Rachel Vernall

To give you a bit of background on Rachel's charity work, this is not something she has just started doing, she has dedicated her spare time to raising funds for years. She has ran the race for life 8 years in a row; was part of a team to raise money for the British Heart Foundation at events such as cake stalls and car boot sales; she put a team together for the Round Table's it's a knock out event for a local children's charity; completed an aquathlon for Cwmbran swimming club involving a 400 metre swim followed by a 5k run and last year was took part in the London to Brighton bike ride also for the British Heart Foundation. I'm exhausted just reading it!

Since September 2010 Rachel has climbed Kilimanjaro, ran the race for life and is currently training for a half marathon in November. She does this all for charities close to her heart such as Velindre cancer care and the LBG supported charities of British Heart foundation in 2010 and Save the Children charity in 2011.

In September Rachel raised funds for the British heart foundation by climbing Kilimanjaro which is the world's largest freestanding volcano and at its highest point reaches 5895m. She did this in her own time dedicating her annual leave entitlement to it. Due to the effects of altitude and sickness not everyone made it to the summit, but I'm pleased to say Rachel did. Her fundraising activities included writing to local MP's and successfully managing to get one to make a donation, asking local supermarkets to donate raffle prizes, boxes of chocolates from Asda, vouchers from Sainsbury with cakes and bottles of wine from Aldi. The Round Table donated money to help buy her clothing and equipment. In return Rachel had organised a team from Blackhorse, including herself, to enter in their charity event, it's a knock out, raising money for a local children's charity. She ran two event days in Blackhorse, Cardiff asking family, friends and colleagues to donate items for a raffle, a bottle and tin s