Thirty-eight people from across Sussex took part in the month-long challenge throughout January with the aim of getting fit and helping raise funds for sick children across Sussex.
January can often feel like the longest month of the year with dark nights and cold weather. But this year it’s been even harder to get motivated as we’re all limited in what we can do and where we can go. But this didn’t stop the fundraisers from around Sussex who took part in our Rockinghorse Get Active Challenge throughout January raising over £3,500.
The campaign, sponsored by Victoria Healthcare Management in Eastbourne, was aimed and helping people to get moving, feel better and in turn help us continue our work supporting sick and disabled children across the entire county of Sussex.
Lucy Pond, Rockinghorse Challenge Events Manager explained more: “With the current health crisis impacting on every community, looking after ourselves has never been more important. Traditionally gyms and fitness classes are usually packed in the New Year but this January they were all closed so we wanted to offer people a way to achieve their fitness goals along with supporting us.”
The participants, who came from Brighton, Worthing, Littlehampton and Haywards Heath, had all their activity, results and progress tracked throughout the month on the Rockinghorse Get Active website. Any movement they undertook during January was counted including running, walking, online fitness classes – even dog walking was recorded.
The Get Active platform was able to collate their activity and add it to the overall leader board which helped create some healthy competition amongst the contributors.
Lochlan walking in Lindfield
Top fundraiser
Amongst those taking part was Katiana Crowe and her son ten your old son Lochlan from Haywards Heath: “We decided that together we would try and do a five mile walk every day and then he roped his dad to help him do a daily bike ride of six miles while I participated in a daily online fitness class.”
Kat continued: “Not every day went as we had planned, but the majority of the time it was really enjoyable and being out and about helped us both with lockdown. It soon became our daily norm just the two of us among the beautiful countryside.
“We are so proud of our achievements and I am particularly blown away by Lochlan’s determination. Overall, we walked 134 miles, cycled 151 miles and did 741 minutes of online classes. We have been supported and sponsored by so many and with great thanks to them all we have raised £645.” This amazing amount meant that Kat managed to achieve the top fundraiser prize, winning an overnight stay at the Hilton Hotel in Brighton.
A great range of activities
Lucy, who took part herself, was really impressed at the range of activities that everyone took part in; “I was expecting that it would just be people running or cycling, but we also had people taking part in online Zumba classes, walking with their families and doing yoga and Pilates. It was great to see all the different exercises and I hope that this will have given people the motivation to carry on with their activities, and fundraising, throughout the year ahead.”
“And I’m so impressed with how much everyone has raised, especially considering that it’s not always easy to get motivated during January. We’ve found it really difficult at Rockinghorse to find ways to fundraise without being able to hold any events or get-togethers, but this has just proved that if you find the right platform it’s still possible to get a great result!”
Despite the ongoing restrictions, we are continuing to offer our supporters different ways to fundraise for us. Keep a look out on our website for upcoming challenges and online events to help us raise much needed funds throughout 2021.
