Chan and Lisa McManus of the Derby Tup pub, located just a short walk away from the SMH Group Stadium on Sheffield Road, recently completed a bike-riding challenge which raised just under £2,000 for the Trust’s Buddy Buddy veterans group.
Chan spoke about the challenge they took on and fundraising in more detail, saying: “Firstly, we had a family fund day, raffles, tombolas, basically just a big event like we normally do. We pick a charity every year to raise money for and this year’s was the Trust and Buddy Buddy.
“We asked Oli [Barnes] to find us a place to bike to and he picked somewhere that was 340 miles away. So, we hopped on his exercise bike and fired away for 342 miles to try and get there. There was a little bit of help from a couple of people in the pub and Lisa as well.
“There was everybody in the pub as well watching, so a few people saw us finish it. A few people saw the absolute struggle of the last mile, but we got there in the end.”
Oli added: “First of all, the guys at the Derby Tup have been a massive ally to Buddy Buddy. They’ve been really active in the veterans community, helping us out.
“Every Armistice weekend we’ve unofficially made the Derby Tup place our home afterwards and we’ve been welcomed with open arms. The guys [Chan and Lisa] spoke to me and said they were going to raise some money by cycling.
“They asked me ‘Can you give me a distance to cycle?’ So we decided from the SMH Group Stadium to what would be the Menin Gate in Belgium, which is a First World War battle site.”
Continuing with why they chose to support Buddy Buddy, Chan said: “We’d known Keith [Jackson] and Oli for a while and we said to them that we wanted help Buddy Buddy. We came down, met all the guys, realised that we knew quite a few of them anyway that came in the pub and then it just sort of spiralled from there.
“We went on the trip to Eden Camp with them and then they all unofficially have adopted the pub, which is really nice. They come in on their own, they come in as a group, they invite us where they’re going and we thought it was really nice and really important for us to do something for them.”
Finally Oli spoke about the impact the funds will have, explaining: “They raised £1,800, which is incredible, which makes a lot of things very, very possible for a group that is not funded.
“We rely on things, on fundraising and donations, so that makes our life a lot easier and a lot more accessible for the veterans.”
