The sky is the limit! Our Softcat skydivers raise £43,000 for Young Lives vs Cancer

On Saturday 12 July, a team from Softcat took on an impressive skydiving challenge at Black Knights Skydiving Centre in Lancaster to raise money for our incredible charity partner, Young Lives vs Cancer! A huge thank you and well done to everyone who braved the 15,000 ft drop, as well as to their friends, families and colleagues who came out to support on the day!

We’ll have another 60 colleagues taking on their skydive over the next few weeks in Salisbury! A huge well done and thank you to all for taking on this challenge, and we wish you the best of luck.

Nilesh Patel, Partnerships Fundraiser at Young Lives vs Cancer, said: “Thank you so much to the Softcat employees who took on this incredible challenge to raise money for Young Lives vs Cancer. Along with your colleagues, family and friends, you have helped to raise over £43,000!”

“Since the partnership began in 2023, staff members at Softcat have taken part in lots of amazing challenges and hosted events to raise money for the charity! Young Lives vs Cancer relies on donations like these to fund our vital work supporting children and young people with cancer, and their families.”

“Young Lives vs Cancer is the leading UK charity for children and young people with cancer (0-25) and their families. From the moment of diagnosis, the charity’s specialist social workers provide day-to-day support for each child, young person and family, from information and guidance to financial support.”

It was an absolutely stellar day for all, with 30-degree weather and high morale throughout - even though some of us were bitten by horse flies. It was great to see teams and individuals from across Softcat, as well as family, friends and partners, come together to support our chosen charity, each other, and to share the love when each jumper landed.

Puck Lad, Service Development – Programme Manager and one of jumpers shared his experience of the day: “The skydive was a surreal experience and went too quickly for me, but I'm really glad I did it. It was great to see other Softcatters there on the day, all buzzing with excitement!

The planning from Softcat and Young Lives vs. Cancer leading up to, and during the skydive went smoothly. There were lots of opportunities to ask questions and confirm what was happening leading up to a naturally very nerve-wracking day. The skydiving company were very professional too and wasted no time to get me up in the plane and out again - I felt like I was in safe hands throughout the process.”

Our partnership with Young Lives vs Cancer

Young Lives vs Cancer provides critical support to young people facing cancer, and their families. As our chosen charity, we’ve been supporting its incredible work over the span of a three-year partnership, which began towards the end of 2022.

Support has included generous donations from our Love2Give Ball, volunteering opportunities with the charity, sponsored marathons, hikes, treks, bake sales and more. So far we’ve raised over £300,000 for Young Lives vs Cancer, which could help to fund six full-time specialist social workers to provide year-round support to children, young people and their families. These specialist social workers also help to advocate for the needs of children and young people and their families to ensure they get the support they need.

Aryan Barkhordar, Cloud Intelligence Services Analyst at Softcat has been supporting the network over the past year and helped to organise the skydive. He shared the following: “It’s been such an amazing experience helping to organise the skydive, and I just want to say how incredibly proud I am of all our brave jumpers. You’re making such a difference for Young Lives vs Cancer — thank you for being absolute legends!”

A huge thank you to our Love2Give network leads for all the effort, time and prep that has gone into organising the event – Aryan Barkhordar, Nathan Adlard, Ashleigh Baker, David Morgan-Frith and Charles Harman. We also wanted to thank the booking agency Skyline who helped organise the skydive.