Leeds school raises £4000 for Yorkshire Cancer Research

A Leeds school has raised £4275 for Yorkshire Cancer Research by completing a four-week fundraising challenge.

After choosing Yorkshire Cancer Research as their charity of the year for 2022, pupils and staff at Benton Park School each selected a fitness challenge involving the number 22.

The school completed the challenge across the last 20 days of the school year, ending in a final celebration on Friday, 22nd July.

Matthew Marsh, a teacher at the school, explained: “I ran 22km every day, some pupils ran for 22 minutes, others did 22 star jumps a day or a 22-minute dance class.

“A few classes had a virtual wheel that selected at random their challenge every day, so they would do 22 exercises, like star jumps or press ups, depending on where the wheel landed.”

The school’s headteacher, Delia Martin, kicked off the fundraising by completing a marathon in support of Yorkshire Cancer Research.

Matthew continued: “The idea was to create a challenge that suited everyone’s interests and abilities. We could make it as difficult or simple as we wanted.”

The school chose Yorkshire Cancer Research as their charity of the year after a rigorous selection process by the pupils.

“We let the students spend some time researching charities and then each form group nominated a chosen charity.

“From this, the students voted on a shortlist and Yorkshire Cancer Research came out as the chosen charity.”

He continued: “As a school, we want to be part of our local community and a big part of that is helping our students understand the role that we all play in society.

“Supporting a local charity and helping Yorkshire Cancer Research to continue the important work they fund in the region was at the heart of our challenge.”

Headteacher Delia Martin added: “This was a wonderful way to bring the whole school community together for such a fantastic cause.

A huge range of activities were organised to help everyone reach their fitness goals, including 80s dancing classes, and it was great fun taking part. It was also brilliant to see people completing some amazing challenges.

It really does embody all of our school’s values and it makes me so proud to lead a school with such caring staff and students who are willing to go the extra mile to help others.”