M&S Horsham prepares for £1.5 million charity challenge

With the aim of raising £1.5 million for five leading charities, M&S employees from its stores and offices across Great Britain, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, including Horsham, are backing the cyclists as they prepare for M&S’s unique fundraising event this summer.

Tom Richardson, store manager at M&S Horsham, said: “Following the success of British cycling last summer, the nation has really taken the sport to its hearts.

“With more than double the number of participants this year, we’re delighted that our BIKE 24 charity cycle challenge will be bigger and better than ever. That’s why we’ve set an ambitious target to raise £1.5million for these five truly worthwhile charities.”

Colleagues Ellen Shields, William Tucker, Nathan Tubb, Harjit Dhillon, Alex Brew, Richard Harvey, Jessica Allen and Kirsty Summing from M&S Horsham will be taking part in BIKE 24, a ‘Le Mans’ inspired 24-hour endurance event taking place at Rockingham Motor Racing Circuit in Corby.

Employees will compete in teams of four, with a cyclist from each team on the track from 5pm on Friday, June 21 until 5pm on Saturday, June 22.

Each lap of the circuit will help M&S to raise crucial funds in support of its five charity partners: Breakthrough Breast Cancer, Action Medical Research, the Marie Keating Foundation, Action Cancer and Prostate Cancer UK.

Gaby Roslin, Ronan Keating, James Nesbitt, Zoe Salmon and Neil Fox all work with the charities and are spurring on employees as the gear up for M&S’s BIKE 24 charity challenge.

Mr Richardson continued: “We’re looking forward to getting behind each of the teams as we pedal hard to help reach the target.”

BIKE24 is part of the Your M&S Charity Challenge, which will see a host of fundraising activities taking place at all M&S’ UK and Irish stores from the beginning June to the end of August.

Customers can donate online via the Virgin Money Giving page, www.virginmoneygiving.com/mandscharitychallenge, which contains further information on fundraising taking place across the UK as well as links to sponsor cyclists.