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Over 5 million steps to raise money and awareness

Throughout July, Robin Gibbs walked more than usual due to the challenge he set himself to do 500,000 steps during the month and raise £500 for charity. He was joined by 11 colleagues at his workplace, Vizion, and the team clocked up over five million steps and raised over £1,300 in support of colleague and friend, Sarah, who lives with muscular dystrophy. Robin explains why he designed the challenge.

A fundraising team holding MDUK banners

Everyone in the group had their own motives for taking part, but we all agreed that Muscular Dystrophy UK was a cause to get behind. For me, I enjoy walking and want to keep pounding for my own mental health but my main reason for doing this was for others. I came up with the idea of the 500k step challenge and then put some feelers out at work for potential walkers. Everyone was really enthusiastic, and it created quite a buzz.

Each member of the team took on the 500,000-step challenge individually, but the total of 5.1 million steps was combined over the month. Some people did more, some did less, but it wasn’t about that. It was a team effort and we wanted to show some support to our colleague and friend, Sarah, who lives with muscular dystrophy.

Although Sarah faces the challenges that living with muscular dystrophy brings, she remains positive and outgoing, cracking jokes and keeping a cool air about her. She’s an asset to our team and an inspiration to us all. We did this for her and everyone else living with muscular dystrophy.

A selfie with four people walking

I’m really pleased we exceeded our £500 target and have raised over £1,000. It was rewarding to do it as a team and see others achieve great things.  

We all wanted this to be about raising awareness as well as fundraising as the more people that are aware of the cause the better. One team member, Rosie said: “Recently, Sarah made me aware of the reality of muscular dystrophy and the profound impact it has on people’s lives. This newfound awareness motivated me to join efforts in raising awareness and supporting research.”

When asked what she thought of her colleagues and friends taking on this multi-million step challenge, Sarah said: “I appreciate everyone doing this, it’s great. Not just in terms of raising awareness of muscular dystrophy, but you are all using your muscles and getting better in yourselves, which is another positive result.”

Follow Team Vizion’s fundraising here.

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