This month, Martin Winfield, Site Excellence Manager from Bidfood’s Nottingham depot, took part in the Robin Hood Half Marathon. He took on this 13-mile challenge to raise money for a charity close to his heart, Stroke Association. Overall, he has exceeded his crowd funding target and has raised over £900 – and he is still going. Martin chose to fundraise for the Stoke Association, due to having seen first-hand how a stroke can massively impact not only the suffers lives, but also their family and friends. There are over 1.2 million stroke survivors in the UK, with 100,000 strokes happening in the UK each year - that’s one stroke every five minutes.
[1] The Stroke Association are the UK’s leading charity that are dedicated to conquering this brain attack; they deliver regular services across the UK to sufferers and their families, invest in research for better treatment and arrange multiple fundraising activities. Talking about this worthy cause, Martin Winfield, Site Excellence Manager at Bidfood in Nottingham, said: “I wanted to do something special to give back to a charity that does so much to help others and that really helped me and my family, after we lost my mum in 2004. “For survivors, having a stroke can have a sudden and devastating impact on their lives, leaving many disabled and dependent on others; but the Stoke Association truly dedicates their time to support all of these struggling people.” Over the last year, Martin has been tirelessly training to get in shape for the race, and has just managed to successfully complete it in two hours and thirty minutes. He arranged multiple ways to raise funds over the last few months, including various raffles with donated stock from the depot, sponsorship challenges, and more. Joanne Burr, Regional Fundraising Manager at the Stoke Association, said: “We help tens of thousands of stroke survivors and their families through our range of services, but we can only do this through the generosity of people like Martin. “We’re incredibly grateful to him for raising such a large amount of money and choosing to support the Stroke Association. “The money he has raised will go a long way towards helping more stroke survivors to rebuild their lives – Thank you Martin.”
[1] https://www.stroke.org.uk/about-us/what-we-do