One of our wonderful Independent Social Workers, Sharron Mulvaney has been fundraising for Blackpool Carer’s Centre, a company who support carers of all ages from as young as 5 years old, to those in their 90s.
Sharron took on a coast-to-coast and castle to castle cycle of a whopping 200 miles over 3 days and has so far raised over £2,000 for the charity. Sharron is still taking donations and you can find her Just Giving page here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/sharron-mulvaney1
We sat down with Sharron to find out a little more about her fundraising adventure.
Hi Sharron, what made you decide to raise money for Blackpool Carer’s Centre?
S: I was a Social Worker in Blackpool for 27 years so I know how much they support the carers, especially the young carers, within the town and how much they make a difference to people’s lives. There is such a high level of deprivation within the town and having the opportunity to have respite from caring is invaluable to the carers.
1 in 5 children are young carers and 1 in 3 people will be a carer at some point in their lives so the support which the centre provides is invaluable.
Also, 92p in every £1 raised goes directly to supporting carers because they keep their overheads so low.
What made you decide to raise the money by doing coast-to-coast cycle? Have you always been into cycling?
S: In 2019 I cycled from Blackpool tower to the Eiffel tower, which was 500 miles over 5 days, also for the Carer’s Centre, but I still wouldn’t call myself a cyclist.
A massive 200 miles would have been very difficult, how did you find the challenge?
S: The bike ride was so tough as the hills were horrendous. Day one we climbed over 5200ft, my legs hated me, and then on day 2 we started on a 750ft climb so they hated me even more and on the final day we had to cycle over Kirkstone pass in the torrential rain. I feel very proud of what we achieved; it was both a physical and mental challenge due to the hills and the weather.
Have you done any other fundraising in addition to the cycling?
S: Covid-19 really hampered my fundraising, but I improvised and asked my friends to have a clear out and I’ve sold their clutter on marketplace, eBay, Vinted and on car boot sales.
I have previously run a marathon in 2018 for 5 charities which are close to my heart, I ran the Great North run for the Carer’s Centre in 2018 and I also walked a marathon last September for them, with a broken ankle so I had to wear a support boot! I also did an abs challenge throughout March of this year which involved doing 100 abs exercises every day for Rosemere Cancer Research. I did this with a friend of mine and we used to go for a run and then complete the abs exercises at a landmark in Preston….whatever the weather!!
Please support Sharron in any way you can by heading to her Just Giving page.
All of us at Advanced CCA are so proud of Sharron and her hard work to raise money for such a brilliant charity. Well done Sharron!
