A team of ScottishPower employees from Glasgow are gearing up for a 26-mile challenge in the fight against cancer.  Together, they will harness their positive energy at Shine Night Walk - on Saturday 26 September in London - to raise vital funds for charity partner Cancer Research UK.
 

Marathon walking team taking part in Shine Night Walk in London on
26 September to raise funds for Cancer Research UK
 

In preparation, the team has been on the march in and around Glasgow to prepare for the big challenge ahead. All are taking part to raise money to help beat cancer and feel passionate about this because their colleague, Jo Heraghty, now 46, was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer in 2008 and had to undergo a mastectomy when she was 39 and her baby was just nine months old.

Donna Dobson, Senior Partnerships Manager at ScottishPower, said, “We’re all really excited to be taking part in Shine. As a team and a company, we are absolutely committed to our on-going partnership with Cancer Research UK and raising vital funds to help beat cancer is at the heart of this.“

We have already raised an incredible £8 million over the last three years but there’s more to be done. That’s why we’re getting our walking shoes on for Shine. We’re a close knit team so it’s going to be great fun and we’ve got the whole company cheering us on.”

Jo Heraghty said: “The minute someone tells you that you have cancer it’s truly shocking.  Your life changes in an instant and you’re faced with your own mortality – for me that was the prospect of not being around to see my, then, five-year old daughter and new baby son grow up. 

“It therefore means so much that the ScottishPower team are taking on Shine Night Walk to raise as much money as possible. I survived cancer, many people don't.  With continued fundraising and research, more people will be able to say I had cancer but cancer didn't get me.”

Since 2012, ScottishPower has raised over £8 million for its charity partner, Cancer Research UK. This year, ScottishPower is the lead partner of Cancer Research UK’s Shine Night Walk and has enlisted the support of double Olympic athlete, Dame Kelly Holmes, who is this year’s ScottishPower ambassador for Shine.

Dame Kelly took part in an exclusive training session with ScottishPower employee, Michelle Nicol – Jo’s job share colleague – to help her mentally and physically prepare for the event.

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Notes to editors

• Shine Night Walk, in partnership with ScottishPower, is Cancer Research UK’s night-time fundraising walking full and half marathon, held in London on Saturday 26 September
• Since it began in 2010, Shine Night Walk has raised an incredible £18 million to help fund Cancer Research UK’s life saving work
• Participants are encouraged to illuminate themselves using lights, glow sticks and sparkling clothing
• 17,000 people from across the country took part in last year’s Shine Night Walk
• ScottishPower partnered with Cancer Research UK in 2012 with the aim of raising £5 million over three years. This target was achieved in October 2014, six months ahead of schedule. The energy provider recently renewed the partnership for a further 3 years
• To date ScottishPower has raised over £8 million for Cancer Research UK. This has been achieved through a raft of initiatives including sales of a bespoke ‘Help Beat Cancer’ energy tariff, sponsorship of events like Race for Life and Stand Up To Cancer,  and employee fundraising

About ScottishPower

• ScottishPower is part of the Iberdrola Group, one of the largest energy companies in Europe, and the world leader in operating wind energy. Iberdrola’s main operating areas are Spain, the UK, US, Mexico and Brazil
• In the UK, as well as being a major retail energy supplier, ScottishPower manages the electricity network which supports millions of homes and businesses and is one of the largest producers of renewable electricity
• The company now manages more than 5.6 million retail customer accounts
• SP Energy Networks look after more than 100,000 km of power lines and over 30,000 substations, delivering electricity to more than 3.5 million homes and businesses in Scotland, the North West of England and North Wales. ScottishPower Renewables is one of the leading developers of green electricity, with more than 25 operational windfarms and a healthy pipeline of onshore, offshore, wave and tidal renewable energy projects in development

About Cancer Research UK

• Cancer Research UK is the world’s leading cancer charity dedicated to saving lives through research
• Cancer Research UK’s pioneering work into the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer has helped save millions of lives
• Cancer Research UK receives no government funding for its life-saving research. Every step it makes towards beating cancer relies on every pound donated
• Cancer Research UK has been at the heart of the progress that has already seen survival in the UK double in the last forty years
• Today, 2 in 4 people survive cancer. Cancer Research UK’s ambition is to accelerate progress so that 3 in 4 people will survive cancer within the next 20 years
• Cancer Research UK supports research into all aspects of cancer through the work of over 4,000 scientists, doctors and nurses
• Together with its partners and supporters, Cancer Research UK's vision is to bring forward the day when all cancers are cured