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Interview with Jeremy Roberts

Jeremy Roberts, Head of UK Retail Sales at BlackRock sat down with us to tell us how him and his team are supporting CASCAID.

  1. What does your 10k-a-day (300k) challenge involve?

We are undertaking a 30-day challenge throughout May. We will be splitting our days cycling, running or rowing 10k each day.

  1. Who’s doing this with you?

I have managed to get 37 people across the BlackRock retail business to join me. It was really important to me to get lots of people involved: in the spirit of CASCAID, I have ‘cascaded’ the challenge to get most of my team involved. I really wanted to run with the collegiate aspect of the initiative which is getting ordinary people together to do extraordinary things for Cancer Research UK, and of course, I wanted my beloved colleagues to share in my pain!

  1. What do you think you’ll find most challenging?

I chose running and rowing because I hate them both. I would play competitive sport all day long but both running and rowing bore me to tears. I wanted to make this a real challenge for me, but also something everyone could do and get involved in. We’re also very lucky that Virgin gym have donated 15 guest passes for the month of May so that we can use their facilities because the hardest thing is the discipline. Doing something every day means it’s relentless.

  1. Why were you so keen to get involved in such a difficult challenge for CASCAID?

We’ve fostered a culture of extremely healthy competition internally and this is a classic example of this. We’re all having to work on our diary management to make sure we still get it done around our day jobs. If you miss a day then it adds up! So we’re all getting up earlier and really dedicated to doing what we’re doing. We’re all creaking our way through this, but I’m very proud of the team.

  1. What are you most looking forward to about the 30 days (if anything?!…)

Finishing! June 1st! No, in all seriousness I’ve set it up because I knew it would be hard, and it is hard, but I’m looking forward to the accomplishment. The camaraderie that comes with doing it with my colleagues has definitely brought us even closer as a team. It’s another common goal for us to achieve and seeing the sponsorship coming in on a daily basis for such a great cause is fantastic. But mainly, I’m looking forward to June 1st.

Help to support Jeremy and his team here: http://bit.ly/2przQad

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