APH take on a 20,000 mile bike ride challenge for the Centre for Cancer Immunology

IAPA member APH have vowed to cycle 20,000 miles in a bid to raise £20,000 for the Centre for Cancer Immunology at Southampton University.

Last year APH raised £30,000 for the same cause and this year wanted to increase it by £20,000. Everyone at APH has been affected by cancer in some way so they wanted to choose a charity they can support long term.

APH staff are now well over half-way through cycling the 20,000 miles which they have given themselves a year to complete, so Managing Director of APH; Nick Caunter personally delivered a cheque for £10,000 by cycling 92.6 miles from their head office in Gatwick to Southampton.

"Last year with a lump sum donation and some cycling based fund raising we raised over £30,000 for Southampton University, so this year we came up with the idea that we could increase this by £20,000 and get to a total of over £50,000, if we were to tackle 20,000 miles. This took our cycling theme considerably further and at the same time encouraged the APH team here to get even fitter and enjoy the well-being that cycling promotes. I’m a little bit addicted to cycling and really enjoy the fitness and it brings", explained Nick.

"At APH, we promote the cycle to work scheme that allows team members to access bikes cheaply and we worked out that once the 20,000 miles were divided up, it wasn’t too much between us all. APH will donate 50p per mile, but if we hit the 20k target that will become £1 per mile. We also like to give out little prizes to those taking part as incentives along the way, including, cycling jerseys and puncture repair kits, which have proven incredibly handy!".

It seems the 20,000 mile bike challenge hasn't put them off doing a challenge next year either. When asked if APH will be taking up such a big challenge again, Nick said "The challenge has become bigger each year, so who knows what 2017 will bring! Watch this space…the team at APH is not frightened to take on a massive challenge!".

You can read more about the APH efforts to support the Centre for Cancer Immunology here.