The Teenage Cancer Trust charity has been running for over 30 years and supports young people aged 13-24 through specialised nursing care and support. Teenage Cancer Trust is the only UK charity dedicated to meeting this vital need to ensure no young person has to face cancer alone.
Kevin Chambers, Production Manager, Alex Barratt, ISB Supervisor, Alex Beveridge, Business Development Manager and a number of other employees have taken on the 3,000 press-ups in November to raise vital funds for the charity.
This particular charity is close to Kevin’s heart, and he was keen to share his story and explain why by saying:
My press-ups journey began a couple of years back when I started to feel better in myself after recovering from throat cancer. The weight started to go back on after my metabolism started going crazy. Me eating anything in sight, I decided to challenge myself to get fitter before getting fatter and picked doing 100 press-ups a day for 100 days. Halfway through the challenge, I wore out my wrists, so I bought a press-up board, and this helped me through the challenge to the end, and I never missed a day. After this, I went a bit lazy again and decided to do 50 press-ups a day throughout October. Around this time, I saw the ‘3,000 press-ups for Teenage Cancer Trust’ challenge and thought it would be perfect as I would have had some good practice to start me off in a good place.
I got some colleagues on board, and the 3,000 press-up challenge began. The initial target of 3,000 seemed daunting, but as soon as the donations started coming in, the opportunity to do more than 3,000 appeared to be a good idea.
Press-ups became a big part of my life in November, and I soon found myself waking up early and excited to see how many I could achieve in one day, 200 became 500, then 1000, and my best day was 2000, starting at 05:30 and finishing late into the evening!
Throughout November, I was reading about others doing this particular challenge. Some of the sad stories of the children going through cancer inspired me even further. For those who know me, I also went through cancer as a child. I undertook chemo, lost my hair and had a kidney removed. I still see myself as being lucky that it was caught at the right time and was able to carry on and have a great life. However, being told I had cancer again 35 years later was a bit of a shock, but luckily, I could recover again with the treatment.
The press-ups challenge started to become an obsession, and I found myself doing press-ups in the woods on a walk with my wife, press-ups on weekends away in the hotel room, and tea breaks at work, which boosted the daily total.
Luckily I managed to stay pretty healthy through the challenge, a bit of flu was no issue and several massages from my wife kept me going through to the end. The total figure I achieved was 16,500 press-ups for the month. The thought now of a few days off is pretty amazing and will give me a chance to heal. I will go again when I’m ready as I want to do ten press-ups for every pound raised, and as it stands, the total is £2070.00, so a few more to do. Carrying on will help me with Christmas coming up, enjoying lots of food and beer, which should mean my clothes will still fit.
I can’t express how grateful I am for all of the support, encouragement, best wishes and donations that I have had throughout this challenge, as it has indeed kept me going. Completing my last 15 press-ups on the final day of the month was an incredible feeling and something I won’t forget for a long time.
I will almost certainly do this challenge again and hopefully get a few more friends and family to join in with me; this has been a small challenge for me compared to all those going through cancer.
Kevin has completed 16,500 press-ups, Alex Barratt has completed 10,000, and Alex Beveridge has completed the target 3,000. The team have collectively completed 29,500 press-ups and have raised a grand total of £2225 for Teenage Cancer Trust, with Spectra Packaging contributing £250 in support.
Alex Beveridge said, “I’ve been passionate about raising money for cancer charities for some years since losing friends and family to this horribly indiscriminate disease. I often do Movember, but this year saw an opportunity to do something a little more challenging for Teenage Cancer Trust. The efforts of one person can’t move mountains. It’s the strength of us all working together that makes a change and the support of all the people who donate is what really needs recognition.”
Alex Barrett said, “When Kevin told me he was going to do the 3000 press-ups challenge for the Teenage Cancer Trust, I thought it was a brilliant challenge to do. It’s been great to do it together to help push each other on and try and raise as much money as possible for this amazing charity.
The support and generosity of all our work colleagues, family and friends have been outstanding. When the donations started coming in, it made us want to do more and more press-ups, and what a fun and challenging activity to do for such a special charity. I want to say a massive thank you to everyone who donated.”
Joe Maynard, Managing Director at Spectra Packaging, said, “Spectra employees regularly take it upon themselves to get involved in a range of charitable causes, often coming up with various suggestions to help raise donations. It’s been truly inspiring to see the huge efforts made by these guys; a massive well done to all three of them”.
Thank you for all your donations and support. If you would like to donate, the links are open until 14th December: https://www.facebook.com/donate/595625721852170/2670236813282215/
https://www.facebook.com/donate/3005444519785136/10159776149367495/
