Volunteering is close to our heart

Monday marked the beginning of the Arrhythmia Alliance World Heart Rhythm Week (WHRW), a week dedicated to building the awareness of fainting, a common side effect of arrhythmia.

Heart arrhythmia is a group of conditions made up from an irregular heartbeat, be it too fast or too slow.

A staggering 1 in 2 people of all ages faint at least once during their life and it is important to know that this can sometimes been the sign of a more serious condition.

Using its focus – take fainting to heart – the WHRW encourages its supporters to help by sharing information, building awareness or holding a fundraising event.

Coinciding with WHRW, it just so happens to be Volunteers’ Week, which couldn’t be more fitting for TSG.

Volunteers’ Week

Volunteers’ Week is a fantastic opportunity to say thank you to everyone who has raised funds and awareness for charities within the UK. It is also a great chance to share fundraising stories and inspiration.

British Heart Foundation

Here at TSG, we work alongside charity partner The British Heart Foundation (BHF), whose vision is to help provide a world in which people do not die prematurely or suffer from heart disease.

The BHF dedicates its time to fighting against heart disease through cutting-edge research and it’s a charity we are proud to support.

Over the past 3 years, TSG has endeavoured to raise awareness and funds for the BHF and has committed to continue to do so over the next year.

 Here’s are few things we have carried out and have planned for the coming year:

• TSG always enjoy dress down Fridays; members of staff pay £1 to come into work in “non- uniform” clothing, this money is then put into the BHF pot
• Charity days including fun themes, buffets, raffles and games happen often and take place in all 6 TSG offices and prove to be a big hit!
• Members of the TSG team even run marathons, with 10 staff members and 8 TSG family members or friends estimated to be running this year’s Great North Run (GNR), a 13.1-mile course from Newcastle to the coastal town of South Shields
• Being an environmentally-conscious company, TSG donates all funds received from our laptop buyback scheme to the BHF. Read more about how TSG looks after the environment
• TSG teamed up with the BHF to provide staff members with life-saving CPR training at our recent fundraising day. Joanne Walker, who coordinates a lot of our BHF activity, states: “The response from staff members was brilliant, lots of people got involved and were able to learn the steps needed to potentially save a life using CPR.”
• Using one of their annual volunteering days allowed by TSG, on the 28^th June TSG members are excited to be volunteering in local BHF shop where they will help sell new items and items donated by the public

TSG Credit Specialist John Graham, who will be taking part in the up-and-coming volunteer day, said: “We have had great fun raising money over the past year for BHF, and when looking for something different for this year, the guys suggested we ‘take over’ the running of one of the BHF’s city centre stores.  Now I know we are good at IT, but selling books, CDS & household items will remain to be seen… However, we have picked a range of people from across all of our teams, so I just hope the tills are ringing on the day and we raise a huge amount of cash!”

Hopefully that’s left you feeling inspired to get into the spirit of things!

If you would like to know more about how you can get involved with any of our fundraising events, please feel free to contact us on the following email: joanne.walker@tsg.com

If you have been inspired by our volunteering story and would like to get the ball rolling on your own fund-raising journey why not check out Volunteers’ Week’s get involved page.