Ely Cathedral joins National Campaign to support UK Charities

Ely Cathedral is one of many leading organisations to join in ‘The 2.6 Challenge’ in support of UK Charities. 

Inspired by the organisers of the London Marathon, The 2.6 Challenge asks you to do something to keep active and help save the UK’s charities. Anyone can get involved and take part. You simply have to think of an activity based around the numbers 26 or 2.6 and complete it anytime from launch day, 26th April. Many celebrities have already put their name forward for this challenge including Roger Black MBE, Helen Richardson-Walsh MBE and Trevor Nelson MBE.

To start things off at Ely Cathedral, Edmund Aldhouse, Director of Music at Ely Cathedral, set himself the challenge of playing 26 scales on his electric keyboard at home, in 26 minutes. No mean feat, even for a talented musician, especially when it needs to include all the major and minor scales, plus two additional ones. You can watch Edmund’s challenge on YouTube here.

In order to help support this initiative, Ely Cathedral are calling on the local community and their global audience on social media, to support all charities and get involved.

Why not undertake 26 minutes of gardening, or walk 2.6 miles (and take as long as you like); Produce 26 muffins, scones or cupcakes (in 26 minutes if you want a real challenge !); Run or walk 26 lengths of the garden; Play a musical instrument for 26 minutes.

The activity is entirely up to you, but please do it safely and keep to social distancing.

Hannah Wilcox, Development Director at Ely Cathedral says, “This is a great incentive for people to do something to support all UK charities as well as the Cathedral. This is a very challenging time for all organisations which rely heavily on donations and goodwill from the general public and business sponsorship. We hope this campaign will encourage those who can to help while giving people something fun and inspiring to do.”

Fundraising is easy. All participants need to do is follow these five simple steps:

1. Dream up their 2.6 challenge 
2. Head to twopointsixchallenge.co.uk to donate £26 – or whatever they can afford – to Ely Cathedral or another special charity of their choice. 
3. Ask all their friends and family for sponsorship and challenge them to do their own 2.6 Challenge 
4. Join the Ely Cathedral community and complete a challenge! 
5. Share a photo or video of the challenge on social media with #TwoPointSixChallenge 

Press release from Ely Cathedral