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Reporter’s skydive raises funds to help girl walk

A reporter took part in a charity skydive after being inspired by the story of a six-year-old cerebral palsy sufferer who has never been able to walk.

Archant Suffolk journalist Lauren Everitt reported on the story of Brooke Lawrance for the Ipswich Star and a fundraising mission by her parents to raise £40,000 to allow her to have a life-changing operation.

Lauren’s raised £505 towards the Brooke’s Wish To Walk appeal run by the Tree of Hope Children’s Charity and the money she raised will be matched by the publisher under the Archant Gold scheme.

Under the initiative, the charitable efforts of more than 30 Archant staff across the company have been match-funded to the tune of £9,000.

These included former Archant London editor Colin Grainger, who left the company in December in a restructure, who raised nearly £150 for the Newham Recorder’s annual Toy Appeal by swimming 50 lengths.

Others raising funds included Paul Hood, digital director for Archant London, who ran the Lisbon Marathon and raised £662 for Kids Company which supports vulnerable children.

A team from Essex Life magazine, including editor Julian Read, spent eight hours on a sweltering day walking continuously up and down Southend seafront.

The team walked around 32 miles in total and raised £1,119 for the Essex Life Charitable Fund.

A number of Archant staff grew an impressive array of moustaches for the month of Movember, raising money for prostate and other cancer research.

They included Anmol Paul, Ross Mealing, Kris Westcott, Jack Legate, Chris Minto, Dave Walters, Mark Stevens, Grant Hardy, Simon Rutt and Josh Parvin from Archant Herts and Cambs’ Stevenage office, who raised £719 between them.

Archant corporate communications manager Keith Morris was named as the company’s fundraiser of the year after climbing 50 different mountain peaks in 50 weeks for the flying doctors charity Mercy Flyers.

He and his wife raised £8,040 and the Gold committee agreed to match £2,770 of this, also giving an extra £100 to his charity.