Asda Kilmarnock colleagues clock up more than 6,000 miles for breast cancer charities

Colleagues at Asda Kilmarnock have gone the extra mile for charity by walking an incredible 6,229 miles and raising more than £500 for breast cancer causes.

The fundraising challenge was organised as part of Asda Tickled Pink, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. Staff at the Kilmarnock store originally set themselves a target of 300 miles, but the effort soon grew into something much bigger.

What began with a small group of front-end colleagues quickly gathered momentum, with 36 members of staff joining in and the target rising to 3,000 miles.

Adding a fun competitive edge to the challenge, colleagues split into two teams led by sisters Heather Ferguson and Suzi Powell, who are both managers at the store.

Over the course of a month, the two teams went head-to-head in a spirited contest, eventually smashing their revised target by more than double. Together they completed 13,240,956 steps, with Team Suzi edging ahead after reaching 6,851,315 steps. Team Heather also put in an impressive performance, finishing on 6,389,641 steps.

Teresa Bruce, Community Champion at Asda Kilmarnock, said: “It started with a group of front-end colleagues deciding they’d walk 300 miles between them to raise money for Tickled Pink, but things quickly escalated. Before we knew it, we had 36 colleagues on board, with a new target of 3,000 miles between us.”

Suzi said: “It was a good laugh for a great cause. I love a bit of sisterly competition.”

Heather added: “It was great to have the store behind such a great cause. I did expect my big sister to win as she’s older with more life experience.”

Asda Tickled Pink has now raised £100 million since it launched, supporting breast cancer awareness and helping fund education, support and services through its charity partners Breast Cancer Now and CoppaFeel!.

Teresa added: “It was great fun to get colleagues together from different departments, especially for a cause so close to all our hearts. We loved that so many people got involved in the challenge, with more participants in something like this than we’ve had for a long time. People were very competitive, which definitely helped keep up the motivation. We’re looking forward to doing more throughout the year as we celebrate 30 years of Tickled Pink.”

The Kilmarnock team’s effort not only raised vital funds, but also showed the power of teamwork, community spirit and a little bit of family rivalry in support of an important cause.