the Isle of Wight, where she resides.

‘Walk the Wight’ is held in aid of the Island’s hospice, and this year would have been Marianne’s fifth time participating. Sadly, the organised walk for Sunday 10^th May was cancelled this year due to the pandemic, but with a few tweaks to meet current social distancing measures the event was able to continue, and 'Walk the Wight' became ‘Walk the Wight Your Way’.

As an added bonus, participants are allowed to sign up their dogs to take part, too, receiving their own number, bandana and a medal. This was too good an opportunity to pass up for Marianne. Making this challenge extra special, Marianne was accompanied by Scarlet, her beloved Rhodesian Ridgeback and regular training partner. Together, these six legs covered the distance of 26.2 miles from East (Bembridge) to West (Alum Bay).

Incredibly well organised, walkers were provided with maps of accessible routes on the island, meaning the event was able to continue in spirit and enabling participants to raise money and support this great cause; which each year raises around £250,000!

A bit of trivia for you: To date, Scarlet and Marianne have each walked a whopping 214 miles - enough to have walked around the Island coastal path (67 miles), North to South (13 miles) and East to West (24 miles) ..... TWICE!

You can find out more about ‘Walk the Wight Your Way’ and support this very worthwhile cause here: https://www.mountbatten.org.uk/walk-the-wight-your-way-a-unique-virtual-fundraiser. 

Marianne & Scarlet heading out for their daily walk!

Rapid Welding Announce Wessex Heartbeat as their Charity of the Year

Wessex Heartbeat has been chosen by Rapid Welding as its charity of the year. The charity provides support and care to patients being treated at the Wessex Cardiac Centre in Southampton.

Speaking of the charity choice, Marianne Edwards, Business Manager at Rapid said, "Cardiac care is of great importance to some of the Rapid Welding team and their families. This year we wanted to support a cardiac charity local to our business, therefore Wessex Heartbeat felt like the right choice."

We are encouraging the Rapid team to become involved in raising as much money as they can and we already have some ideas planned for this year to do just that!

This year our challenge will see 20 members of the team try to raise £20 for the charity - it will be interesting to see what ideas for fundraising they come up with!

Other fundraising plans include a raffle at Rapid's 30th birthday celebration BBQ in June, in addition to Marianne taking on the 'Action Challenge Isle of Wight Ultra' in May - a 106k ultra marathon.

You can find more information on Wessex Heartbeat and the fantastic work they do on their website here.

We look forward to the challenges that fundraising will bring to the team and updating you on our progress throughout the year.

Next week the team at Rapid are doing something collectively to help others. We have decided to give blood & join the Bone Marrow Register.

It all came about when one of our team made us aware of a family member with Leukemia. Having undergone chemotherapy and isolation, and with the best possible outcome being a bone marrow donation, we all wanted to do something to help. An office meeting followed, during which it was decided the best way we could show support to our colleague and his family was to give blood and join the British Bone Marrow Registry.

What is the British Bone Marrow Registry? 

The British Bone Marrow Registry is a division of NHS Blood and Transplant, working in co-operation with the other UK bone marrow/blood donor registries, Anthony Nolan, a charity dedicated to saving the lives of patients needing a stem cell transplant and the NHS Cord Blood Bank. Stem cell donations from cord blood can be made at specialist hospitals within the NHS. For more information see www.nhsbt.nhs.uk/cordblood/.

With the Rapid machine in full swing, we discovered several blood donation sessions in Portsmouth coming up, and as such, a number of us are turning up to face the needle and give blood, as well as join the register. It seems like such a small thing to do, but when it affects those close to home, you soon realise what a massive thing it is for someone in need.

Another of our team is fundraising via the Just Giving Crowdfunding website. Here's a little bit about their situation:

We're raising £10000 to have pre-implantation genetic diagnosis because It could give my Grandson Alfie a happy life.

Alfie is a happy 5 year old boy. He has a condition called X-Linked Hyper igm Syndrome.  It's a condition that affects the immune system and only occurs in males. Alfie is prone to catching recurrent infections that could be life threatening, and as such receives weekly infusions of Immunoglobulin and is on permanent antibiotics. The cure for his condition is either a bone marrow transplantation or cord blood stem cell transplantation from a matched donor.

 Please pledge to my Just Giving Crowdfunding Page and help make it happen:

https://crowdfunding.justgiving.com/AlfiesWish?utm_id=2

With Just Giving Crowdfunding, anyone can raise money to fund their own project - anything from setting up a food bank to buying a wheelchair for a relative or even saving a local football club. If you're interested in raising money to make good things happen, why not start your Crowdfunding Page today at https://crowdfunding.justgiving.com/?utm_id=3

 Thank you for reading