Seb raises an outstanding £65 for his birthday this year
For his birthday, Seb decided that he wanted to raise money towards preventing and ending child poverty for good. Seb loves having a warm coat, but realised not every child can afford them. He raised an amazing £65 through his fundraising efforts. He hopes that he can inspire others to fundraise as an alternative to a birthday gift. So noble, Seb!
Seb said: “I just thought it would be a nice thing to do, and I already have a lot of presents.”
Thank you so much for choosing to raise money for CPAG for your birthday, Seb. Your incredible efforts could help pay for a youth panel member to have a say in changing policies that impact their life.
Alan raises just over £2,700 in his mega 2000 miles/four million hugs for Children living in poverty challenge
Alan raised an absoloutely incredible £2,732 for CPAG, through completing his 2000 miles/four million hugs for Children living in poverty challenge. Alan smashed the challenge, walking 2007.5 miles in 106 days. Outstanding Alan!
"Along with Child Poverty Action Group we'd like to raise awareness around the UK of the plight of so many young people who need our help. By walking 2000 miles or 4 million steps I hope to represent the plight of every single child in poverty who needs support, in order to give them hope and a sense of purpose."
Thank you so much for raising an unbelievable amount of money for CPAG. It's thanks to people like you that we are able to do our work in helping some of the most vunerable children and their families in the middle of a soaring rise in the cost of living in this country. You should be incredibly proud of yourself for smashing the walk, as well as your fundraising target.
Joanne and Fatim raise just under £750 in the Edinburgh Kiltwalk
Joanne and Fatim (right to left) raised a brilliant £741 completing the Edinburgh Kiltwalk. It was a 21 mile walk around Edinburgh which they completed in five hours and 39 minutes. Well done both!
Joanne said: "There were some interesting kilts on display, all different colours, short, long and everything in between. We borrowed ours from Fatim’s husband who works for a drinks company that has lots of kilts for promotional events. I was a bit footsore afterwards but really glad to have completed the walk and raised some money for CPAG."
Thank you both for your dedication to raising an invaluable amount for CPAG. Your efforts could fund one specialist session to show schools how to reduce costs for families and turn the page on child poverty.
Victoria raises over £2,300 in London to Paris cycle ride
In September, Victoria (in the middle) raised a whopping £2,325 completing the London to Paris bike ride in a trip that exceeded all of her expectations. After a 330km bike ride and a four hour ferry journey, her group made it to Paris.
"It was challenging and tiring but great fun and rewarding. Arriving at the Arc de Triomphe was a fantastic moment. We were a group of seven and were well supported by two family members in a van. Every hill was made a lot easier knowing we were raising money for CPAG."
Thank you so much Victoria for raising such a huge amount for CPAG. Your efforts could fund important services like our advice helpline for welfare rights advisers, so families in poverty get the financial assistance they desperately need.
Gent's Film and leisure club raise over £1000
In July, Jim, Paul, Jonathan, Richard and Mark (L-R) raised an incredible £1050 walking across the Yorkshire Moors. They managed to complete the 100km walk in just 32 hours as they walked non-stop!
'' It took us 32 hours and 13 minutes to complete, setting off at 8.30am on Saturday, walking the Yorkshire Moors solidly day and night and day again, finally crossing the finishing line on Sunday afternoon ''
Thank you all for your impressive and invaluable effort. It's thanks to people like you that we are able to do our work in helping some of the most vunerable children and their families in the middle of a soaring rise in the cost of living in this country.
Aspen Pumps begin their virtual worldwide mission
Company Aspen Pumps recently launched a new exercise challenge for their staff worldwide whilst raising funds for CPAG.
Their mission is to walk, run, cycle or swim across the world from Aspen Inc to Aspen Australia and back! They will virtually cross America, the UK, Europe and Asia before finally ending up in Australia and then doing the same for the return. They started their mission on the 17th March and have 6 months to complete over 31,900 miles.
Good luck Team Aspen, and thank you for your support!
Homegrown plant sale raises £115 for CPAG
A big thank you to 10-year-old Tom who was inspired to fundraise for CPAG after watching a TV programme that featured child poverty in its storyline. Green-fingered Tom came up with the idea of holding a plant sale at his local school, with all proceeds towards our work fighting child poverty.
Tom said: "I felt so sad that some children don't have enough food. I thought I'd have a plant sale so I planted seeds and when the seedlings were big enough, I potted them. The plant sale was busy and I was able to talk confidently about the plants. People were happy to give whatever donation they could manage. When everything was sold, I had a huge smile on my face. I felt really proud that it had been so successful and I was able to contribute to a worthy cause."
He raised a brilliant £115.45, which could fund just over two hours of our nationwide advice line. Thank you so much Tom!
