Sport Relief 2012 – The Photos

D&G Employees cycle 1667 miles for Charity
5,206
Filed under - Archived Content

Many contact centres supported Sport Relief this year.  Check out the stories and photos below.

Brighton call centre attempts world record for Sport Relief

200 employees from Domestic & General’s Brighton call centre attempted to break a rowing world record in aid of Sport Relief last Friday.

Maxine before

Maxine before

Maxine after

Maxine after

The record attempt marked the culmination of a week of Sport Relief activities at the call centre, which provides jobs for over 700 people. Already this week, employees have climbed the height of Everest on a step machine and cycled 1,667 miles to mark the distance between each of the company’s European offices.

Call Centre Manager Maxine Stinton raised £450 by shaving her head and additional donations were made through team challenges and bake sales. In total the company hopes to raise £5,000 for Sport Relief, supporting the charity’s efforts to end world poverty.


Thomson and First Choice support Sport Relief

The Thomson and First Choice Call Centre

The Thomson and First Choice Call Centre

The Thomson and First Choice call centre, based in Coventry, supported Sport Relief 2012 along with Siptel and T-Systems, who are supporting the technology for the charity event.

150 volunteers from the holiday company spent their Friday night taking donation calls.

The call centre team also had the chance to get active and fundraise themselves by dressing up in fancy dress, baking cakes and selling buffet items all in the name of charity.


npower’s Hull call centre takes to the phones

npower staff from their call centre in Hull

npower staff from their call centre in Hull

145 members of staff from npower’s Bridge House call centre in Hull supported Sport Relief 2012.

npower dedicated 70 phone lines to taking calls, with staff from all over the business coming in to lend a hand, including npower’s Managing Director of Customer Markets, Giuseppe Di Vita. As well as receiving donations, the team were also fundraising on the night with various activities taking place, including a raffle with prizes donated from local businesses and rugby league team, Hull FC.

All money raised on site will be added to the £5,000 donation already pledged by npower to Sport Relief.

Kevin McCullough, npower’s Chief Operating Officer, comments: “’I’m really proud of our people at Bridge House who are giving up their own time to support this great cause. We have over 140 volunteers, which is a great result and really demonstrates the commitment of our people to supporting important charities like this. Sport Relief brings the entire nation together to get active, raise cash and change lives. Well done to everyone involved.”


Motability hep raise £70,000 for Sport Relief

The call centre team at Motability

The call centre team at Motability

Call centre employees from Motability Operations lent a hand in raising a whopping £70,000 on Friday night as they joined volunteers across the country to take donation pledges for Sport Relief 2012.

Volunteers from the Bristol-based company managed over 2,000 calls on the night. In addition to supporting the donation lines, Motability Operations’ employees raised funds by taking part in various activities throughout the day, including nine different one-mile walks, bake sales and comedy dressing up, all in the name of charity.

Lisa Witherington, Head of Customer Services at Motability Operations commented: “We are thrilled with the amount of money raised for Sport Relief. The atmosphere was fantastic and we want to say a big thank you to all the volunteers who gave up their Friday night for such a great cause”.

Pictured above from left to right: Christine Deniro (Sumo – team manager), Ruth Knight (team manager), David Walsh (contact centre general manager), Michael Dosunmu (Floor manager), Nicki Reynolds (customer services manager), Barry Hennessy (team manager), Laura Brock (team manager), Claire Summers (team manager), Tracey Finn (team manager), Sam Thomas (Cricketer – Contact Centre advisor seconded at the moment to support floor manager), Scott Carpenter (customer services manager), Mark Henry (Jockey, team manager).


Lifestyle Services Group adds over £50,000 to Sport Relief

the team at Lifestyle Services

The team at Lifestyle Services

A Crewe company opened its call centre last Friday and took 1,589 donation calls for Sport Relief.

Approximately 150 employees, family and friends manned the phones for five hours and took donation calls totalling £50,212.

Organiser Annie Guest, HR Shared Services Manager, said: “Each year, we invite employees, friends, family, clients and suppliers to experience the fantastic atmosphere. It was great to see so many volunteers lending a helping hand.

“The call centre was also busy throughout the day. Employees from across the business came to work in sports gear and organised sponsored walks, cake sales and raffles to further boost funds for Sport Relief.”

Annie added: “Call centres play a huge part in the success of Sport Relief and we are proud to be one of the charity’s registered centres. It was a very rewarding night and we look forward to Comic Relief 2013.”

Marcus Golby, Operations Director commented: “It was fantastic to see all the departments working together for such a worthy cause. It really shows what amazing people we have at Lifestyle Services Group. My thanks go to everyone who volunteered their time and helped us to keep our call centre open until 12 midnight.”


Careline mans phones to help Sport Relief raise over £52 million

Seventy-five staff in Carelines Selkirk contact centre ‘manned the phones’ for this year’s Sport Relief.

Together they took almost 1,400 calls from members of the public making donations to one of the UK’s biggest fund raising programmes. The £52 million raised by this year’s Sport Relief will be used to turn around the lives of poor and disadvantaged people here at home and in some of the world’s poorest nations.

Careline’s agents collected a total of £60,000 for Sport Relief in just one evening as part of a national network of contact centre volunteers.  And Careline’s experience in handling significant call peaks proved very useful.  “Around 40% of the calls we handled came in a single hour between 9 and 10pm,” says Damien McLennan, Careline’s Client Manager in Selkirk who spearheaded the programme.


We Fight Any Claim Limited (WFAC) raises £35,000 for Sport Relief

The Mayor of Torfaen, Philip Seabourne showed his support

The Mayor of Torfaen, Philip Seabourne showed his support

We Fight Any Claim Ltd hosted a charity evening in support of Sports Relief on the evening of March 23rd.

