For Mental Health Awareness Week, O’Neill & Brennan UK wanted to do something to raise awareness and get people talking.
We know getting active goes a long way in helping with our mental health, so wanted to encourage our staff to get walking and start the conversation.
With that being said, we teamed up with Race At Your Pace to create our STEP UP FOR MAY walking challenge. All staff members were invited to take part and were challenged to walk as many steps as they could throughout the month. Steps were tracked by their fitness trackers (so no cheating could take place).
The results were seriously impressive:
49 staff members took part, and 7320 miles were walked. To put this into perspective, 7320 miles from London would land you as far as Japan, Philippines, or South Korea!
Congratulations to our 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners, who received £300, £200, and £100 respectively — with matching donations made to each of their chosen charities!
Our winner, Sophie Bellwood covered a magnificent 809,629 steps, equivalent to 404 miles, 15 marathons, and 29,000 steps on average per day! She's one toe nail down and covered in blisters, but it was all worth it in the end! Her chosen charity, Brain Tumour Research, will receive a £300 donation for her hard efforts, in memory of her father Andrew who sadly passed away in 2023. You can donate to her Just Giving page here: https://bit.ly/43Iheb1
A huge well done to Elena Ruykova for achieving second place with a huge 376 miles walked! She has chosen the Anthony Nolan charity to receive her donation.
In third place, a big round of applause for Anna Chi who walked an impressive 339 miles, and has chosen her donation to go to Alzheimer's Society. You can view the GoFundMe page here: https://bit.ly/3HjNppV
A major thank you and well done to everyone who took part, and a special mention to Allie Hawkins from Race At Your Pace for your help and guidance throughout the challenge, you're a star!
All the staff thoroughly enjoyed this challenge, and would highly recommend Race At Your Pace if you're considering setting up your own challenge.
