A leading Welsh property and construction firm has called upon their network of property professionals from across the country to swap their hi-vis and hard hats for swimming goggles, cycling shorts and running shoes to raise vital funds for male suicide prevention charity CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably) in the Wales Property Triathlon.
The annual triathlon, now in its fifth year, organised by family firm Jehu Group is in aid of the group’s chosen charity of the year. This year the event will raise funds for CALM in a bid to help stop male suicide, the leading cause of death for men aged 20 to 49 across the UK, following the loss of a respected and popular co-worker in July of 2016. Jehu also held a charity band night in aid of CALM at Tramshed, Cardiff in July.
Staff from the Jehu Group and Waterstone Homes, together with many of their clients including Principality Building Society, Berry Smith, Coastal Housing Group and Trivallis plan to take part in the sprint triathlon, which involves a 500m swim in Pencoed swimming pool, 20k bike ride and 5k run in the Bridgend area. Jehu needed a way to get as many of their clients taking part in the triathlon as possible and thought up a novel scheme named ‘Buddy Up’. With ‘Buddy Up’ you don’t need to be able to do all three sports or have a team behind you to take part. Potential participants let Jehu know which leg of the triathlon they would like to compete in and leave it up to Jehu to find the perfect partnership.
The initiative has been a great success in partnering their clients for a great cause. The first Buddy Up triathlon team, Giddy up Buddy up, was made up of Paul Tambini, Director of Cardiff based Project Management and Cost Consultancy Practice, TC Consult, Louise Attwood, Development Director at Linc Cymru and Cat Griffiths-Williams, Head of Wales, Building Engineering Services Association.
Nathan Price, RB & Policy Officer at Trivallis’ has also teamed up with, Lynsey Holley-Matthews, Marketing and Responsible Business Manager for Jehu and also Lydia Jones, Account Director at Working Word, calling themselves ‘Tri Chynnig i Gymro’. Lydia was keen to #BuddyUp and have the opportunity to help raise awareness for the charity, having lost a close friend, the actor and singer Dafydd Dafis, April this year.
Lydia said:
“Dafydd sadly suffered with depression most of his life, and it breaks my husband and my heart on a daily basis that we’ve lost him, so I was very keen to join Jehu’s triathlon and help raise awareness for CALM’s good work and its helpline.”
Simon Jehu, Jehu Group’s Managing Director said:
“Every year our triathlon gets larger in scale and we are anticipating an even bigger turn out to this year’s event, all in support of such a brilliant charity.
“As a family company we have always chosen a charity that has touched us in one way or another with the first triathlons being in aid of Brain Tumor research after we lost a foreman to the disease, so following the tragic loss of a colleague last year, we’ve learned that male suicide is an issue that can affect anybody and we’re very keen to support CALM by making them our charity of the year for 2017. It is vital that the charity can continue to improve services, raise awareness and promote understanding of the issues surrounding male suicide and we hope our efforts will help make this happen.”
The Wales Property Triathlon takes place at Pencoed Swimming Pool and Rugby Club, Bridgend on Friday, September 22, entry is still open and closes at 8pm on Tuesday August 29, go to http://walespropertytriathlon.com/ for more information and how to sign-up. CALM’s helpline is 0800 585858 with webchat available on www.thecalmzone.net.
The post Construction business builds ‘Buddy up’ network to help stop the rise of male suicide appeared first on HR News.