webuyanycar fundraising in partnership with the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children
GOSH Week 2024
During April, webuyanycar colleagues and customers raised an incredible £24,553 for charity partner Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) Children’s Charity.
Fundraising activities took place across 100 branches, with cookies and pin badges available with every donation, alongside a series of bike rides, custard pie throwing, virtual quizzes, auctions and multiple other activities.
Webuyanycar’s big fundraising drive was in support of GOSH Charity’s Build It Beat It campaign, which is dedicated to raising funds to build a new world-leading Children’s Cancer Centre at the hospital.
Colleagues and customers raised £2,627 through in-branch activity and at head office, while webuyanycar also matched £10,000 worth of donations made direct to GOSH Charity during April. Through the matched giving campaign, a further £11,926 was raised, with all funds helping specifically to build patient bedrooms within the new Children’s Cancer Centre.
WBAC charity Skydives raise over £6K!
Congratulations to Jess Barker, Masum Miah, Jordan Stevens, Oneel Syed, Martin Haddow, Jay Golding and Claire Wickham who, alongside colleagues Harry Nasir, Aaron Mawson, Will O'Neill, Rachel Dawson and Alex Headley, have raised a whopping £6,808!
Hayley’s Travelling Tuck Shop
Over half term week, our Head of Retail Engagement, Hayley Thompson is embarking on an EVenture! Driving an electric charity tuck shop from the North-East of Scotland down to the South West of England, Hayley will be selling treats to raise money for the world-renowned Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity.
The travelling tuck shop will be starting its journey in Elgin on Monday 24th October, making stops at some of webuyanycar’s branches along the way, including Dumfries, Carlisle, Warrington, Macclesfield, Wolverhampton, Gloucester, Bristol, and Plymouth, before ending in Truro on Friday 28th October.
Loaded with sweet treats, healthy snacks and cold drinks, 100% of donations for the delicious items on board will go to GOSH Charity, having been donated by supermarket Morrisons.
The fully electric travelling tuck shop will be powered by Zap-Map, the UK’s leading charge point mapping service, which allows EV drivers to search, plan and pay for EV charging across the UK. Throughout the journey, the travelling tuck shop will enjoy access to Zap-Map’s enhanced Premium service, which will provide in-car support to help the drivers search for charge points and view live availability info when on the move.
When stopping to charge, the electric charity tuck shop will in this instance charge for free, thanks to Zap-Pay, the simple way to pay for charging across networks from within the Zap-Map app. Webuyanycar will instead donate the estimated re-charge cost of £200 to GOSH Charity.
Hayley Thompson, Head of Retail Engagement at webuyanycar, said: “We’ve been working with GOSH Charity since April and so far the webuyanycar team has raised over £10,000 through skydives, head-shaves, car washes and much more, but we wanted to do something that involved the communities we work in too. Taking an EV from the tip of North East Scotland to the bottom of South West England, stopping at as many branches as we can in between is a great way to do this and drive many more donations along the way.”
Webuyanycar partnered with GOSH Charity in April this year, supporting families at the toughest moments of their lives. The partnership kicked off when the car-buying service donated a children’s ride-on EV for patients to use while at the hospital, and has continued with its 1000 strong team taking part in challenges across the country to raise money.
Webuyanycar donates electric ride-on car to GOSH
The donation marks the start of a partnership between webuyanycar and Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity (GOSH Charity).
The UK’s go-to online car buying service, webuyanycar has donated a ride-on electric car to the children at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), to celebrate the beginning of a partnership between GOSH Charity and webuyanycar.
Children at the hospital can use the car to drive themselves to surgery and appointments. With enough space for two at a time, it will allow patients to travel in style and help the hospital’s dedicated team of play specialists and play workers, funded by GOSH Charity, to take children’s minds away from hospital treatment.
