No, this is not DHL’s answer to rising fuel prices: 50 disabled people in wheelchairs amazed crowds after they pulled this 65-tonne DHL cargo plane into the Guinness World Record books. Seated in manual wheelchairs, the 50 participants used strength and sheer determination to pull the DHL 757 airliner 100 metres along the main runway at Lasham Airfield in Hampshire, setting a new category Guinness World Record. The charity offers free trial flying lessons for terminally ill and disabled people and subsidised flying and training for other disability charities across the UK. A DHL pilot, who is also a BDFA volunteer, flew the Boeing 757 aircraft from DHL’s UK aviation base at East Midlands Airport to Lasham Airfield, for the world record attempt.
Pulling together: Co-op staff at the Coventry NDC have been starring in TV ads to promote the good works done by Co-operative Group staff and members. The Co-operative wanted to highlight the community and fund-raising activities of the Co-op people involved, as part of its sponsorship of the Daily Mirror’s Pride of Britain Awards last month. The team of 18 was chosen after pulling a truck seven miles to raise over £1,000 for cancer research. As a thank you for taking part, the team received a cheque for £500 to donate to a charity.
Snapped up: Jungheinrich has donated a three-wheel counterbalanced lift truck to MK SNAP – a Milton Keynes charity that works with adults with learning and physical disabilities. MK SNAP runs a workshop providing an opportunity for the disabled to participate in a number of tasks, including the production of simple wooden goods, product assembly and packing as well as mail-shot projects. The work undertaken helps to build the skills and, in turn, the confidence and self-esteem of those that attend the SNAP facility. The lift truck will be used to load and unload materials delivered to the SNAP workshop and Jungheinrich has also undertaken to service the forklift and provide driver training free of charge.
Hospice support: NYK has awarded £20,000 to support Keech Cottage Children’s Hospice in Streatley, Bedfordshire. The hospice was nominated by Terry Newman, operations manager at NYK Logistics’ Bradbourne Point site in Milton Keynes, as a result of the support the hospice is providing to fellow employee Steve Stewart and his three-year old daughter Presley. Presley suffered extensive brain damage resulting in blindness, epilepsy and cerebral palsy, as a result of contracting Group B STREP Meningitis at three weeks of age and requires 24 hour care. The award from NYK will be used to fund overnight stays at the hospice for local children and for the hospice’s community nurses to visit children in their own homes.
Water carrier: RH Freight provided support to runners in Nottingham’s Experian Robin Hood Festival of Running. Nottingham-based RH distributed 60,000 bottles of water and 20,000 bottles of Lucozade to the drinks stations across the race route on the morning of the event using three 18-tonne trucks and forklifts to transport and drop the 19 pallets of water and dozens of trestle tables to the stations.
Extra mile: A dozen of Pall-Ex’s female employees have stripped off for a charity calendar with the aim of raising more than £2,000 for the Princess Royal Trust for Carers. The calendars picture the women in a number of locations at Pall-Ex’s hub and will be sold to staff and members of the network in the run-up to Christmas. Pall-Ex boss Hilary Devey said: “As a patron of the Princess Royal Trust for Carers, I am so proud of everyone for going that extra mile to raise funds.”
Aramex UK has delivered a life size waxwork of the 17th century botanist George Everhard Rumphius created by Mike Wade Associates, craftsmen to Madam Tussaud’s, from London to Singapore; where it formed part of an award-winning exhibit for specialist Nepenthes plant growers Borneo Exotics at this year’s Singapore Garden Festival. The festival pits the best of the world’s award winning garden designers against each other and they are selected to attend for their previous achievements such as multiple gold medals at the Chelsea Flower Show in London.
Designers Diana Williams and Robert Cantley from Borneo Exotics staged a 100 sq m garden called ‘Season of Mist’ which showed off their Nepenthes plants and also featured a wax figure of Rumphius as he was the man who gave the first ever scientific description of a Nepenthes plant.
Cycle challenge: Trimble has joined up with this year’s Square to Square Charity Cycle Challenge in which a group of firefighters are riding from St Thomas’ Square, Newport, Isle of Wight to St Peter’s Square, Vatican City, Italy. It has fitted the team’s support vehicles with its GPS tracking technology to ensure that the ten cyclists can remain in contact with friends and family throughout their 1,400 mile ride. Supporters can get real-time updates of where the team has got to.
