At B&A Group, we have a long tradition of supporting local charities. As an established business in the South West we are very proud to give back to the local community and provide support to charities and their efforts wherever we can.
With a personal connection to Meningitis Now founder, Steve Dayman MBE, our current charity focus is to raise £100k to help the charity reach their goal in eradicating all strains of the meningitis virus. However, we continue to donate, sponsor and support lots of other charities alongside this pledge, a selection of which are mentioned below.
Meningitis Now is the first meningitis patient group in the world, founders of the meningitis movement and the only charity dedicated to fighting meningitis in the UK. Founded by Steve Dayman MBE a close friend of the Berkely Family, the charity has invested over £12m in early stage research that has played a critical role in the introduction of five life-saving vaccines.
During the 1990’s Jimmy Berkely wanted to get involved with all the incredible work Steve was doing in raising funds to raise awareness of this devastating disease and to develop an effective vaccine against Meningitis B. In 2014, B&A Group pledged to raise £100,000 to help the charity in their vision of a future where no one in the UK loses their life to meningitis and that everyone affected gets the support they need to rebuild their lives.
A wonderful charity dinner organised by Steve & Carole Moorlen of Hallen Farm, was held at the Bristol Marriot Hotel in aid of Bristol Haematology & Oncology and UK Stem Cell Foundation recently.
An amazing £15,000 was raised on the night and B&A were pleased to contribute to the evening by donating a flight in our fabulous Hot Air Balloon, the lucky bidder Rob Wilton paid a magnificent £160, we hope he enjoys his flight. Steve Moorlen, a member of the Friends of Bristol Haematology and Oncology Unit is a veteran of these events and has tireless raised money for these worthy charities, he says:
'We are absolutely delighted, this is the most we have ever raised. I would like to thank everyone for making the night such a successful one.'
To mark Children's Mental Health Week, B&A were extremely keen to get involved in some way and to show our support for young people across the country in these extremely challenging and testing times.
We donated £500 to YoungMinds UK who are leading the movement 'to make sure every young person gets the mental health support they need, when they need it, no matter what'. B&A felt this message really resonated with us, especially with the global pandemic in mind and were overjoyed to pledge this donation to an incredibly important cause
B&A Group were proud to support the incredible work of local charity Emmaus Bristol during the Christmas period with a donation of £1,500.
Emmaus works to support people experiencing poverty and homelessness, helping them find homes, training and employment. Thank you Emmaus for all you do.
Brain Tumour Support is a local, Thornbury based charity uniquely dedicated to providing support for anyone affected by any type of brain tumour, at any point from diagnosis and for as long as support is needed.
The charity provides specialist, tailored services through one-to-one and group support, as well as online and telephone support and specialist counselling. B&A wanted to support Brain Tumour Support by donating £500 to this wonderful charity.
B&A group are always keen to support our customers and suppliers whenever they embark on a challenge. So we sponsored our friends at Taylor Wimpey £500 as they headed off to the beautiful Peak District to create their very own shelter to sleep in and then conquer the Taylor Wimpey Mountain the next day. Their amazing efforts were to raise money for The Youth Adventure Trust, which helps vulnerable 11-15 year olds to build resilience to face the challenges in their lives.
During the initial lockdown period in 2020 B&A Group were still committed to supporting our local community and helping those in need. So, we were delighted to present local charity FareShare South West with a donation of £2,000 to help provide food for the vulnerable in this time of crisis. Our donation allowed the charity to deliver up to 8,000 meals to the most disadvantaged in our city, including children, families, those who are homeless, isolated elderly, refugees, women fleeing domestic abuse and others who are at risk of going hungry.
Julian Mines, CEO of FareShare South West, says “We are so grateful for the support of these South West based businesses. We appreciate that whilst this is a challenging time for charities, it is also challenging for many businesses in our region so seeing generosity like we have from those who are able to give is a real boost. The amount of money given will have a significant impact on the quantity of food we can get out over this crisis period. A huge thank you from us all.”
A friend of B&A Group, Firmacore’s Rory Sweeney and a team of 9 others took on the challenge of cycling from Cheltenham to Snowdonia and onto Dublin in time to see Ireland play against Wales in the Six Nations. The challenge was in aid of Winston's Wish, a charity dedicated to helping children and families whose lives have been devastated by suicide. We’re proud to have sponsored Rory and the team £500 for this great cause. Well done all!
Dun Mil Construction Ltd, a valued customer of B&A Group took part in the Devizes to Westminster International Canoe race in 2022. John Horgan and daughter Georgie, aimed to paddle non-stop 125 miles, 77 portages in 24 hours to raise as much money and awareness as possible for Mind, a charity which is close to their hearts. B&A Group sponsored their double Kayak for the event in which they raised a total of £4272.
Our WTN Team Administrator, David Price took part in a charity Boxing event during the summer in aid of Cancer Research UK. B&A sponsored Dave £100 to help reach an overall event target of an incredible £20,000.
B&A group were keen to support our loyal customers, Crest Nicholson by sponsoring their team £500 in their aim to conquer 10 of the highest Brecon Beacon peaks; an adventure involving a massive 34km hike with an epic 1695m of ascent!
Their amazing efforts were to again, raise money for The Youth Adventure Trust, which helps vulnerable 11-15 year olds to build resilience to face the challenges in their lives.
B&A Group were happy to sponsor the team at Northavon Group £250 plus a balloon ride to raffle off towards the sponsored walk they had organised. All proceeds were split between charities, Mind, Make-A -Wish UK & Dorset & Somerset Air Ambulance.
B&A Group were proud to sponsor one of our customers, Simon Lyes from Robert Hitchens £150 in his wonderful effort to run the London Marathon in under 4 hours. Robert raised over £2,000 in aid of Children with Cancer UK charity.