A team of twenty staff and family from The Lakes Free Range Egg Company are flocking to take part in the Gelt Gladiator Challenge – the first ‘mud challenge’ of the year in Cumbria. The Lakes team is raising money for the Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) which provides free accommodation to families with children receiving treatment in hospital. Ronald McDonald House in Manchester is the closest to The Lakes, so they will be sending all donations to Manchester.

Teams from The Lakes regularly take part in CRUK Race For Life events, but this is the first time staff from right across the factory have joined together for an endurance challenge. The Gelt Gladiator event is in its third year, with 4,500 people and 400 teams having taken part in the past.

The Lakes team is taking part in the Sunday 3K fun event designed for all the family. It includes fifteen obstacles with names that include local landmarks like Hadrian’s Wall, Scafell Pike and Giant Haystacks, as well as more tortuous names like Sink or Swing, Great Balls, Shocker, Ice Plunge and Mud Bomb.

Helen Brass, joint owner of The Lakes Free Range Egg Company said “We’ve supported the Ronald McDonald House Charities for over a decade.  They have fourteen ‘houses’ across the country that enable families with children in hospital to stay together in a “home from home”. In May 2012 Ronald McDonald House Manchester opened its doors, supporting families with children receiving treatment in the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital and St Mary’s Neonatal Unit.Girls in Ronald McDonald House t shirts

“There are 61 en-suite rooms and equipped with things any family would need including lounges, self-catering kitchens, play areas and laundry facilities.  Ronald McDonald House Manchester is the nearest to our business and in 2016, the house helped 768 families stay close to their children in hospital. We decided at Christmas that Manchester is where we wanted to focus our fundraising.”

Little did the team know that just a month before the event, Manchester would be devastated by the Ariana Grande concert bomb leading to many young people needing hospital treatment.

Helen Brass commented “many of our staff have children who are the same age as those affected by the bomb, so raising money for Manchester House is even more poignant.  McDonald’s have kindly supplied us with our t-shirts which are currently white, but by the finish line, the team they will be a sea of brown. The event is a great opportunity for us all to get together and make a difference too – bring on the mud.”

The event takes place on Sunday 11th June; anyone wishing to make a donation to The Lakes Team should contact Helen Brass on 01768 890 460.