Cheapflights and Momondo’s charity virtual cycle ride to South Africa

Cheapflights employees cycled almost 9,500 miles for charity this week, raising almost £4,000.

Cheapflights employees cycled almost 9,500 miles for charity this week, raising almost £4,000.

Staff, including Momondo Group chief executive Hugo Burge and Cheapflights managing director Andrew Shelton took part in ‘The Cheapflights #flightsonbikes Challenge’ – a virtual cycle from London to South Africa to raise money for the company’s 2016 charity partner, BOTH.

BOTH (Broaden Out Their Horizons) was set up last year by two school teachers to foster enhanced cultural awareness and understanding between young people in London and South Africa.

Annual exchange visits between pupils at Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School, Islington, and Magoba JSS in Durban, will take place in July and October.

In the company’s biggest charity effort to date, static bikes were installed at the Cheapflights offices in London between Tuesday April 12 and Thursday April 14.

Over the three days, between the hours of 10am and 5.30pm, staff ran a continuous relay in 30 minute stretches.

Shelton said: “BOTH is an amazing charity and the challenge is a great opportunity to burn off that Easter indulgence and create some cross-cultural joy in the process.

“The money we have raised will go to funding only their second exchange programme, and it’s great for us to be working with a grassroots organisation like this in its early days.

“Their commitment to broaden out the horizons of the kids involved aligns closely with our own purpose – to open our world.”

To kick-start the charity event, Burge and Shelton, along with head of sales Sarah Hanan and head of HR Suzi Rigden, each biked the first 30-minute leg.

Actress Helena Bonham-Carter, founding patron of the Broaden Out Their Horizons charity, said: “I am thrilled that Broaden Out Their Horizons through its partnership with Cheapflights is in a position to be able to offer more young people the same life changing opportunities previously experienced by those involved in its pilot project.

“I know from meeting the young people who took part what a massive impact this experience had on their lives and how much they did indeed learn from each other despite the huge differences in their life experiences – an impact which is precisely the founding ethos and vision of the charity.”