If the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic has taught us anything, it’s the importance of looking out for each other and helping those less fortunate than ourselves. Charity is important to the Vantage team and we’re always eager to give something back to those who need it most.

With this in mind, we’re thrilled to announce that we’ve appointed a brand-new Vantage charity dream team. The team, which consists of Lauren Ballard, Greg Wade, Daniel Griffiths, Mollie Smith and Samantha Lilley, will be organising exciting fundraising activities to raise at least £1000 for a different charity each quarter.

Unlike in the past when we’ve partnered with just one charity for the year, the charity team thinks this new approach of changing charities each quarter will the Vantage team the opportunity to support a cause close to their hearts. After a companywide vote, it was decided that the first charity, we’ll be fundraising for is Birmingham Children’s Hospital (BCH).

With over 90,000 patient visits every year from the West Midlands and beyond, BCH is the UK’s leading specialist paediatric centre and provides sick children and their families with invaluable expert care and support. The hospital is a global centre of excellence for complex heart conditions and the treatment of burns, cancer and liver and kidney disease, as well as being a nationally designated specialist centre for epilepsy surgery and paediatric major trauma. It’s also home to one of the largest child and adolescent mental health services in the UK and is a national liver and small bowel transplant centre.

All of the money we raise this quarter will be used to ensure the sick children being treated in the hospitals specialist departments continue to get the best care in the most comfortable environment possible. It will also help to support the hospital’s pioneering research to cure their patient’s illnesses so they can enjoy their childhood's to the absolute fullest.

Our senior recruitment consultant, Lauren Ballard, who is heading up our new charity team said “While COVID was definitely a challenge for us all, it's safe to say we were incredibly fortunate throughout the lockdown period to be part of such a strong company that really looked out for its employees. It's been well documented in the news that this hasn't been the case for much of the country and this has really revitalised our team’s desire to give back where they can.

We decided to start with Birmingham Children's Hospital as a number of employees have had either children as patients or in one case actually been a patient there themselves! We know that COVID has had a huge impact on both the logistics and costs to continue their work, so the whole team are incredibly passionate to offer their support.”

To kickstart our fundraising for Birmingham Children’s Hospital, the charity team are currently organising a COVID-friendly beer pong tournament to take place on the 25^th September during Vantage’s 10-year anniversary party. Recruiters are notoriously competitive so we’ve no doubt that this will help us to make a strong start towards our £1000 target.

There’s also plans in the works for the Vantage team to take part in a sponsored climb up Snowdon on the 17^th October and a Man vs Food event with a special spice related challenge on the 27^th November. We're really looking forward to both raising money and bringing the team together for such a fantastic cause.

To find out more about our fundraising efforts or to make a donation towards our £1000 target for Birmingham Children’s Hospital, you can visit our Just Giving page here.