Berkeley takes on the 'Tough Mudder'

We established our Community Contribution initiative several years ago to enable our people to work directly with charities, offering both consulting and fundraising support, and to allow Berkeley to corporately contribute as well. In keeping with the outdoors theme of our previous fundraising event, the Three Peaks Challenge, this year 17 brave Berkeley souls completed the Yorkshire Tough Mudder on August 2nd. Dressed in ‘Where’s Wally?’ outfits – just to add to the challenge!

Tough Mudder is a gruelling 11 miles of ‘Electroshock Therapy®, ‘Arctic Enemas®’ and scaling ‘Everest’, obstacles designed to test mental grit, toughness and camaraderie. On the day this meant crawling through mud while being electrocuted, jumping into freezing cold muddy water, and dragging each other up 3 metre high half-pipe surrounded by – you’ve guessed it - mud.  We are so proud of our courageous Partners, Consultants and Office team members who took up the challenge, and it is testament to their enthusiasm and sheer determination that they all completed the course. Slightly bruised and battered, but all in one piece.  

Our Tough Mudders were raising money for three great charities, which all hold a personal significance to one or more members of Berkeley:

• The Stroke Association, which supports stroke survivors, families and carers, and campaigns for better stroke prevention and care.
• Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY), which raises awareness of Sudden Adult Death Syndrome (SADS) in local communities, provides screening services and a pathology lab to help diagnose causes of sudden cardiac death, and supports bereaved families.
• Daisy Garland, a family-run charity that supports those whose lives are touched by drug resistant epilepsy. It funds a number of Ketogenic Dieticians in NHS hospitals across the UK and provides help with equipment for epilepsy sufferers at home.

The Tough Mudder event was the culmination of a variety of fundraising activities, which included:

• Fancy dress vote – The red bobble hats of Wally attracted the most donations to their collection bucket, beating the competition of Elvis suits, chef outfits and 118 118 wigs to become the running outfit for our ‘athletes’.  
• “Come Dine With Me” – Various Berkeley hosts tested their culinary skill to give paying guests a night of fine food and entertainment.
• Quiz and Auction – This evening alone raised more than £5,000 for our charities. There were some great lots on the block - a couple of our Tough Mudders even auctioned themselves off!
• Table tennis tournament - Our first ever tournament saw fierce competition amongst players who paid to enter.
• World Cup Football - We ran a sweepstake on the eventual Cup winners, and hosted England v Uruguay night - an evening of football activities including a foosball tournament and the favorite of the night, the opportunity to put a goal past a blindfolded ‘Suarez’. 

We would like to thank all those who supported the event and the incredible number of sponsors who donated to these very worthy causes. We beat our original £15,000 target and, including gift aid, have now raised more than £20,000 which will make a real impact for our three charities.

It doesn’t need to stop there though - the Just Giving page will remain open for a few more weeks in the hope we can raise even more. If you still want to sponsor us, please visit our page here.