Charity Round Up - 2023
2023 has been a busy year for the charity and volunteering teams at ThinCats, with a variety of charities, not-for-profit organisations and educational establishments benefitting from our support.
Dementia UK (DUK), the only UK charity caring for people with dementia and their families with their specialist dementia Admiral Nurses, has been the main charity that ThinCats’ has supported this year. Staff have taken part in individual and team challenges, bake sales, wellbeing challenges and a 26 mile trek to raise over £13,000 for the charity.
Staff at ThinCats also regularly donate to a Cancer Research UK donation station, collecting second-hand clothing, gifts, accessories and books to be resold in the charity’s high street shops. Throughout the year, over 150 bags full of pre-loved items have been donated, amounting to approximately £3000 for the charity.
ThinCats offices in Ashby de la Zouch, London and Manchester also have foodbank donation boxes, which are filled by staff with items for the foodbanks local to those offices. Staff took part in a Christmas parcel appeal, making up a number of packages of tasty Christmas foods for local families that are struggling.
A team of twelve ThinCats staff ran workshops for over 250 year 13 students at Ashby School, a Sixth Form very close to ThinCats’ Head Office. Staff shared valuable and relevant advice on life budgeting, bank accounts, credit cards and loans, to furnish the 17- and 18-year-old students with skills to take them on to their next step of university, apprenticeships, or the world of work.
ThinCats has also sponsored a number of staff in some incredible endeavours. Ben Kimball and a team of four other staff took on the challenge to cycle from Edinburgh to Leeds in a day in July, and not only succeeded in the challenge, but also raised over £5700 for DUK. ThinCats sponsored Mike Dinnell and a team of incredible hockey players to complete 54 matches as well as 457km of endurance challenges over 9 days in May, aiming to raise £100,000 for Hockey for Heroes. Neil Taylor completed the Edinburgh marathon in May, raising over £1500 for DUK. ThinCats also sponsored David Parr in his attempt to reach the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu European No Gi Championships in Rome in August.
We finish off what has been a fantastic year with a Christmas raffle and festive jumper day, to give our DUK fundraising a final boost before 2024, and many more exciting undertakings to come!