Beating bowel cancer together

TfL team pull out all the stops to raise funds in Lucy's memory

Monday 28 March 2022

Kate Phelps, Principal Lawyer – Employment Law at Transport for London (TfL) explains how the team rallied together during 2021 to support Bowel Cancer UK.

At the start of 2021, as lockdown number three began, we in the TfL Legal team were acutely aware of how much charity fundraising had suffered during the pandemic and were keen to select a Charity of the Year to fundraise for during 2021.

We decided to support Bowel Cancer UK because bowel cancer had taken the life of Lucy, a wonderful young woman and the sister of one of our friends and colleagues, far too early. We therefore reached out to Bowel Cancer UK to see if we could fundraise for them as our Charity of the Year in memory of Lucy and as a way of showing our support to her family. From there, a fantastic partnership began which lead to us raising the incredible sum of £7,158.42 plus gift aid of £1,316.31!

In light of the COVID situation and the ongoing work from home guidance, we had to think creatively and flexibly about how we could best fundraise virtually as we were rarely in the office during that time. Sadly for a Legal team which is full of cake lovers that meant that the always well-supported bake sale was out of the question. We therefore had to come up with other new and innovative ways to fundraise!

Our first fundraiser was 'donate what you save' where we asked the Legal team to donate what they would have spent on morning coffees or shop-bought sandwiches during a period of working in the office. We followed that up by donning our exercise gear and joining the Step up for 30 campaign where we got active every day throughout April! In October, our inspiring colleagues, Julie and Chika ran the London Marathon for Bowel Cancer UK, they both absolutely nailed it and we were totally in awe of their amazing achievement and the jaw-dropping amount of money they raised. The TfL Legal team certainly dug deep to sponsor them both in this incredible endeavour! The Six Nations Rugby, the delayed Euro 2020 football tournament and the return to our screens of the Great British Bake Off also provided us with an opportunity for various office sweepstakes and we ended the year with a Christmas themed virtual quiz, all of which got our competitive juices flowing!

It really has been a pleasure and an honour to work with such an incredible charity who do so much for the many people who are impacted by this dreadful disease. The TfL Legal team feel privileged to have been able to fundraise to help Bowel Cancer UK in their quest to save lives, improve the quality of life of everyone affected by bowel cancer and move to a future where nobody dies of the disease.

Luke Squires, Director of Fundraising at Bowel Cancer UK, said: "We're grateful to the whole TfL legal team for making Bowel Cancer UK your charity of the year. Because of teams like you supporting the charity, we can continue to save lives and improve the quality of life of everyone affected by bowel cancer."

Feeling inspired?

We're calling on companies across the UK to bring staff together virtually or in person to Step up for 30 this April during Bowel Cancer Awareness Month.

It's really simple, just get active in teams or individually each day throughout the month and ask your colleagues, customers and contacts to sponsor you. Every penny you raise will go towards our vital services and lifesaving research.

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