Serco supports Charity Cycle Ride aiming to raise £2m

Serco is one of the key sponsors of the Dallaglio Flintoff Cycle Slam – a 2,872km cycle ride across Europe – aiming to raise £2m for charity.

Lawrence Dallaglio, the former England rugby captain – now a Sales Director within Serco’s global services business – and England cricketing legend Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff are  cycling across Europe to raise money for Cancer Research UK and Great Ormond Street Hospital via Lawrence and Freddie’s charitable foundations.

The 26-day expedition  across Europe  began at the birthplace of the ancient Olympic Games – Olympia, in Greece –  and concludes at the venue for next year’s Olympic Games in London. The riders will arrive on Monday 18th June having passed through Italy, Switzerland and France via the Alps and the famous Paris-Roubaix run.

Dallaglio said: “This is without question one of the biggest challenges of my career and I haven’t entered into it lightly. But if there is one thing guaranteed to push me towards the finish line it’s the thought of making a difference to the lives of individuals who are in some way connected to the three wonderful charities that we’re raising money for. Freddie and I have experienced the joy of rising to seemingly insurmountable challenges in the past but we couldn’t expect to achieve our goal this time round without the support of our friends and colleagues.”

Nottingham City Homes and London Midland support charity cycle ride

Paul Weald, strategy director at ProtoCall One, is participating in the Dallaglio Flintoff 2012 Cycle Slam, and customers Nottingham City Homes and London Midland have backed the initiative through their own efforts, raising over £400 for the Cycle Slam charities.

Staff at Nottingham City Homes, the social housing provider which manages around 29,000 council homes across Nottingham, supported the event by holding a dress-down day in their Customer Service Centre over the Easter period – by selling hot cross buns and holding an Easter egg raffle.  The egg was won by Sue Lomax of the HomeLink Team.

Kate Watret, customer service manager commented: “We were delighted to help Paul raise some money for the Dallaglio Flintoff Cycle Slam. We opened it up to our teams to generate some ideas, and it was great to see so many of our staff participating on the day. The toasted hot cross buns went down a storm!”

Staff at London Midland (pictured above), who operate train services throughout the heart of England, connecting London, the Midlands, and the North West, supported the event by organising a Charity Bake Sale on 30th April, with the customer relations department having a “team cycle” (on an exercise bike) for the 12-hour period that the centre was open. They promoted these activities extensively using social media resulting in additional customer donations to the Cycle Slam charities.