Leyland Trucks Helping Hand initiative reaches out

The Helping Hand initiative, created in 1994 to allow employees at Leyland Trucks to fundraise for local community projects continues to go from strength to strength with one of the busiest periods in its history.

Back in January of this year, Helping Hand Chairman Neale Handley was surprised to discover that it wasn’t only Leyland employees who wanted to get involved, but their suppliers as well.  Roy Chetram, an employee of Neales Waste, a waste management company who regularly visit the Leyland site, contacted the Helping Hands committee to ask if he could get involved.  Deciding now was the time to shed some excess pounds, Roy wanted to see if his weight loss programme could be a sponsored activity so that his loss was others gain, donating every penny raised to the Helping Hand initiatives. 

March saw the second annual cake sale take place with a Macmillan coffee morning open to all workers..  Staff were invited to take part in their very own bake off, with more than 15 members of staff bringing in delectable items to share with colleagues.  A £1 donation from everyone who partook of a cake and a cup of coffee was collected and put towards local projects.

In April, Neale and colleagues were invited to a very special awards ceremony at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Withington, Manchester.  Leyland Trucks was awarded one of the top honours, a gold award, recognising their sustained and long term support over the last 10 years.

May was a particularly busy month for the Helping Hands committee, who supported two very special initiatives.  The first was a sponsored skydive in aid of St Catherine’s Hospice which provides palliative care and daycentre facilities for the local community.  2015 marks St Catherine’s 30thanniversary, so it was particularly gratifying for the Helping Hand team to be able to present a cheque for £1,300, helping the charitably-funded hospice in providing continuing specialist care and assistance to friends, family and colleagues in times of need.

May also saw a number of Leyland Trucks employees take on Mount Snowdon.  The team climbed the 1,085 metre Welsh mountain to raise money for two important community appeals.  The first, to help a close relative of an employee, who suffers from a number of rare medical conditions.  Money raised by the Mount Snowdon endeavour will go towards funding specialist equipment, which will allow his family to continue caring for him at home. 

In addition the team were also pleased to be able to donate a significant sum to the Rosemere Cancer Foundation, based at the Royal Preston Hospital, who provide vital support to families of those diagnosed with the disease.

Speaking of the activities to date, Neale Handley said: “Over the 12 months I have been in the Chairman’s role I am constantly amazed by the enthusiasm and generosity of our employees and increasingly our suppliers.  I’m determined to build upon our success to date this year and ensure we do everything we can to provide vital funding for local charity groups and community projects that benefit so many people.”

Captions:

Image 1 – Leyland Trucks Mount Snowdon team

Image 2 – Helping Hands team presents cheque to Rosemere Cancer Foundation

For further information please contact:

Belle Moss, torque                          020 7952 1074                    bmoss@torqueagencygroup.com