ChildHope and London Poppy Day Get HFW Support

10 November 2011

Numerous HFW partners, lawyers and staff have been involved in fundraising efforts for charity recently.

Five HFW lawyers and staff from Hong Kong and London (Amanda Cheung, Tunde Adesokan, Sara Sheffield, Anna Zareba and Alex Sayegh) made the long trek up Mt Kenya to raise money for the firm's official charity, ChildHope. The five intrepid trekkers reached the summit at 7.45am on 2 November, just over five hours after setting off from base camp at 2.30am.

The journey over three days up to 4950m was certainly much more difficult and treacherous than any of the group, including their guides, had anticipated, and they battled the rain, snow and ice from very early on. The last push on the final day was particularly difficult, with a great deal of scrambling across icy rock faces. Having completed the trek and raised over £10,000 for ChildHope, the group then visited a project in Nairobi that works with ChildHope to use the very valuable funds raised by the team.

In addition to the team's fantastic effort, on a bright, warm day on Sunday, 23 October, HFW partner, Stephen Drury, set out at 7.30am to row three circuits ''lock to lock” on the Thames at Kingston – on – Thames, plus a loop up to Ravens Ait, for a total distance of 26 miles to also raise money for ChildHope. The 'scullathon' took Stephen 5 ¾ hours, and is a hugely impressive achievement. Stephen raised in excess of £3,500 for ChildHope.

Meanwhile, as part of London Poppy Day, HFW Associate Rachel Butlin was in charge of collection efforts at Temple Tube Station. She, along with her HFW colleagues (Kate Buzzard, Jonathan Webb, Angelina Davidson-Houston, Charles Caney, Lizzie Morrison, Philip Thomas and Colin Murray), supported by four Welsh Guards, one Light Dragoon and three Royal Navy officers, raised £8,367 over a 12 hour period.

Director of Fundraising for The Royal British Legion Russell Thompson said: “London Poppy Day was an enormous success thanks to a dedicated team of organisers and volunteers. Thanks to them and the support of the London public, we have smashed last year’s record".

For further information please contact Tania Phayre, Marketing Communications Manager, on +44 (0)20 7264 8546 or tania.phayre@hfw.com