Team from Eastwood firm take on 500km Cycle Malawi Challenge

The demanding five-day journey will see them cover more than 500km, starting in Senga and taking in Lake Malawi, Mount Mulanje, Liwonde National Park and the Zomba Plateau in October.

The fundraising initiative is part of Microlise’s employee-led, community engagement activities which sees the transport management software company, support numerous community and charity groups at home and abroad.

Andree Ball, marketing events manager, Tony King, technical hardware engineer, Tim Featonby, new business sales consultant, Fred Solari, director of dales, France, and Allan Herbert, embedded systems architect make up this year’s Microlise Cycle Malawi team.

The Microlise Cycle Malawi team have raised more than £25,000 so far for Transaid with the help of their employees, customers and shirt-sponsors Bidfood, Co-Pilot, DHL and MEP Hire.

Andree Ball is an experienced rider having participated in Transaid’s Challenge Zambia in 2018 when the Microlise team of eight raised more than £40,000.

She said: “Safety in transport is a topic that is central to our business. Conditions in developing countries are not always what they could be, and we can help by raising funds for Transaid, whose interventions make a very real difference.”

Founded by Save the Children and The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT), Transaid has been transforming lives through safe, accessible and sustainable transport for more than 25 years across 23 countries.

Caroline Barber, Transaid chief executive officer, said:“The support we receive from Microlise through initiatives such as Cycle Malawi make a huge difference to Transaid’s work.

“Malawi holds a special place in our hearts as it was the location for our first cycle challenge back in 2006. Since then, we have worked hard to improve access to healthcare and driver training programmes.

"In the last year alone, we have been able to support the training of more than 5,225 HGV and PSV drivers and we have reached more than a million people in Zambia with our integrated malaria and Covid-19 programme.”

If you would like to support Transaid and the Microlise Cycle Malawi Team visit www.justgiving.com/fundraising/microlise-cycle-malawi.