Worcester team prepares to take on 125 mile charity cycle

The group from Open GI's office in Blackpole will embark on the charity ride to the business's Winchester location.

Their journey, which will start at 7am on June 5, will conclude approximately 12 hours later.

Along their route, they will travel through Cheltenham, climb the Cotswolds escarpment and tackle the hills of the Cotswolds and North Wessex Downs, before arriving in Hampshire.

The team is raising money for Alzheimer’s Society, the company's selected charity for the year.

Some of the team have personally felt the impact of Alzheimer's diagnosis among family members.

Among the riders is Josh Cooper, head of digital services at the insurance technology business, whose father suffers from dementia.

He said: "We still get a lot of good days, but it’s been hard as he is aware that something is wrong, and he can't follow group conversations particularly well.

"Raising money for such a worthy cause is really important to me and the countless other families going through the same.

"It’s going to be a very tough and testing day, but the sense of achievement from riding such a long distance and making a valuable contribution to a special charity will far outweigh that."

The team has set up a Just Giving page to collect donations. They have passed through their target of £2,000, having raised £2,050 so far, and are now looking ahead to reaching the £3,000 mark.

Alongside Mr Cooper will be group CEO Simon Badley, and employees Rob Bennett, Jane Cetinel, Robert Fitzsimons, Ben Legg, Glyn Marples, Ed Phillips, John Stephenson, Nick Sturdy, Chris Williams, and Oli Wilson.

A number of the team members have taken on training rides together ahead of the cycle. 

In addition to Worcester and Winchester, Open GI has locations in Milton Keynes, Amsterdam, Skopje in North Macedonia, and Krakow in Poland.

The company is part of the Open International Group and has around 500 employees across its offices in the UK, Ireland, Macedonia, and Poland.