The electric ride-on car, which was received by GOSH patient Aria Patel, 5, and her brother Dylan, 7, outside the hospital this week, had previously been used by webuyanycar in an advert, who has also signed the bonnet. The two-seater had a big upgrade before being donated, adorned with designs by staff and patients at the hospital, with plenty of white space left on the vinyl for current and future patients to add their own touch.
The donated car marks the start of a partnership between webuyanycar and GOSH Charity, who will be working together to raise vital funds to help seriously ill children treated at GOSH from across the country and the world.
Olivia McKee, Marketing Director from webuyanycar, said:
“We’re truly thrilled to be celebrating the launch of an exciting partnership with GOSH Charity by donating the car to families here. Going into hospital for any reason can be daunting, especially for children and their parents, so we hope the car can ease their worries, even just for a moment.
“We support many families who come through webuyanycar branches up and down the country, from those who are selling their cars because their family is expanding and need something bigger to those who don’t need as many cars or just need to sell for financial reasons. Now, working with GOSH Charity, we hope to support families in some of the hardest moments of their lives by helping raise funds needed for the world-leading children’s hospital.”
GOSH Charity’s Director of Fundraising, Liz Tait, said:
“We are extremely grateful to webuyanycar for choosing to partner with GOSH Charity and helping us raise vital funds for seriously ill children from across the UK who are cared for at GOSH.
“The money raised through our new partnership could help fund family support services, research into childhood rare conditions, life-saving medical equipment and rebuilding and refurbishment at the hospital. We’d also like to thank webuyanycar for the donation of the ride-on electric car, which will be used to reduce procedural anxiety among patients by offering them a fun and playful way to travel around the hospital.”
Webuyanycar, which employs more than 800 people across 500 branches and its Manchester head office, will be working with its customers to fundraise over the next 12 months, from bake sales and fancy dress to sponsored walks, runs and cycles, as well as putting on family events and days out.
Webuyanycar charity car wash raises over £200
The team at webuyanycar’s head office got into the fundraising spirit recently by washing cars in return for donations!
Our amateur car washers got to work, washing everything from BMWs to Porsches, and Minis to VWs, making sure every car left the WBAC Car Valet looking squeaky clean.
Involving other nearby businesses, our team of volunteers washed 22 cars throughout the day, raising £216 in total!
Well done team, we can’t wait to see what you do next!
Colleagues get creative with fundraising
Alongside our team fundraising events, a number of colleagues are taking on some major challenges to raise money for Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity! Here’s a snapshot of what a few individuals are doing and how you can donate to support them:
Head Shave
Two very brave branch managers are raising a whopping £10,000 to shave their heads. Claire Wickham and Rachel Griffiths in London are braving the shave in August and are working hard to raise funds before then – even dying their hair the same colour as our logo in the weeks running up to the big shave.
To support Claire click here and for Rachel click here.
Sky dive
Branch manager Danielle Bucksey, Regional Manager Jay Golding and Finance Admin Assistant Lucie Landregan have all signed up to take part in a charity skydive. The trio are looking to raise £1,200 between them before they take the plunge!
To support Danielle click here.
Runners and Trekkers
A handful of colleagues are dedicating their time to take on running or trekking challenges, including Regional Manager Jessica Barker who ran 100k throughout May and is taking part in the Cotswold Way 50 Challenge. Senior Branch Manager Keith Bishop is taking part in the South West Coast 50, while Admin Assistant Ruth Firth has signed up to the Great North Run. Last but not least, Pricing Analyst Kayleigh McIntyre has signed up to the Manchester Colour Run. Between them, they are hoping to raise £1,600.
To support Jessica click here, for Ruth click here.
F1 Challengers
Three of our colleagues will be heading to Silverstone for the British Grand Prix in July, where they have volunteered to represent GOSH and raise funds across the weekend from spectators at the event. If you’re going, be sure to look out for Branch Manager Amy Graham, Senior Branch Manager Kym Parsons and Area Buyer Calum Robbins! Before they find themselves trackside, they are also raising money with a team target of £1,200.