Ready, Set, Go...!

Today marks the start of the Tea Cup Relay Challenge. At 8pm this evening, teacup manufacture will commence! 

A special thank you goes to Swansway Garages for donating the mini bus (pictured) for the duration of the race. Good Luck to all the runners! 

Some of the Relay Runners with the mini bus donated by Swansway 
for use throughout the run

The Mini Bus donated by Swansway

Doing it for Dougie Weekly Round Up

With only 5 days to go until the Teacup relay, fundraising is ramping up! Adding another £1314.40 to the total we are now 38% of the way to the £40,000 target. The total raised so far now stands at...wait for it...£15,385.24!!

Paul Robson

It has been a busy week for mug sales. Jan, Helen, Julie, Heather & Harry had an excellent day at Tescos Kidsgrove on Sunday and sold 40 mugs. Kate Cartwright and Kelly Barber spent Thursday at the Dougie Mac Golf Day at Trentham Golf Club, selling 36 mugs. We have also had new supporters take our mugs this week. Makro, Bentley Motors, who have taken 100, and Mercedes of Stoke. Paul Robson (pictured), from Pressure Cast Service visited the factory on Thursday and purchased 20 mugs.

We are aiming for a very large total by the end of next week, with lots of events going on. We will be at the Dougie Mac Ruby Bike Ride on Sunday 19th May cheering on our team of 10 & selling the Dougie Mac mugs. Special mention to Matt Lindop who is riding 110 miles to Llangollen in the bike ride and then on Thursday, early morning, running his 10 miles of the relay, amazing effort!!

The major event in our fundraising calendar , the Tea Cup Relay, starts at 8.00pm on Tues 21st May with the cup being produced, the first of our 39 runners will leave the factory at 6.00am on Wednesday 22nd May arriving in our showroom the following afternoon after 205 miles. Come along and support if you are up early enough!

Whilst the runners are having fun out & about along the route we thought that we would hold a series of exciting events throughout the week.

Tuesday will be quiz day - Quiz Sheets available from Kristina or Heather.

Wednesday Afternoon tea will be served - in the traditional way of course!

Thursday is BINGO day, 1.00pm in the canteen - bingo cards will be sold during the week

Friday will be School Uniform Day - so pull out your best efforts, and make sure those ties are done up properly!!

Throughout the week, employees will also be collecting donations from the Regent Theatre prior to the evening performances of the Rocky Horror Show.

We can't thank each and everyone of you enough for all the donations, sponsors, mug purchases, fundraising ideas and time you have given to the challenge. Here's to a fun week next week, keep up the good work! 

Scotia Soaps Sign Support

Churchill Employees, Donna Peeballs and Frank
Brownsill, with the Scotia Soap Team

Local company, Scotia Soaps, have generously donated their time to make a number of magnetic signs for use in the 186 Mile Teacup relay. These signs will be displayed on the support cars driving along side the runners.

They are also selling the limited edition mugs to their customers. 



Thank you to all at Scotia Soaps from Churchill for the support. 

Autonet insuring fundraising boost

Autonet insurance are the latest local supporters in the Doing it for Dougie challenge. Not only have they sponsored the challenge with £100, they are also selling 50 mugs to customers, friends and family. All at Churchill send a huge thank you for their support.

The support that has been shown by the local community has been amazing. With the 186 Mile Teacup relay just around the corner, it is going to be a great fundraising week for all at Churchill!

Weekly Round Up

Well it's been another busy week towards the £40k target - adding another £1,279.38 to give a new figure of £13,496.24.

It's an amazing effort by everyone involved and with over 100 local Stoke-on-Trent companies now supporting it just goes to show the generosity of the local community.

As per the previous post players at Stoke City FC have taken time out from training to show support for the mugs.

The Churchill team have also been busy at Morrison's in Milehouse on Monday and Thursday selling 85 mugs to shoppers and on Sunday 12th May members of the team will be at Tescos in Kidsgrove, so please go along and support them.

Our London showroom has also been doing trade to members of the Craft Guild of Chefs and also Bunzl Lockhart who visited and left with some of the mugs to take home.

With only a week and a half to go to the run, all the runners are training hard and more members have joined the justgiving team page. So if you'd like to support the team in the 48 hour challenge please visit the www.justgiving.com/doingitfordougie to sponsor - we are incredibly grateful for all donations.

Stoke City Players Show Support

Stoke City players Andy Wilkinson and Kenwyne Jones took time out of training this week to lend support to the fundraising campaign, posing with the special fundraising mugs.

The mugs are part of a limited run, specially designed for Churchill's Charity challenge supporting the Dougie Mac. 100% of the proceeds of the mug goes to the Charity thanks to support from local suppliers including Furlong Mills, Endeka Ceramics, Ceramitec Printers, Cardway Cartons and Screen Supply.

The mugs are now widely available across the city including Churchill's factory shop.

Alternatively to sponsor the team's 48 hour challenge you can donate online at www/justgiving.com/doingitfordougie

Friday Fundraising Round-up

We cannot be any more thankful for the effort being put into the Churchill Charity Challenge. After another amazing week, a huge £1995 has been collected. This now takes our total to £12,216.86, 31% of the target.

Firstly, thanks goes to the lovely ladies in Marketing who raised £52 selling their homemade bakes - always a winner in the office. A special metion also goes to Paula Parkinson for organising the weekly Bonus Ball scheme, Nicola Meaney, who donated cakes to sell and to all suppliers, employees, family & friends who are continuing to sell the mugs.

This coming week there are several mug sale events. Mark Meaney will be selling mugs at Newcastle Market on Saturday 4th May - if you are about, please go and show him your support. Elizabeth Heeks and Kirsty Mayer will be at Morrisons Milehouse on Monday 6th May between 5.00pm - 8.00pm and Linda Taylor and Jane Williams from the cupshop in the same store at the same time on Thursday 9th May, again please go along if you are in the area & support them all.

Over the next few weeks we will also be at many venues selling the mugs, including the Ruby Bike Ride on 19th May where our very own Matthew Lindop will be taking part in the 110mile journey. We all wish him the best of luck! We will also be at the Potters 'Arf Marathon on 9th June & the Dougie Mac Moonlight Walk on 13th July. We are looking for more volunteers to go along & help us sell the mugs, if you are interested in coming along & helping please let Personnel know.

Finally,  the Dougie Mac mugs have had a busy week popping up in many places on Facebook! One of Dougie Mac's most dedicated fundraising volunteers, who has lived with cerebral palsy for 26 years, is very pleased with her mug and took to Facebook to show it off! Dougie Mac quoted: 

"She is an absolute dream and a true inspiration to our team, and I hope she inspires all of you when you are all undertaking your challenge"

If you are out and about this weekend and see some of the mugs on sale or you fancy taking a picture of yourself with your mug, then please send in your pictures and we will post to the blog.

Keep up the good work!