Team Adzuna is happy to report that your generous donations for our charity Pedibus challenge saw us smash our £5,000 target to raise £6,201 for The Pickering Cancer Drop In Centre in Kent.
The charity was chosen specifically for being a “pillar of support” to Adzuna co-founder Andrew Hunter, who was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in October 2015.
The challenge
After Adzuna’s mammoth 100km walk from Henley to London last September in aid of Cancer Research UK, we knew we needed to tackle another huge challenge to raise money for a very deserving cause.
Our charity committee came up with the perfect solution: the longest consecutive Pedibus journey through the streets of London.
In other words, 44km of Pedibus cycling, which we estimated would involve around 7 hours on the road (admittedly with at least an hour or so inevitably spent stationary in London’s infamous traffic).
The journey
At noon on Friday, 8 September, the first team of 8 pedallers – dubbed The Duracell Bunnies – set off from The Blackfriars Pub for the first of 10 laps.
It may have started as a drizzly and grey day, but the rain couldn’t dampen our spirits and before long our faces were only wet with sweat.
18 more pedallers from Team Adzuna joined in as the afternoon (and evening) passed by, but it wasn’t all smooth sailing/cycling: there were 6 mechanical breakdowns during the course of our challenge with 2 occuring on the same lap.
And there was more bad news – a route miscalculation meant that the originally planned 10 laps wouldn’t be enough to break the record…
The results
By 6.30pm some legs were shaking – we were stationed at a pub remember – but volunteers for a final 11th lap were successfully sourced.
With an extra couple of u-turns thrown in at the end of the lap to increase the length of our route we finally clocked in at 44.3km, breaking the previous record by 300m.
With a celebratory glass raised by anyone left standing, the only question left was: what will we do next year?
The charity
The Pickering Cancer Drop In Centre in Kent is a fantastic community charity that has provided counseling, physiotherapy and ‘copious cups of tea’.
Speaking about the challenge, Andrew said he was “over the moon” at the amount raised, adding that the centre, “a real gem of Tunbridge Wells” had provided “incredible support for me and my family during what has been a very difficult time”.
We’ll leave the final words to Polly Taylor, cofounder of the Pickering: “I thought I’d seen it all at Pickering with the wonderful support we get from the community and local businesses, until Andrew walked in to say his colleagues had broken the pedibus world record and raised us the fantastic sum of just over £6,000.
It was an amazing challenge, and to me it portrayed the strength and how inspirational Andrew has been through his journey with cancer. What a challenge, and what an amazing group of friends and supporters for Pickering – I can only end by saying a massive thank you.”