A charity fighting for street children all over the world has praised the UK’s rail industry for sleeping out at railway stations and raising more than £160,000.
350 people swapped their warm beds for the cold floor of a railway station to help Railway Children raise awareness and vital funds to support the thousands of children who face hardship every day around the world.
£160,000 has already been raised with the likes of HS2’s CEO Mark Thurston, HS1’S CEO Dyan Crowther, and Elaine Clark, CEO of Rail Forum Midlands, taking part.
“Last night Railway Children staff and supporters swapped comfy beds for cold stations up and down the country,” Tweeted Railway Children last Friday morning. “The #BigStationSleepout has already raised £140,000 to change children’s lives around the world! Thank you so much everyone who took part or showed their support.”
Events were held at Glasgow Central, Leeds, Manchester Piccadilly, Derby, Birmingham New Street, London Liverpool Street, London Waterloo and London Victoria stations.
Among those taking part included head of RBD Community Eli Rees-King and head of client relationships Rachel Woodman, who slept at Derby railway station.
Eli said: “It was a very chilly night, but it was worth it for a brilliant cause and a very important message. It was great to see so many people supporting the event and really highlighting the power of the rail community.”
At Derby, those sleeping were helped through the night by Project D Doughnuts and were rewarded in the morning with a sandwich and warm drink from the Derby Conference Centre.
Rachel said: “It was cold and I didn’t realise how noisy it would be. It was a fantastic night for a very worthy cause and I’m proud to have been involved. It really hits home that this was just one night for us, but for thousands of children globally it is a daily struggle.”
Infrastructure support services provider SWGR also took part in the sleepout, with five of its Glasgow team raising more than £3,000 by staying out overnight in Glasgow Central Station. As part of their efforts, the team also took one of its mobile health, safety and wellbeing units to the station to provide free health and mental wellbeing checks for all during the evening. The company regularly uses this service on the frontline to help all colleagues working on the railways to give them better access to these checks.
Fiona Baggley, director of business services and one of the participants on the sleepover, said: “We are immensely proud of the team and their efforts to contribute and encourage donations towards such a brilliant cause. We have seen how much of a difference that Railway Children makes for people across the world and our team were very eager to support in any way we could.
“Considering the weather was not as favourable over the evening with some very cold temperatures overnight – it really does highlight what some people have to go through day in, day out, and truly understand the hardships they face. It really reinforces that collectively, as an industry, we need to do as much as we can to support communities worldwide. We would like to thank everyone who has donated so far towards our efforts – it is greatly appreciated.”
The event was backed by Network Rail and with the support of headline sponsors VolkerRail. All the money raised will help the charity reach children with nowhere else to go and nobody to turn to.
You can still donate. Click here to sponsor Eli or here to sponsor Rachel.
Visit www.railwaychildren.org.uk/ for more details about the charity.
Video credit: Inside Out Group https://www.insideoutgroup.co.uk/
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