6 year old Ruby completes her half marathon challenge!
In March, 6-year-old Ruby asked to do something to help people who aren't as lucky as she is. After doing some research with her Mum, she chose CPAG and picked her challenge: running the distance of a half marathon throughout April. She finished on 1 May with a fantastic £477 raised. Ruby said:
“The running was fun but my legs got tired sometimes but I never gave up. I just kept running. I feel excited and happy that I raised so much money for children who need it.”
You are a star, Ruby, thank you so much!
Running, walking and crawling 14,500 miles
The OLM Systems team are undertaking a massive company challenge throughout April and May for their 30th anniversary. Walking in the shoes of their customers, each team hopes to cover an eye-watering 1136 miles (14,500 total) whilst raising money for CPAG.
Their fundraising activities include a recipe challenge, creative fruit carving, living on £5 for five days, and a quiz. So far, they've raised a fantastic £3,000 for our work fighting child poverty. A huge thank you to everyone at OLM, we are so grateful.
Check out their progress at: www.myvirtualmission.com/missions/107474/walk-in-the-shoes-of-our-customers
10 year old Tamaro tackles a 50km bike ride
We are inspired by one of our young fundraisers, Tamaro from East Lothian, who has raised £1,900 after completing a 50km bike ride at the weekend with his family.
Tamaro said: “At the end of last year I was thinking that I really wanted to help children affected by the Covid crisis. I knew that it had been a hard year for my family, but that it was much worse for many others. I find it sad to think that there are so many children living in poverty and I wanted to help. The ride went well and it had a couple of hard bits but I really enjoyed it. I’m really happy and I hope the money makes a difference.” Thank you Tamaro! You've done brilliantly.
Fitness event raises £6,300 for CPAG in Scotland's advice line
We are incredibly grateful to Chris Bradley, owner of The Glasgow PT, for holding an event in November for the fitness community and donating 100% of ticket sales to CPAG. He was blown away by the numbers who signed up, resulting in him raising £6,300 for our work!
This staggering amount will go towards CPAG in Scotland's nationwide advice line, which last year helped over 23,000 people living in poverty or low income across Scotland. A huge thank you to Chris and everyone involved in the event. This will make a tremendous difference to our work in Scotland, and help ensure financial assistance reaches struggling families.
Spreading love this Valentine's Day
7 year old Summer thinks it's unfair how so many children are living in poverty in the UK. So she decided to put her creative skills to good use and lovingly designed some Valentine's cards to raise money for Child Poverty Action Group.
She raised an incredible £734! A huge thank you to Summer from all of us, you are a star!
Swim bench cross-Channel challenge!
Taking on a mammoth challenge for CPAG is 14 year old Emily. Emily is competitive Para Swimmer and is attempting the equivalent of a double crossing of the English channel on a swim bench at home (42 miles or 68,752 metres).
She is already 32.5 miles down – and is hoping to finish by the end of March.
Please show your support for Emily by donating to her Facebook fundraiser: https://www.facebook.com/donate/3734549846658295/
Good luck Emily!
From London to Lapland!
A very special thank you to the team at Casarotto Ramsay & Associates who ran, biked and walked a total of 3,250 kilometres to cover the distance between their office and Lapland throughout December. They raised a staggering £11,500 for CPAG.
We are simply blown away by their fundraising efforts!
Charity of the Year
We were delighted to be MJP Conveyancing’s charity of the year 2020! Their Christmas raffle featured some incredible prizes and raised £1,623 for CPAG.
David Pett Director of MJP Conveyancing commented “The fact is child poverty very much exists in the UK and is continuing to increase. It's evident everywhere, in schools, the rise in demand on food banks, and the time has come to wake up to this reality and to do all that we can to help. I am keen to raise awareness not only within my business but the property industry as a whole. It was therefore a no brainer when it came to choosing a charity to support that the Child Poverty Action Group was at the top of the list."
Head shave for CPAG!
A big thank you to star fundraiser Beth who shaved her head to raise funds for CPAG. Beth, who works with children, was inspired after learning how many children are living in poverty in the UK. She has raised a tremendous £800 to support our work. Thank you Beth!
Trekking 96 miles in 71 hours
In June, Thomas and Gary from Greenock walked the entirety of the West Highland Way raising over £700 for CPAG. Starting their challenge at 11am on Sunday 9th June, they managed to complete the 96 mile-long walk in an incredible 71 hours finishing at 10am on Wednesday the 12th.
“The walk went well, we got quite lucky with the weather and had minimal contact with the dreaded midges. Our feet took quite a pounding though and by day 3 any downhill was really quite uncomfortable, which led to us running most of the way from the top of The Devil’s Staircase into Kinlochleven. Other than our feet we held up quite well and found climbing the hills a lot more comfortable. Unfortunately due to wind speed and cloud cover we didn’t attempt Ben Nevis which was a shame, but on the whole it was a strong effort!” Thank you both.
