Late last year, we launched the Missive 2020 Pledge – our commitment to raise £20,000 for Macmillan Cancer Support, in recognition of the charity’s incredible ongoing work with our co-founder, Emma Ross. 

Our JustGiving page has been live for just over a month, and already we’ve been blown away by the generosity of our network. An eye-watering £4,930 has been raised at the time of writing, which represents almost 25% of our total target. 

With such amazing backing, it’s only fair that we update you with what we’ve done to meet our pledge so far:

• Testing our endurance

This year, we’re aiming to  run, walk, climb, swim, traipse, trudge and generally drag ourselves over 500 miles. There’s been a frenzy of sign-ups to events throughout the year:

• Nicola and Kitty have both signed up to three half marathons in the space of four weeks. Yes, you read that right. It was exhausting to write, too. These include New Forest, Windsor and Royal Parks, all taking place in early Autumn.
• Jules, Jordan, Kitty and Nicola (yes, again) have signed up to the Windsor Colour Obstacle Rush, which they’ll be doing with Team O2.
• Flora is off to the Peak District to hike 26 miles as part of Macmillan’s Mighty Hike, whilst Clare is running the same distance at the Paris Marathon.
• Dom will be gracing the Hackney Half Marathon in May, with friend of Missive, Tim Slater…
• … and in neighbouring borough of Islington, the entire team will take on a Tough Mudder, although the exact distance is yet to be confirmed. 

Cumulatively, this is a whopping 123.2 miles (minus Tough Mudder) – a little under 25% of our target. We’ve got Personal Trainer Tom on speed dial and locked into regular office visits to whip us all into shape! 

• Hosting exciting events

We’ll be hosting a number of events throughout the year, and the team has been busy brainstorming what these may look like. Stay tuned for more details to come in the next few weeks.

• Taking on your challenges

Lastly, we’ve opened the floor to your challenges. So far, Dom’s flatmates have challenged him to give up chili flakes and spicy condiments during the month of lent (which is a much bigger challenge than it sounds), but there’s much more room in our inbox – email hello@missive.co.uk with your requests and we will hit them all head on!

There’s blood, sweat, tears, laughter (and some bland food for Dom ahead), but we’re all drawing heavily from the strength Emma has demonstrated as her battle continues. Whilst we’ve been busy kicking off the pledge, Emma has launched an incredibly moving photo diary of her treatment on Instagram, which you can find at @emmacancerstory. It’s been a powerful source of inspiration for all of us.

Don’t forget, we’d love your support! If you’d like to join us for any of the events, please do reach out to us at hello@missive.co.uk.

Thanks again for your amazing support so far – we’re truly humbled.