Members of Team Spar who Beat the Trails in July for Marie Curie along Hadrian’s Wall have announced they raised £17,410 for the UK’s leading end of life care charity.
More than 60 people from James Hall & Co. Ltd took on the trek, including office, manufacturing and warehouse colleagues, retail teams from the G&E Murgatroyd Spar company stores division, and Spar independent retailers.
The money raised by the Hadrian’s Wall Beat the Trails trek is enough to fund the equivalent of 544 hours of hospice bereavement support, or 12 weeks’ worth of overnight care carried out by Marie Curie Nurses and healthcare professionals.
Marie Curie has been in partnership with Spar since 2017. To celebrate the funds raised, a presentation was held at the company’s Spar Distribution Centre in Preston, where trek participants were joined by Marie Curie senior healthcare assistant, Karla Wareing, senior partnership lead, Jim Smith, and corporate partnerships manager, Victoria Simkins.
Dairy visit
During the visit, Smith and Simkins visited Alston Dairy too where they met Founder Ann Forshaw and Ann’s granddaughter Emma Baker, MD at the dairy and joint head of manufacturing at James Hall & Co. Ltd.
A new 20p charity contribution was announced from the Ann Forshaw’s banana milkshake dispensed from the brand’s six Milk Sheds at locations across the north of England, adding a further fundraising element to the partnership.
The whistle stop trip was rounded off at Spar’s Brownedge Road store in Lostock Hall, where they met store manager Trent Donnelly to discuss the partnership in action.
Tough route
Peter Dodding, sales director at James Hall & Co. Ltd and chair of the Spar Northern Guild, said: “Our 2026 charity trek was a tough up-and-down route through the remote Northumberland countryside, with the additional challenge of battling a relentless headwind along the way.
“Every step taken and every mile walked has helped us to raise an amazing amount in support of Marie Curie’s work across the UK. A huge thank you to everybody from across the business who completed the walk, and to those who generously donated to a wonderful cause.”
Baker added: “It was a pleasure to host Jim and Victoria at Alston Dairy. I never tire of sharing the heritage of our brand and its beginnings as a family business in 1983.”
Simkins concluded: “Visits like this are very important for developing understanding of business operations and for strengthening ties between our respective organisations.
“We’re a hugely grateful to Team Spar for raising an incredible amount and the new contribution through Ann Forshaw’s banana milkshake was a wonderful surprise. It will be a great supplementary funding stream for the partnership.”
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