Challenge Accepted
Throughout April, AFL Hyperscale associates have been out in all weathers – rain, shine, and even snow, to get their daily steps in. The reason for this dedication was simple, to raise money for a good cause. More specifically, for the Walk All Over Cancer challenge.
The challenge: aim for a minimum of 10,000 steps a day for the entire month.
Our associates at AFL Hyperscale not only accepted, but they delivered!
In the space of a month, our three teams managed to collectively walk 5,688,515 steps (that’s over 2,000 miles) and raised an incredible £2030.00 for Cancer Research.
Our top scorer, Helene Waterhouse, Director of EMEA Supply Chain, logged 566,199 steps for the month (an average of around 18,873 steps per day). What’s her secret to getting that number of steps in a day? Read on to find out…
Helene, what’s your secret to getting so many steps in every day? Did you have a regime/routine that you followed?
Getting up at 4.45am daily and going for a walk, plus going for a walk every evening after work. I normally get up at 5am anyway to go to the gym. To get my steps, I stopped going to the gym for a full month and swapped the gym for walking
What did you enjoy most about this challenge?
- The challenge gave me an incentive to go out and get some fresh air.
- It created a buzz in the office with people talking about it. Same on Team calls.
- It was fun to chat with the team about each other’s progress. We decided in week 1 that if we won, we would take the team out for a meal, so, it was nice to be able to do this at the end.
- Good weather in April overall – not sure I would have done so well if it had been raining more often during the month!
One of our esteemed Inside Sales Coordinators, Etin Nosa, was our second highest scorer, coming in at 550,503. Etin joined the challenge later and still managed to get an impressive number of steps in!
How did you get your steps in Etin?
I go for an hour’s walk every morning, a 30 minutes’ walk at lunch time and 2 to 3 hours’ activity in the gym, plus playing football and basketball with the kids.
Do you usually do this number of steps on a normal day or especially for this challenge?
I normally do 10 to 12 thousand steps daily, but I had to double/ triple the effort for the team and charity.
What did you enjoy most about this challenge?
I enjoyed being part of the team, seeing everyone smashing their number, trying to get sponsored for the charity.
Takeaways from the Step Challenge
Angela, our Community Manager, has been inspired to continue this trend and has even started a Couch to 5k challenge. Paige, our resident designer enjoyed getting away from her desk and finding new local walks, and Vince our Digital Platform Manager will also be continuing the habit and keeping his steps up.
The consensus is that while it was hard to hit the minimum on days where people were super busy or ill, that all in all, it’s been a great success. Congratulations to Team Two (Helene, Charlotte, Paul H, Roberta, and Harsha) for raising the most amount of funds and Team Three (Lidia, Aran, Marc, Paul W, and Etin) for logging the highest collective steps. We hope you enjoy your Luxury Foot Care Kits!