Staff at a Market Drayton homeware store have been clocking up the miles to raise money for charity.
Around 16 staff from Homebase in Towers Lawn took part in a sponsored exercise bike ride last weekend in aid of the British Heart Foundation (BHF).
The 20-hour, two-day cycle marathon covered the equivalent of almost 210 miles, with customers donating around £400 to BHF which has been the store’s chosen charity since July 2008.
One of the organisers, Sharon Worrall, said: “We’ve had to come up with these strange and wacky ideas to raise money and last year we thought of getting these exercise bikes in the store.
“Originally, we had the idea of cycling from Land’s End to John O’Groats but we found that it was a hell of a long way.
“So we decided to do a store-to-store route of all the stores in our region which is just over 200 miles.
“We had two exercise bikes lent to us by the Bodytech gym in Cheshire Street and there were always two staff on the bikes, taking it in turns to do half-hour shifts.”
The bike ride was the latest in a series of fundraising events at the store over the last 18 months which have so far raised more than £3,000 for BHF.
Sharon said: “Customers were a bit stunned to see us all puffing and panting, but they were brilliant and really generous.
“We try and do the best we can with what we’ve got and we really want to say a huge thank you to everyone who supported us.”
Homebase staff will continue to raise money for the charity until July with further events, including an all-day music marathon featuring 12 bands at the Clive and Coffyne pub in Cheshire Street on April 4.
Sharon said: “It’s going to be such a big event and it would be fantastic to get support from the people of Market Drayton.”
