It all started in January 2015 when the Commercial Admin team were all feeling a little larger than they were before the festive period. Julie Rees-Harland, Team Leader, takes up the story…

“We decided that we wanted to feel healthier for not only ourselves but to benefit our families and work; this would involve shedding a few of the unwanted pounds most of us had gained.  It was agreed that we would hold a weekly weigh in which involved paying £1 to get weighed and at the end of each month 70% we would keep for charity and 30% would be paid out to the ‘Slimmer of the Month’.

This was a huge success and at one point we had over 25 people in our group which we named ‘CEMEX Healthy Lifestyle’.

At the end of the year the person who had lost the highest percentage of weight would choose a charity to donate that year’s collection.

Last year with people moving/leaving dropping out it was difficult to nominate slimmer of the year and we, therefore, agreed to continue paying to be weighed but to keep the money until we held a fundraising event in the office.

For a couple of years we had talked about nominating our lend-a-hand days to an animal charity but as there were long waiting lists for these charities, so we went elsewhere.  This year one of the Credit Controllers, Ryan Carter, told me that he had recently adopted a dog from Maxi’s Mates which is a local charity that helps the stray dogs and rehome them.  We all thought this charity would be ideal for our lend-a-hand 2018.

The majority of the department volunteered and three separate groups attended over three months.  It has been so rewarding, however, heart-breaking to see the poor dogs, some whom had been badly treated, left tied up in woods or just abandoned.  The charity purely relies on donations to keep them going and they don’t have money to advertise.

Our days were spent walking the dogs twice per day, feeding, cleaning and some deep cleaning of the kennels, clearing rubbish from their walkway left by people who had just left and even after visitors who had visited the kennels!  We also helped to introduce the dogs in the hope that they would adopt.

Some of us continue to volunteer in our spare time.  We decided the money we had raised – £420 – we would donate to the charity.  We approached CEMEX to see if they would support our donation and were so thrilled when they agreed.”