The event was deemed a great success after the call centre based business took over £35,000 in donation calls for the charity.
We Fight Any Claim Ltd also raised an additional £650 from a charity raffle and an eye watering leg wax.

The staff were delighted that the Mayor of Torfaen, Philip Seabourne, was able to visit the Call Centre during the afternoon to show his support.  The day before, former undefeated World Champion boxer, Joe Calzaghe visited the Centre and signed a number of boxing gloves for the raffle and was very happy to add his support.

Joe Calzaghe with a signed boxing glove

Joe Calzaghe with a signed boxing glove

We Fight Any Claim Ltd would like to send a big thank you to all the volunteers who gave their time for free and a special thank you to all the local businesses that contributed to make the event a success.  These included:

Newport University, Frankie and bennys, Tiffins Restaurant , Subway, Crow’s Nest Pub, Premier Print, Dewstow Golf Club, Newport County Football Club, Newport Dragons, John Glynn of MWL, Severn Bridge Social Club.

Additional contributors to the event also deserve a special thank you, these include:

WRU, NEC Harlequins, Delta Force Paintballing, Cadbury World, Cheddar Gorge Cheese, Scarlets , Hooters, Ospreys, Scott Quinnell.

WFAC staff dress up for Sport Relief

WFAC staff dress up for Sport Relief

The Mayor of Torfaen and call centre staff

The Mayor of Torfaen and call centre staff


Norwich call centre workers in jailbreak for charity

Four call centre workers from Swinton Insurance in Norwich raised £600 for Sport Relief by taking part in a ‘jailbreak’. EDP24


Sound of Bury on the end of Sport Relief calls

Around 150 agents at O2 in Bury manned the phones to take donations for Sport Relief. This is Lancashire


Energetic staff limber up for Sport Relief

EDF staff limbering up

EDF staff limbering up

EDF employees will also be doing some fundraising of their own, including a dress-down Sport Relief Friday, where staff will pay £1 to wear casual clothes to work. They will also be using pedal-power to make and sell smoothies using a smoothie bike, testing their strength on an old-fashioned fairground machine and making donations to take part in a penalty shoot out.

Sixteen members of staff have a charity football match. The game will take place at the Goals Soccer Centre, High Barnes on Sunday (March 25) at 13.30pm. This is the fourth year that the EDF Energy colleagues have organised a game for the charity; they’ve raised more than £5,800 in total so far.

Kevin Gatens, head of customer contact centre North East at EDF Energy, said: “We’re always overwhelmed by the response we have from staff and their friends and families who come along to volunteer and help take the donation calls. It’s always a fun evening and our employees will be helping to boost the Sport Relief total by doing some fundraising of their own throughout the day.”

The volunteers will take it in turns working shifts from 7pm until midnight to take pledge calls from across the country on 75 donated phone lines.

Those waiting for their slot on the phones will be entertained throughout the evening with games, a magician and demonstrations by football freestyler Blaine Hodgson. There will also be face-painting and computer games for volunteers’ children.

EDF Energy’s customer services centre will be open and taking calls in a different part of the building where it will be business as usual – services will not be affected.


Auto Windscreens’ call centre on track to go the extra mile for Sport Relief!

Auto Windscreens’ call centre in Derbyshire has been officially selected as one of the locations in the Midlands to support Sport Relief. Some 50 Auto Windscreens and Markerstudy staff, including company directors, have volunteered to man the call centre.

The Auto Windscreens team is planning to go the distance with their own fundraising activities on the night, too, including a red-and-white sportswear theme, a zumba marathon, a rowing machine challenge and a charity quiz. Also on Friday 23rd March, 10 employees will take part in a 26-mile bike ride from the Chesterfield Head Office in Storforth Lane, to Matlock, Ashover, Morton, Hardwick Hall and Gardens, Heath and Hasland, returning to Head Office, all in the name of charity.

Claire Church, Auto Windscreens Contact Centre Manager, said: “We’re so proud to be supporting Sport Relief. It’s such a great cause and we’re limbering up for a huge night of fundraising and fun!”


Spark Response in Sport Relief Role

Spark Response staff dressed up for Sport Relief

The Gateshead-based company has volunteered to field calls from members of the public who want to make donations during the main televised event on Friday, 23 March.

The BBC event, part of a packed three-day programme, will be hosted by Claudia Winkleman, Fearne Cotton and Gary Lineker and includes comedy sketches, challenge highlights, celebrity appearances and films about the work of Sport Relief.

Around 90 volunteers made up of Spark Response staff and their friends and family will be handling calls on the night as part of the company’s commitment to supporting charities locally and nationally.

Peter Slee, Managing Director, Spark Response, said: “I’m delighted that we’re getting involved in such a high-profile event as Sport Relief, which will be seen by millions of people around the country. It’s such a fantastic cause which makes a real difference to communities up and down the country, but it’s also great fun too.

“It’s testament to the skilled workforce we have here at Spark that we have been selected to support Sport Relief. It really flies the flag for the North East contact centre industry.”

Pictured above: Four of the volunteers – Heather Nicholson from South Shields; Lindsey Pearson from Newcastle; Lauren Kane from South Shields and Victoria Fitzpatrick from Sunderland.


Marathon with a twist for Autonet Insurance

A group of colleagues are looking to complete a marathon (26 miles) for Sports Relief, but with a twist. Instead of running a marathon, they are looking to open the phone lines over night and quote for 26 hours.

They are also keen to know if a current world record exists for an event like this and what lengths they have to go to to beat it!

Can anyone help?


Sales-Motivations supporting Sports Relief

Sales-Motivations are donating 10% of all sales in March and April to Sports Relief.

Author: Jo Robinson

Published On: 28th Mar 2012 - Last modified: 12th Dec 2018
Read more about - Archived Content

Follow Us on LinkedIn