Time2Give as a Cisco Apprentice: The Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge
3 min read
Author: Jack Merriman, first year apprentice at Cisco in the UK.
Tuesday 21st of June 2022 was one of the scariest days of my life. My mum was very suddenly and seriously taken ill with a ruptured brain aneurysm. Mum was not expected to survive the night, me and my family were told to prepare for the worst.
Luckily, she did survive the night, and was put into an induced coma. There were concerns as to what her mental capacity would be once she woke up. Three of the longest weeks and a pneumonia scare later, she woke up.
At this point she was unable to communicate verbally due to her tracheostomy, but there were signs she was returning to her former self.
Finally, in early August, due to the care mum received on Ward 228 and the Intensive Care Unit at the Royal Stoke University Hospital, mum came home and is well and truly on the way to making a full recovery, which is something we were told not to expect.
In honour of the care she received during her time in hospital, I along with a group of my colleagues from Cisco, completed the Yorkshire Three Peaks challenge on Friday 11th of August 2023. At 24 miles and 1,600m of ascent this going was a tough walking challenge to complete in under 12 hours. We did this using one of our TimeToGIve days, an incentive where Cisco gives employees 10 paid days off to use for activities positively impacting nature, our communities and for charitable causes.
I only joined Cisco in February 2023 as an apprentice and at this point hadn’t even thought about doing a fundraiser, let alone started training for it. It still blows my mind that colleagues I have known for such a short space of time would be willing to help me to complete the challenge and raise funds. Not just fellow apprentices, but colleagues from the wider Manchester office were happy to take part as well.
It was a long day, we set off in the car at 4AM and started walking at 7AM, not finishing until 7PM. Spirits were high and unwavering in the morning, but after the second peak I am unashamed to say I was flagging slightly.
Undeniably it was one of the hardest physical and mental challenges I have done in my life. I am also guilty of severely underestimating it as I would tell myself ‘It is just a little stroll’ in the weeks leading up to the challenge.
It was most certainly more than a stroll, as I soon found out. Intense cramp, blisters and not being able to walk for a week following the challenge were some of the gifts I left Yorkshire with. It was also a lot of fun too. I think it bought us closer together as a cohort and I will remember that day for the rest of my life.
My advice as an apprentice or as a fellow Cisconian would be to get stuck in with your TimeToGive with a similar challenge or fundraiser, with a group of you. It puts you out of your comfort zone and you will be surprised at what you can achieve – if I can do it, anyone can!
The aim was to raise £1000 through Just Giving for the hospital wards that saved my mother’s life. The total currently raised stands at over £2300 collectively – the most ever raised by Cisco apprentices and a total that put us in the top 5% of fundraisers on the whole of Just Giving for the month of August.
I have done this in just the first 6 months of my apprenticeship, along with helping the CDA team implement sustainability changes across schools as part of my first rotation, *link to blog about the Workplace* I am excited to see what my remaining three and a half years brings.
It is great to work for a company that encourages giving back, I cannot thank Cisco and my colleagues enough for everything that they have done for me and my mum.
Check out our video overview of the day here https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7097555285807878144/
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