Staff at potato supplier Branston have raised £1,500 for Asthma UK through a 12-week slim-a-thon, a cycle-thon and other fundraising events.
Five staff at the Abernethy site in Scotland, and site coordinator Jean Robertson, completed a 12-week weight loss programme and used exercise bikes to cycle the equivalent distance between the Branston sites.
They also held other fundraising events including a cake sale, tombola and a raffle.
National director for Asthma UK Scotland, Gordon Brown, invited some of the team to the Scottish Parliament to present the cheque to Dr McSorley, who is leading the field in asthma research.
Robertson said: “I nominated Asthma UK as I suffer from it, and have received invaluable support and advice from this charity. I was so pleased when it was picked from the hat, and I’m lucky to work with such wonderful colleagues who are very supportive and generous when it comes to fundraising.”
She added: “Special thanks to Gail Kelly, Greg Stout, Graeme Guthrie, Euan Page and Roger Gifford – if they hadn’t joined me on the challenges, we wouldn’t have raised such a fantastic amount of money.”
Brown said: “We’re so grateful to the team at Branston for their fundraising efforts in the past few months – it’s wonderful that the whole team has worked together to raise such a fantastic sum.
“We’re delighted that the money raised by Branston will fund Dr McSorley’s fascinating research at the University of Edinburgh into how parasitic worms could prevent allergic asthma, and hope that this will lead to new treatments in the future.”
5.4 million people in the UK suffer from asthma and three people die in the UK every day because of it.
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