April Community Updates

Welcome to our most recent update on what has been happening in our communities recently. Our colleagues have been on some amazing adventures and undertaking fantastic fundraisers! 

India team mountain climb 

In March our team in India visited Dharmshala to trek the Triund peak, part of the lower Himalayan chain of mountains. At c.2,900m, the trek was a total of 18kms in a single day. 

While 30 people started the journey to the peak, only 11 completed the climb including the entire AIAI team. Congratulations to the team in India for this achievement! 

Football Shirt Day in Chelmsford 

Last week the Chelmsford office took part in Football Shirt Day, proudly wearing the shirts of their teams. Together they raised £75 for the Bobby Moore Fund, part of Cancer Research UK. 

Work Experience 

Surag Simon completed work experience with Harry Weller, Senior Audit & Accounts Manager, and left some lovely feedback on their time at Affinia: 

“I really enjoyed my time at Affinia, gaining some practical knowledge of accounting and information on how the accounting world works. The working environment was a calm, friendly and supportive during my limited time. I loved working with the Audit and Accounts team as they kindly shared their experiences and knowledge with me. I’m proud of what I achieved during my time at Affinia and would recommend working here.” 

Thank you to the team at Colchester for making Surag’s few days at Affinia so enjoyable. 

London Marathon 

On Sunday, Elliot Keefe, Tax Manager, completed the London Marathon. He has currently raised over £3,000 for Asthma + Lung UK in memory of his Nan. Here’s what he said of his experience of the day: 

“On Sunday, I made the mistake of a life-time for a second time and decided to run the London Marathon, some 13 years later than the last time when I was younger, slimmer (ha) and fitter (double ha). 

I had set myself a realistic target of 5 hours but I hadn’t been expecting the 22.2 degrees temperatures.  

Mile 1-7, what has since been re-named ‘The delusion phase’, included high hopes and a positive atmosphere around the start line where strangers lied to me about ‘running for fun’. I felt like a hippo in a herd of gazelles, jiggling down the road with a good feeling for the race and enough Vaseline applied to cover all those around me.  

Mile 7 at Cutty Sark was fantastic and I was even spotted on TV here. Whisper it quietly but south of the river was proving a great place to be with the enthusiastic crowds and great music. I had been made aware that friends were waiting for me up to Tower Bridge and I probably wasted too much energy looking for them. I never saw them.  

Tower Hill at mile 12 is a memory that will live with me forever, with a wall of noise and people everywhere. I really tried to style it out, but reality set in at the bottom of the bridge where on the other side of the road, people were passing between miles 22 and 23. 

Suddenly I had to stop for the toilet, I was overtaken by my first person in a rhino suit and I ran out of jelly babies! I started questioning my life choices and specifically the choice to carb-load exclusively with spaghetti bolognaise. 

At mile 15 I had to do something I had never done in my training and walk! My feet had staged a full-blown mutiny. I was soon greeted by more friends and family and I pressed on with running.  

I considered my uncle; a black-cab driver, hatched a plan to get a runner to carry my running number which included my time chip whilst I went to the finish line via public transport and whether there was a charity specialised in carrying knackered runners. But I pressed on because my little family were at mile 20 and what a moment that was. Lots of hugs and tears with the photos saved for future boyfriends and girlfriends.  

From mile 21, pain became my sanctuary and I was passed by too many people dressed as Iron structures such as The Blackpool Tower, The Eiffel Tower and The Brooklyn Bridge. I had to walk again but the crowd kept me going as well as seeing more friends on the way and a surprise appearance by my family. 

I decided at mile 25 that I was having too much fun and I needed to get to the finish line. With the crowd at it’s largest and so many people calling my name (it was on my vest), running up Birdcage Walk was like a wrester’s entrance, one right turn into Buckingham Palace and then another quick right turn and there it was, the finish line! 

A sight more beautiful than beer or cake, I finished strongly but still managed to find time to be beaten by a man dressed as Big Ben.  

What a feeling! What a day!  

The London Marathon didn’t break me – it tortured me and has since changed my relationship with stairs. But I finished. People cheered me into the pub and on the train home. My friends and family bizarrely consider me a hero and I can’t wipe the smile off my face. If I can do it, you must!” 

You can donate to Asthma + Lung UK through Elliot’s Just Giving page: Elliott Keefe is fundraising for Asthma + Lung UK 

For more information on Asthma + Lung UK, please visit their website here: https://www.asthmaandlung.org.uk/ 

If you would like to be featured in our next Community Update post, please email marketing@affinia.co.uk.