Shrewsbury's firm's staff taking on mud run for charity
The teamwork, grit and determination of employees from one of Shropshire’s oldest companies will be tested when they tackle the Shrewsbury Mud Run for charity later this month.
Money raised by the team from Morris Lubricants in Shrewsbury at the mud run on March 21 will go to Lingen Davies Cancer Support, the company’s adopted charity for the next two years.
Facing the team in what is described as the 10 kilometre “ultimate muddy challenge” will be river crossings, head dunks, climbs, crawls, water slides, tunnels and other obstacles.
Ready to tackle the challenge are Clayton Matcham - senior internal sales account manager, Kyle Gleeson - commercial manager, Owen Lloyd - chief operations officer, Marcus Forrester - graduate buyer, Hannah Stocking-Evans - buyer, and Guy Lloyd - international business manager.
The mud run is a chance for competitors to push themselves, embrace new challenges and support a great cause.
It is the latest challenge taken on by the Morris Lubricants team members, some of whom have climbed mountains, run ultra marathons, cycled more than 100 miles and skydived to raise large sums of money for the company’s adopted charities over the years.
Clayton, who heads the company’s charity committee, has planned a whole year of fundraising events, which the mud run has completed.
“We were looking for our first big challenge of the year and the Shrewsbury Mud Run is perfect,” he said. “We are doing it for fun rather than going for a time and it will put us all through our paces for this fantastic charity.”
The most eye-catching of the other fundraising events is a wing walk at Sleap Airfield by Hannah and Elliot Lloyd in September.
Other fundraisers include an Easter bake-off and cake sale, the 5k Lingen Davies Sunflower Sprint on May 17, two charity cricket matches in June, a charity football match against Greenhous in August, an 11-mile Lingen Davies Titty Trail on October 10, an in-house pub quiz in November and a Christmas jumper day and raffle in December.
Andrew Goddard, Morris Lubricants’ Executive Chairman, said: “It never ceases to amaze me the things that Morris Lubricants’ employees do to put their bodies on the line to support fantastic charities like this. My mud running days are in past, so I’ll leave it to them!
“All of the team are keen to support Lingen Davies Cancer Support, a local charity that has touched many of them and does fantastic work throughout Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin and Mid Wales.”
The charity is focused on the prevention, early detection and treatment of cancer and supporting people living with and beyond the disease.
It has launched The Sunflower Appeal to raise £5 million to create a Lingen Davies Chemotherapy Centre with 30 bays in Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital, which will be open by 2029.
Combined with the existing chemotherapy services in the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, this development will double capacity across Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin and Mid Wales, meaning patients can access the treatment they need, where they need it, quicker.
Steph Smith, head of philanthropy at Lingen Davies Cancer Support, said: "It's always wonderful when a local organisation like Morris Lubricants dedicates a year of fundraising to us, but it's even more inspirational when they commit two years to helping us make a difference for local people affected by cancer.
“The Morris Lubricants team has an exciting schedule of fundraising events planned over the next 12 months, including joining us at our Sunflower Sprint in May and we're so excited to support them with their efforts."
Anybody wishing to sponsor the team can do so on the JustGiving page.
