Vodafone completes virtual ‘Tour of the RPA’ raising over £2,500 for Restart!

Following the launch of Vodafone’s partnership with the RPA back in 2020, the Vodafone Business UK Marketing team wanted to show their support for Restart, the RPA’s official charity, by taking on a fundraising challenge. 13 determined participants, led by Vodafone’s Discover Graduate, Hannah Percival, gathered together to embark on the ‘Tour of the RPA’. During this challenge they virtually walked, ran, and cycled the distance of all the 13 Premiership rugby clubs in under six weeks, a total of 746.59 miles!

The team put in an outstanding effort with each individual covering 57.43 miles, all whilst working from home. Restart were thrilled to receive the £2,614 of funds raised by Vodafone which will be put towards supporting rugby players faced with serious injury, illness, or hardship.

Hannah Percival, Discover Graduate:

“It was great to have organised the Tour of the RPA, aiming to raise awareness of our partnership with the RPA, and to involve the Vodafone Business UK Marketing team in a charity fundraiser for Restart, the official charity of the RPA.

With the team predominately working from home across the six weeks we launched the challenge, it was only right to complete our miles individually in our own hometowns. We formed such a great support network across the weeks, encouraging each other to continue getting our miles and donations up, tracking each other’s progress via our Strava team group and leader board and shared selfies and videos along the way. Plus, using our Spirit of Vodafone Day which was created to focus on personal development and wellbeing, we were able to use this time to focus on completing our final few miles. By the end of the 6 weeks, we ended up exceeding our target of 746.59 miles, reaching 797.60 miles, which was a huge achievement for us.

Across the challenge, with the support from Restart and the RPA, we posted updates on social media of our journey and fundraising progress. From this, we received lots of social support, including from players such as Alex Dombrant and Joe Launchbury, along with clubs such as Wasps – the extra encouragement definitely helped to keep everyone motivated throughout the weeks!

Our team would like to give a massive thank you to those who supported and donated to our Tour of the RPA, it has meant a great deal to us and Restart.” 

Jessica Quinn, Marketing Specialist:

“I loved getting involved in the Tour of the RPA as it’s a charity very important to us at Vodafone. It was great to get all the team out and about and encouraged me to make sure I was getting my daily dose of exercise. I’m so glad we managed to smash both our miles and monetary target, so we could support as many players as possible!”

Sharon Johnson, Business Marketing Activation Lead:

"I was really keen to get involved in the Tour of the RPA and do what I could to help support Restart, a charity that I first came across when we partnered with the RPA last year and was impressed with all the great work, they did to support ill and injured players. Although we were running, walking, or cycling on our own, the Tour was the perfect opportunity for us to work together as a team towards our common goal - just a mere 746.59 miles (and beyond!) between us!

I love a good challenge and it was great to see how far I could push myself each week, especially being one of the older members of the team! It was great seeing the miles quickly clock-up as we made our way across the country, and we always made sure that we kept cheering each other on. I'm super proud of what we've all achieved and the money we've raised for Restart."

Daniel Underwood, Senior Manager Vodafone Business UK Marketing & Communications:

“The Tour of the RPA was a fantastic initiative to get the marketing team behind, it created a healthy fix of competition for an amazing cause with a level of physical activity that everyone could engage with. I certainly look forward to the next one”.