Charity trek success for Progress Housing Group employees as they raise over £8,500 for The Alzheimer’s Society

Staff from Progress Housing Group have been thanked by The Alzheimer’s Society after raising an impressive £8,681 for the charity by tackling a gruelling 22-mile trek earlier this year.

The Alzheimer’s Society has confirmed that the substantial donation is in the top 5% largest amounts raised for a walking fundraiser of 2019 so far this year.

Staff from Progress Housing Group and its technology enabled care service, Progress Lifeline, along with supportive friends and family members, raised the money as they organised, trained for, and completed the challenging 22-mile trek around Coniston Water in the Lake District on 22 June this year.

Such a large donation from Progress Housing Group to The Alzheimer’s Society was made possible in part due to Progress Housing Group’s pledge to match the amount raised by staff as part of their 25th anniversary celebrations. They have pledged to raise £25,000 for charity this year by match-funding any amounts raised by their staff for different charities. To date, they have raised over £20,000 towards their £25,000 goal.

Sue and Drew, representatives from The Alzheimer’s Society, recently attended a cheque presentation at their head office in Leyland and met staff involved in the walk.

Progress Lifeline’s Services Director, Loraine Simpson, who organises the annual charity challenges for staff at Progress Housing Group said, “We were delighted to receive Sue and Drew here today from the Alzheimer’s Society to present our donation to them and to hear about the difference it will make to people living with dementia.

“Our staff chose the Alzheimer’s Society as the charity to benefit this year because many of our Progress Lifeline service users and our tenants live with, or care for, a loved one with dementia. In addition, many of the staff taking part in this year's walk have been affected by the disease in some way, whether they have a loved one living with the disease, or have cared for a family member or friend with dementia.

“As well as receiving donations from individuals through our Just Giving page, we are also very grateful to the many local businesses in South Ribble who also generously donated raffle prizes and supported us.

“This year’s trek is classed as a ‘challenge walk’ by the long-distance walkers association due to its distance and terrain, which includes over 4000 feet of ascent, and so I’m extraordinarily proud of all our staff who spent over five months training for this year’s walk and achieved either a 15 mile or 22 mile finish!”.

Sue Swire, Community Fundraiser Cumbria & Lancashire at Alzheimer’s Society, said: “We are extremely grateful to all the team at Progress Housing Group for their wonderful support.  The challenge they took on was amazing and we cannot thank them enough for their wonderful support.  As a charity, we rely on the generosity of others to help us support people to live well with dementia today and fund research to find a cure for tomorrow”.

Tammy Bradley, Deputy Executive Director at Progress Housing Group, added, “At Progress Housing Group we are committed to being dementia-friendly and we are so proud of all our staff who were involved in raising this fantastic amount of money for the Alzheimer’s Society. They truly embody the values and ethos of The Group in their ‘One Team’ approach to their fundraising challenges and look forward to seeing where next year’s charity challenge will take them”.

There are 850,000 people with dementia in the UK, with numbers set to rise to over 1 million by 2025. This will soar to 2 million by 2051.

If you’d like to help, you can donate to the Progress Housing Group’s staff Just Giving page at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/challengeconiston.

You can find out more about the work of the Alzheimer’s Society by visiting www.alzheimers.org.uk.

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