The team at Jones Lang LaSalle’s Bristol office has raised a whopping £19,000 for Bristol based charity ‘a LIFE for a CURE’ to help the charity fund research to find a vaccine for meningitis.
The team arranged a number of fundraising activities throughout the year including cake sales, quiz nights, raffles and the legendary ‘Contractors Quest’ when the team and partners got together and competed in games including golf, quoits, and karaoke amongst others.
Over 500,000 people in the UK today have had viral or bacterial meningitis and one in 10 victims will die from the disease. Every week 6 families face a traumatic loss of a loved one to meningitis. One in 7 of those who survive will be left with a permanent disability such as loss of limbs, blindness or permanent brain damage. ‘a LIFE for a CURE’ was set up by the family of Bristol teenager, Ryan Bresnahan who passed away from meningitis on 31 March 2010.
John Bresnahan, Ryan’s father and Founder of ‘a LIFE for a CURE’, added:
“We are doing our utmost to support Meningitis UK and its work in finding a cure for this devastating disease. We have now raised over £200,000 during the last 18 months and we couldn’t do it without the support of businesses such as Jones Lang LaSalle raising such large sums of money and we’re delighted to have their ongoing support.”
Last year, in association with Meningitis UK, the charity awarded £135,000 to a pioneering research project carried out by students and professors at Sheffield University. This will directly contribute to increased medical knowledge about the disease. The target is to raise £1 million.
Will Hawking, Surveyor – Lease Advisory at Jones Lang LaSalle Bristol and 2011 – 2012 charity chair, said:
“Staff in our office knew Ryan and his family well so we were keen to support ‘a LIFE for a CURE’ and its campaign for the meningitis vaccine. We wanted to ensure that something positive came out of a very sad story. It has been a joy running the charitable activities this year; to see how the money we have raised will positively impact a charity like this makes all our effort worthwhile.”