Fera staff in Olympic-themed charity challenge (From York Press)

Fera staff in Olympic-themed charity challenge

9:07am Wednesday 1st August 2012 in Fundraising fun

MORE than 400 staff from the Food and Environment Research Agency (Fera) are taking part in a Olympic-themed charity challenge.

The staff members of the Sand Hutton-based agency will complete a Walk To Olympus to celebrate the London 2012 Games and to raise money for the British Heart Foundation.

Their gruelling task of walking from York to Mount Olympus involves a 2,000-mile hike, or four million paces, by recording their steps each day with a pedometer. The entire “journey” is set to take 50 days. The initiative kicked off on Thursday with a mini Olympic walk around the Fera site.

The charity walk follows Fera’s successful participation in the Global Corporate Challenge, the world’s largest workplace health and wellness programme last year.

Jo Denton, Fera’s Health and Wellbeing manager, said: “The walk to Olympus challenge is a great way to encourage staff to do more exercise, support a good cause and have fun.”