Over £6,000 raised by A2Dominion
We are delighted to be housing provider A2Dominion Group’s charity of the year. A2Dominion held its charity week in November which was jam-packed with staff activities, including a football tournament and cracker-eating challenge, and raised £6,629 for CPAG.
Executive Director Anne Waterhouse said: “We are very proud to have supported CPAG as our staff-voted Charity of the Year in 2018. Our annual Charity Week was a great success, and we hope the money we raised can help continue the good work they do.”
A huge thank you to everyone at A2Dominion for such an amazing fundraising effort! The money raised could fund around 130 hours of our free advice service.
Intrepid Ambassador
A huge thank you to actor and CPAG ambassador Jassa Ahluwalia for taking on the challenging West Highland Way to raise a tremendous £2,670. Jassa completed the nearly 100-mile trek from Milngavie (north of Glasgow) to Fort William in the Scottish Highlands in 9 days. It was a tough week for Jassa, wild camping along the way and illness striking on day 4 but he persevered and also raised awareness of our work along the trail.
Thank you Jassa!
Swimming across the channel for CPAG!
We were thrilled to have six amazingly brave girls aged only 13 and 14 from East London swim the channel in July to raise funds for CPAG. They completed their swim successfully, and raised over £8,000.
Given the time they needed to spend training, we are hugely grateful to these inspirational young girls for putting so much effort into supporting our work. No doubt the hard work behind the scenes from their tireless parents have gone a long way to making this remarkable achievement possible .... we thank them all!
£5 Breadline Challenge raises over £200
A big thank you to Anna who lived on £5 worth of food for five days to raise funds for the most vulnerable. She said "After living in Glasgow for almost a year, in an area that poverty is a massive issue, this cause has become close to my heart. Most of us can’t imagine having to count the pennies every week in order to provide basic meals for our families, however for many families and children this is the case. We live in a privileged world of takeaways and food waste, and I believe it’s time to help those that are far less fortunate!"
James, you are a star!
We are so proud of James who used his 6th birthday party to raise £323 to help children less fortunate than him. James, you are an inspiration to all of us at CPAG and we wish you the best birthday ever!
Dad Matthew said “James is very passionate about 2 things... dinosaurs and helping others! At school James has learned about charity and understands that not all are as fortunate as his family. James is very much looking forward to his 6th birthday with 40+ friends where we have hired the local hall for entertainment and dancing. With Christmas and his birthday being close together and with all the amazing gifts and party to look forward to, James has chosen 2018 to make a difference for others. We are very proud of him”.
Poetry for Poverty at Rodborough School
Rodborough School held an evening of poetry in aid of our work which saw 16 performances ranging from Daffodils by William Wordsworth to a collection of entertaining Scottish street rhymes.
It was a fantastic evening with performances from students, staff and the ‘Speech Painter’ Geoff Allnutt who performed a number of his tongue twisting fast paced poems and also judged the event.
Thank you from all of us to Evelyn and the Senior Six team for the enthusiasm and effort put in throughout this academic year to raise an amazing £1,800 for CPAG!
Skydivers raise £470
A big thank you to four brave ladies who set out with a mixture of excitement and trepidation to do a Tandem Skydive at 13,000 feet in support of our work. Due to the weather on the day, only Renja & Claire were able to complete the dive but they had the most amazing experience and said they would like to do it again! So looks like they will be joining Laura and Jacqui who plan to try again next year.
Thank you very much ladies … we love that you got a plane to match your CPAG t-shirts!
Running to raise over £5,000 for CPAG
It was during the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games that Julia Henderson, her husband and their good friend, Rosemary McGinness, were inspired to do something to address child poverty in the UK. They began the process of choosing which charity to support and their target was to raise at least £5,000.
“We chose CPAG because we liked their approach of lobbying government to address the often unseen issue of child poverty in the UK.
“We decided to take part in the British London 10K Run because we were aware of how well it was organised and the fantastic atmosphere it created, as over 20,000 runners of all shapes and sizes took to the streets of London. We convinced 17 other friends and family to join us and our team of 20 was complete. Our aim was to bring a group of like-minded individuals together to have some fun, get a bit fitter but above all to raise more awareness of the poverty situation in the UK and to raise some funds for CPAG.
“Currently we have raised £4,740 and with a pub quiz taking place in the autumn and other individual events planned; it’s fair to say we are hopeful of over achieving against our original target of £5,000!”
Thank you Julia and the team! Many thanks too, to all the generous people who have supported the team’s amazing efforts.