At the beginning of 2018, to mark 20 years of Paydata, we selected a ‘Charity of the Year’ and took on the ambitious task of fundraising £5,000 for Unique via a series of charity challenges.
With a mixture of team and individual challenges taken on throughout the year, we are overjoyed to announce that we have exceeded our initial target, with the final total standing on £5,369 excluding Gift Aid (£5,762.75 once Gift Aid is included).
Paydata “Fun” Fundraising activities
Fundraising activities included hosting a ‘Battle of the Businesses’ quiz night for employers in Lynch Wood Business Park where six teams battled it out, putting their general knowledge to the test in the spirit of charity, raising £457. As a team, we also took on a 25km Peak District walk from Hope Village to Win Hill in June, which alone raised over £2,000. We were also out and about in the Lynch Wood Business Park spreading a little festive cheer with some festive bell-ringing in the run up to Christmas.
These activities, alongside others completed over the course of the year - craft sales, Christmas card donations, bake sales, dress down days and raffles - all helped us to meet, and exceed, our £5,000 target.
Unique, Our Chosen Charity of the Year.
We selected Unique as our ‘Charity of the Year’ following the vital support that it has provided to our colleague, Helen Lallyette and her family. Unique supports children born with rare chromosome disorders. These disorders are so rare and specific that limited information is available for families.
Helen says, “Unique provided our family with vital support following my son’s diagnosis. They provided us with local contacts to build a support network of people affected by similar experiences; provided my eldest son who was four at the time with a comic book to help him understand what was happening; and advised our paediatrician as there is such little information out there about what the condition means for every family.”
Commenting, Craig Mitchell, chief operating officer at Unique says, "We’re really grateful to everyone at Paydata. During 2018 we welcomed and helped just over 2,400 new families, an increase of almost 1,000 (64%) on 2017. This means our frontline team have been really stretched and we’ve recently had to employ an additional member of staff to help us cope with such huge demand. Your support is therefore quite literally helping to ensure we can be there for these families when they are at their lowest ebb and need us most."
Overwhelming Support
We want to say a huge thank you to our customers and the local businesses who supported us along the way. Your messages of support and the donations you have made have been hugely appreciated by us all. Following the success of our fundraising efforts for Unique, we will be selecting a new charity to support for 2019 – watch this space for more details.