Dealership’s football match raises £292 for charities

Staff at a car dealership in Gloucester took part in a football match on Tuesday and helped to raise £292 for a number of charities.

Wessex Garages on Mercia Road organised the event at the Newport International Sports Village on June 14 and some of the money raised will be donated to The Leukaemia & Intensive Chemotherapy Fund (LINC) in Cheltenham.

Keith Brock, Managing Director at Wessex Garages, said: “Ahead of the European Championship game of Wales versus England on June 16 we thought it would be a great idea to host a charity football match between all of the Wessex Garages’ branches in Wales against all of the branches in England.

“We have three dealerships in Wales and four in England and members of staff from each outlet formed a Welsh team and an English team to battle it out on the pitch.

“It was a fantastic game. Wales scored a goal in the first fifteen minutes and then England fouled and Wales missed a penalty. England then scored a penalty to equalise five minutes from the end. Wales then managed to score another goal with seconds to full time making them the winners. Staff from all of our branches either played or came along to watch the match and support their team.”

Staff were invited to bet on the result of the game. It was £2 a go with those that bet on the winning team going into a hat for a prize draw to win the top prize of an extra day of annual leave and the second prize of half a day extra annual leave.

The winner of the top prize was an Englishman betting on Wales, Digital Sales Executive, Darryl Blackmore from our Feeder Road dealership in Bristol and the second prize went to Ray Chappell from our call centre in Newport.

Keith added: “As well as being a great team building exercise the event was to raise money for our charities of the year. For the Gloucester dealership this is LINC.

The charity supports patients and their families affected by leukaemia, lymphoma and other blood cancers. It is a relatively small charity, which aims to provide financial and psychological support to leukaemia and other cancer patients and their families in Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and south Worcestershire.

Most commonly LINC helps with travel expenses for family members to visit their loved ones in hospital but can also help with other expenses such as mortgage payments. As well as this it also helps to make a patients stay more comfortable by funding new reclining chairs, televisions and DVD players at the hospitals.

Gloucester News Centre – http://gloucesternewscentre.co.uk