16th December, 2021, Melanie Harriss
A group of intrepid accountants have scaled mountains, run marathons and pushed themselves to their physical limits to help Stephenson Smart raise £5,000 for East Anglian Air Ambulance (EAAA).
East Anglian Air Ambulance were the company’s chosen charity for 2021.
During the year many members of staff took part in a number of challenges, including The National Three Peaks, various running events and the 24-mile Trek 24 Norfolk, organised by East Anglian Air Ambulance.
Amongst the competitors were Paul Richardson, Manager at King’s Lynn, who cycled the North Coast 500 around Scotland, completed The National Three Peaks, Trek 24 and the virtual London and Manchester marathons, while Marie Ayers, Manager at the Great Yarmouth office, took on The National Three Peaks, Trek 24 and the Yorkshire Three Peaks.
Jo Pallant, Tax Senior at Great Yarmouth, ran the Marriots Way 10K run in Sheringham, the Adnams 10K, Trek 24 and the Yorkshire Three Peaks, while Associate Director Kerry Bradshaw completed Trek 24 and The National Three Peaks.
IT Manager Andy Doyle ran the Manchester Marathon, GEAR 10K and took part in Trek 24 and The National Three Peaks Challenge.
Staff across the company also contributed to individual events.
Fundraising by the team raised £2,363, which was match funded by the partners to take the total to £5,000.
Kerry, Jo, Marie, Andy and Paul, presented a cheque to Lucy Clarke, Norfolk Fundraiser for the EAAA.
The East Anglian Air Ambulance is a charity close to the heart of Stephenson Smart, especially finance administrator Sally Legge, whose friend Susan Johnson was attended to by the air ambulance in 2019 after suffering a massive seizure relating to her brain tumour diagnosis.
Sally said: “Sue always giggled when recalling this day, she was not in a good way, but remembered the stir it caused in the small village of Boughton (near Downham Market) having the EAAA land on the nearby cricket pitch and the crew running round to her house.
“Sue had a great sense of humour and wit and she said ill or not ill it was quite a day for Boughton. She praised the crew and couldn’t speak more highly of them. She had enjoyed a long career as a senior nurse and fully appreciated the care given to her.”
Sadly Sue passed away in September that year.
Lucy Clarke, Norfolk’s Community Fundraiser for the East Anglian Air Ambulance said the team had made a real difference to people’s lives, having raised enough to fund a mission and more. Each mission on average costs around £3,500.
“It was wonderful to welcome colleagues from Stephenson Smart to our base and say a huge thank you.
“They’ve certainly inspired me for new year resolutions and I can’t wait to see this brilliant team again in future events.”
Mike Andrews, managing partner at Stephenson Smart said he was proud of the team’s achievements.
“We are very lucky in our company that we have lots of budding sports people and some extremely keen and proficient runners.
“I know that some of these events were pretty gruelling for them with some difficult conditions, but the whole team were really determined to make as much money as possible, especially because the last couple of years have been extremely hard for charity fundraising in the current climate.”
