Buckinghamshire woman makes a splash with charity 'channel swim'

30 August 2013

Swim part of Buckinghamshire company’s amazing support for Farm Africa charity

A Buckinghamshire woman is swimming more than 22 miles to help raise funds for the leading UK charity Farm Africa, which is working to tackle hunger in eastern Africa.

Sharon Moore, 33, is swimming the equivalent of the famous Channel swim in four sessions. To achieve her goal, the Buckingham woman is having to plough her way up and down her local pool a staggering 1416 times.

She decided to take on the exhausting challenge after the Haddenham-based company she works for, Cosine, made Farm Africa their charity of the year. Selected as one of four employees to go on a visit to one of the charity’s projects in eastern Africa, Sharon was determined to do as much as she could to help tackle poverty and hunger in Africa. And her desire to make a difference goes back to a trip she made to the continent some years ago:

“I went on honeymoon to South Africa in 2006 and while driving round the country with my husband we saw the real poverty of people there. I remember thinking ‘is this how people really live here?’ It was a wake-up call and we were really shocked and determined to do something to help.”

The Campaigns Executive has plunged head first into both training for her swim and fundraising, setting herself a daunting target of £1,700. She has already swum half the distance in two sessions and will complete the ultra swimathon this weekend at the Buckingham Swan Pool and Leisure Centre. Staff there have been incredibly supportive of her charity swim and have given her a swimming lane free of charge for the sponsored swim.

And when she is not immersed in her “Swim for Africa”, Sharon has been tirelessly raising money in the office for Farm Africa. She’s put her hand up for an office car wash and has even been raising extra pounds by baking and selling jacket potatoes to her colleagues on ‘Spud Fridays’.

Buckinghamshire company’s year of fundraising for Farm Africa

Sharon’s colleagues at the Haddenham based field marketing agency have made an extraordinary collective effort this year to raise as much money as possible for Farm Africa. Chief Operating Officer, Jacqui Sheldon, was part of a team of senior women executives who spent four days in rural Kenya in April helping a local community to build a fish pond. The huge amount of money they raised has contributed towards more than £300,000 raised by the food and hospitality industry for Farm Africa this year. And while Jacqui was in Kenya, her Cosine colleagues staged an office Safari Day. Each employee made a donation to come to work dressed as an African animal. Later this year a Harvest festival fundraiser will be staged in Cosine’s offices before a glittering fundraising ball, to be held on 28 September. The year’s extraordinary series of fundraising events will culminate in October when four Cosine employees will travel to Kenya to work on a Farm Africa project with smallholder farmers digging shallow wells to help boost rainwater capture and crop yields.

Welcoming Cosine’s support, Farm Africa’s Head of Corporate and Community Fundraising, Cathy Wentworth, said:

“We are thrilled to see the huge enthusiasm for Farm Africa’s work right across Cosine UK. Their commitment to our life-changing work is a powerful demonstration of how UK businesses can be a force for good and positive change, even in the most challenging economic environments. I’d like to extend our huge thanks to Sharon and everyone at Cosine and I look forward to hearing all their fundraising stories over the coming year.”

To help encourage Sharon as she powers towards her fundraising target, you can make a donation via her online fundraising page: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/SharonMooreFarmAfrica

Ends

For further information and to arrange an interview with Sharon, please contact Farm Africa’s press office.

Matt Whitticase, 020 7067 1237 / mattheww@farmafrica.org

Laura Oakley, 020 7067 1252 / laurao@farmafrica.org

Notes to Editor:

About Farm Africa

Farm Africa is a charity working with families in rural Africa, helping them to produce food more effectively. By providing training and support to help farmers improve the way they manage their crops, livestock, forests and access to water, we help families build a future free from hunger. For more information about Farm Africa please visit www.farmafrica.org

About Cosine UK

Cosine is an award-winning field sales and marketing agency with a proven track record of increasing clients’ sales, retail presence and brand awareness, achieved through merchandising, auditing, mystery shopping and other field marketing services, with our outsourced sales teams trained specifically for every campaign.