Superhero CEO & Commerical Director cycle 26 miles in just 54 minutes!

Our 'superhero' CEO, John Norley, and Commercial Director, Nick Chamberlain, cycled the length of the London Marathon (26 miles!) in less than 1 hour, all in aid of raising vital funds which Age UK Medway critically needs in order to establish its future.

As a testament to our superhero key worker staff, and to raise vital funds for the critical support that we provide to older people in Medway, our CEO and Commercial Director got their superhero capes on (quite literally), and cycled 26 miles on the spot as part of their '2.6 Challenge' - launched on the 26th April in honour of the London Marathon, which was sadly cancelled this year due to Covid-19.

The 2.6 Challenge was set up as a simple and fun way for everyone to do their bit to help save the UK's charities;

"General fundraising has been hit very hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. Thousands of fundraising events have been cancelled and many charities, particularly smaller ones, are struggling to maintain services because of this huge reduction in income. 

This impacts all sectors of society from children to the elderly as well as the vital work in areas such as palliative care, serious diseases, mental health, housing support, food supplies and countless others that charities support."

Two exercise bikes were set up at Age UK Medway's Head Office, at a safe two metre's distance apart, ready for John and Nick's attempt at cycling an incredible 26 miles in just 2.6 hours... dressed as Iron Man and Deadpool. At 13:50pm, John and Nick began their challenge with lots of support from all of the staff and within 15 minutes, they had already cycled 15km!

No less than 54 minutes later, John and Nick hit their target of 42km (just over 26 miles) and completely smashed their goal of completing their challenge in 2.6 hours! John and Nick raised over £1,000 for Age UK Medway, an incredible amount towards our larger fundraising campaign for our future.

Though John and Nick's challenge was fun and got everyone in high spirits, the crucial and very real worry of our charity not being here in less than two months remains. Please, donate whatever you can, to help us to reach our goal of £500,000. These funds will help us sustain our charity throughout the coronavirus pandemic, and will also mean we can ensure we are still here when it is all over. This is when the older people in our communities will need us, more than ever.

To donate £10, text AUKM to 70191 or visit our Virgin Money Giving page here.

Because every charity needs superheroes.