Workers get on their bikes for Sunderland charity

Workers at Leighton, based at Rainton Bridge Business Park, in Houghton, have raised £4,000 in aid of Grace House after their team completed the 120 miles from Whitehaven to Tynemouth.

The team of 10, including Leighton’s CEO, creative director and web developers, managed the journey in just two days.

Helping them through the weekend was Bike4Health, a community company who assist with cycling events and enable communities, businesses and children to incorporate cycling into their lives.

Throughout the run up to the ride, participants received generous sponsors from their friends, families and colleagues, helping them to exceed their target.

Leighton’s CEO Lyle McCalmont said: “We wanted to raise money for Grace House because they’re a great, local charity who do life-changing work to support children and young people with disabilities and also their families.

“Some of our team had done it before and others had not even ridden a bike since their childhood, but a great time was had by all. It’s a really fulfilling thing to do and I’m so proud of the team.”

Leighton assists businesses with their digital strategy and has helped create bespoke solutions from commercial consumer-facing sites, full scale digital rebrands and corporate communication tools.

The company’s clients include Asda, Sage and long-term partners British Airways.

Dr Karen Parry, Grace House CEO, said: “It is an amazing achievement for anyone to complete the Coast to Coast, but to do it in just two days is seriously impressive.

“I constantly find the efforts of our supports to raise money for us very inspiring.

“We are so grateful to Leighton for supporting us, and are very excited about putting their donations to good use this year, as we expect to support about 100 families whose children have complex disabilities, health needs and life-limiting conditions.”