At the beginning of March, Keystone held a cake sale for Cancer Focus NI, raising £500 in total on the day. This came about as part of a larger fundraising project for the charity, undertaken by Keystone and Keylite employees Arthur Carson (Keylite Roof Windows) and Laurance Belton (Keystone Lintels). Fundraising initiatives the guys have embarked on include:
Laurance and Arthur present Emma with the £500 cheque from the bake sale.
- Pub Quiz at the Elk nightclub on the 8th March, which raised almost £900
- Arthur held a curry night at his home
- We held a cake sale at Keystone and Keylite raising £500
- The Focus Fit Challenge
We spoke to Emma McCann, Community Fundraiser (Mid Ulster) for Cancer Focus NI and organiser of the initiative, about the fundraising activities our employees have been taking part in:
How did you get in contact with Arthur and Laurance?
Laurance got in touch with me through his brother who had done the challenge before. Arthur’s partner actually seen the event was on again through Facebook and Laurance then got in touch with me.
What is the Focus Fit challenge?
“It’s a six-week health promotion. We help people to change their lifestyle and raise money through exercise and healthy eating. This not only raises money for Cancer Focus but helps the fundraisers to change their lifestyles, reducing the risk of cancers as well as diabetes, the risk of stroke and other health-related illnesses.
The Focus Fit challenge is training 4 days a week through Fit to Function personal training as well as eating advice. We take readings on all participants. One of these is the metabolic age reading – this is often very high due to constraints of health and lifestyle. Another is a visceral fat reading. Visceral fat is what causes stroke, certain cancers and diabetes. A normal reading is 3 but a lot of people are reading well into the teens due to health and lifestyle. This reading is a real eye opener for participants. I would recommend that everyone get this test done through the keeping well van.
For this particular challenge, there is a minimum raise of £300. This seems like a lot at first but I give fundraising advice to all participants. Sponsorship cards are the hard way to fundraise – you could raise all your money and more at just one event. £60,000 has been raised for cancer focus through the initiative so far.”
How are the guys finding the challenge?
“It’s a really tough challenge – they did find it tough at first, but I think they are really enjoying the exercise now! They are both doing great at the focus fit challenge in both their fitness and fundraising. The group are half way through the challenge and have raised a total of £7000 already.”
What does the money mean for Cancer Focus?
“We started in the 1970s as the Ulster Cancer Foundation primarily as a cancer research fund organisation. As the years went by, we started to supply more and more services. Money that is raised on my initiatives [in the mid-ulster area] is used in this area specifically – for services through Lilac based here in Cookstown. For example, Lilac does bra fittings for women who have had breast reshaping after mastectomies, counselling, art therapy, beauty for life and our keeping well van. Money also goes into running the Keeping Well van, medical staff as well as the rest of the services we provide.”
SEE ALSO: Keystone Hold Cake Sale for Cancer Focus NI
