A seven strong team of charity fundraisers including staff and retired staff from food distribution company Total Foodservice and some of its suppliers have raised £5,000 for the Blackburn Youth Zone.

The fundraising team undertook a 150 mile cycle challenge along the gruelling Lancashire Loop and the money raised will help the popular facility keep its admission at just 50p a visit ensuring young people from across Blackburn, East Lancashire and the Ribble Valley can afford to take part in its wide range of activities. Jason Sheard, purchasing manager at Total Foodservice said: “Over the years we’ve raised over £14,000 by tackling the coast to coast, cycling the Yorkshire hills and we’re delighted to have raised such a large amount by taking on the Lancashire Loop.

“We would like to thank children personally for coming along on the day to give us some much valued roadside support; it really did give us the added motivation to get up the steep hills. “We chose Blackburn Youth Zone as we’re corporate supporters and the facility provides children from Blackburn and the wider area including the Ribble Valley with fantastic opportunities to empower themselves to shape their future and hopefully the next generations that follow.”

Blackburn Youth Zone events manager Laura Jones said: “It’s brilliant that the team at Total Foodservice has raised such a huge amount for us, support from local businesses like this is vital to the continued success of the Youth Zone and we can’t thank them enough.”