Marion Steinmeier is the chief executive of a palliative care organisation in Germany but when she got on her bike for the gruelling Ford Ride London cycling charity she raised £400 for our patient services!
Marion knows all about the work of St Luke’s because her lifelong friend is Deborah Merschner, the Minister at Sheffield’s Handsworth Methodist Church.
“We don’t do so much charity fundraising in Germany but that is something I am interested in developing,” Marion explained.
“I want to get more information about how you do it here in Britain and have been looking at what we could do in Germany.”
That’s how she came to be taking part in the Ride London challenge, which takes cyclists from the Mall in central London and out into the villages and woodlands of rural Essex before returning to the finish line at Tower Bridge, a round trip of 100 miles.
And she was very happy to donate the £400 she raised in sponsorship to St Luke’s in Sheffield.
“It was a great experience because people made a big party of it,” said Marion after completing the challenge in under eight hours.
“I was a little bit worried about the weather because there were two really sunny fine days before but then on the day of the race it was rainy.
“But it was a great day, everybody made me feel very welcome and it taught me a lot about engaging people, which is what I want to do.”