BT Tower abseil raises over £131,000
Howard Lake | 13 March 2014 | News
The BT Tower abseil, which saw 30 BT staff, celebrities and Royal Marines abseil down the outside of the iconic London landmark on Monday, has raised over £131,000. The money will be divided equally between Sport Relief and the Royal Marines Charitable Trust Fund.
The participants abseiled 148m from the 31st floor of the BT Tower.
BT CEO Gavin Patterson was the first to go down. Celebrities who followed him included adventurer Bear Grylls, TV presenter Helen Skelton, ex-Lion and England rugby world cup winner Ben Kay, former England rugby player Martin Bayfield and Olympic and World Champion swimmer Mark Foster.
BT Tower Charity Abseil 2014 – Sport Relief & Royal Marines Charitable Trust Fund from AWOL Adventure on Vimeo.
The final total will be higher as the BT MyDonate page for the event will remain open until the end of the month.
UK Fundraising watched some of the participants descend, and then visited T34 at the top of the Tower to join those involved with running the event.
The event was the idea of Sir Mike Rake, Chairman of BT Group plc. He explained how it came about.
Other abseils down BT Tower
BT say that only two abseils have taken place in the past 25 years. In June 1985 a police officer abseiled to raise funds for Great Ormond Street Hospital, where his baby son had been treated. This event was also facilitated by the Royal Marines.
The second was a commercial rigging company in 1994 who had to cover the BT Tower windows with a film to enable a light show as part of the 50th anniversary of VE Day.
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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.