We are delighted to report that All Steels’ Sandra Malecka has very recently walked in the footprints of famed explorers and mountaineers on her successful climb to the top of Africa’s tallest mountain peak ie Kilimanjaro.

As you can imagine Sandra hiked through lush rainforests and alpine deserts, across glaciers by day, and slept closer to the stars than she ever dreamt possible by night! The six day trek, as anticipated, proved to be a very positive life changing experience for sure, but consequently Sandra also very pleasingly raised £5805 for The Prince’s Trust. 

So well done we all say to Sandra on completing such an inspiring, mentally and physically demanding challenge, but whilst also choosing to support the youth charity that is especially dear to All Steels’ heart. 

All Steels is truly delighted that our local sponsored champion Jasmine Harrison made her world record-breaking (youngest solo female) row across the Atlantic in just 70 days, three hours and 48 minutes. 

Jasmine set off on her 3,000-mile (4,828km) Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge from La Gomera in the Canary Islands on 12 December 2020. Her safe arrival in Antigua today was naturally greeted with a fanfare on Facebook, and where she was broadcasted crossing the finishing line. What an emotional sight it was to see Jasmine triumphantly standing in her rowing boat, called Argo, and lighting her flares as she came into Nelson’s Dockyard in Antigua.


As you can imagine, Jasmine faced several challenges en route. In the early stages of the journey, the weather was so bad she was blown back to where she had started from at the end of one gruelling day. Her incredible voyage saw her battling 20ft waves, being tracked by sharks, and a near-miss with a 750ft tanker which came within 1,000ft of her boat. It was only about six minutes before a collision occurred that Jasmine was able to alert the huge vessel to change course! The last part of Jasmine’s journey had also seen her tackle the Sargasso Sea, home to fish and baby turtles but also to thick seaweed that she needed to periodically remove from underneath her boat!


Burning 5,000 calories a day, Jasmine survived on ration packs, chocolate spread and peanut butter. She drank 10 litres of water a day - plus an occasional shot of Dead Man’s Fingers Rum!

Jasmine’s record-breaking feat has raised more than £10,000 for charity, with the money going to the Blue Marine Foundation, which aims to fight overfishing, and ShelterBox, an organisation providing relief to people affected by natural disasters.

“I want to inspire young people to get out there and do something, whether that be changing the world or just doing something outside your comfort zone,” Jasmine wrote in a statement on her website.

All Steels believes it is fair to say that Jasmine has certainly set an inspired scene for many others to now go on and ultimately share such world record and/or world changing feats! Naturally, we are also feeling proud to have been able to support and assist Jasmine in attaining such a world record-breaking nautical achievement.

 

We’re so very proud to say that every single member of the AST National Three Peaks Team climbed the mighty Snowdon this morning, after ascending/descending both Ben Nevis and Scafell Pike on Saturday/yesterday – wow! 


Ben Nevis Summit

With sheer determination, focus, accountability, true grit and of course great camaraderie the AST Team has now successfully accomplished what it set out to achieve.  Yes, they’ve each climbed around 3,050 metres and have walked approximately 40km in circa 13 hours (excluding transfer times)! 


Scafell Pike Summit

An old-fashioned photo album will be created of AST's mountaineering National Three Peaks Challenge adventure and left in AST’s office reception area for your interest etc.  However, far more importantly, as a consequence of taking on the gruelling/not for the faint-hearted challenge AST has managed to raise over £5k for The Prince’s Trust youth charity, and the sponsorship level is still growing – thank you all so very much for your kind/wonderful support!  

Snowdon Summit

 https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/allsteels

Dear All Steels Customers/Business Partners,

It’s only 10 days left and counting now to AST’s Three Peaks Challenge 11-12 May 2019!

The harsh reality of what this triple mountain B2B/in 48 hours climbing challenge truly entails is now very much on our minds!  However, it’s fair to say that the AST Challenge team is as physically fit/prepared as possible and we’re also feeling mentally strong too! 

Here are a few facts about this AST event in aid of The Prince’s Trust youth charity for those of you who are interested/following our charity story:

1. Saturday 11 May 2019 – 7.30am climb Ben Nevis.  (Highest mountain in Scotland, at an elevation of 1,345 metres above sea level).

2. Saturday 11 May 2019 – circa 7.30pm climb Scafell Pike.  (Highest mountain in England, at an elevation of 978 metres above sea level).

3. Sunday 12 May 2019 – circa 5.30am climb Snowdon.  (Highest mountain in Wales, at an elevation of 1,085 metres above sea level).

On Friday 10 May 2019 the AST Thirsk office will be open for business as usual, albeit with a reduced number of AST colleagues readily available to respond to landline directed calls, as the AST Three Peaks Challenge members will be travelling up to the Scottish Highlands in preparation for the first early Saturday morning Ben Nevis mountain climb.  However, it’s anticipated that the AST colleagues in transit will still be readily available to assist you if you call during Friday on an AST colleague’s work mobile number.

The AST Three Peaks Challenge members will include: Adam Grant, Anna Clarkson, Jon Jacobs, Karolina Florek, Lee White, Laurence McDougall/me, Sandra Malecka, Sarah Pritchard and Tom McDougall.  The AST Challenge members will of course all be back at AST Thirsk/work first thing on Monday 13 May 2019 ready to tell you their mountain climb stories blisters and all!

We would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank all of our AST customers/business partners who have already generously made a sponsorship support pledge.  It’s great to know that by completing the gruelling Three Peaks/Prince’s Trust Charity Challenge we will all be helping to make a difference to the lives of young disadvantaged people.

Once again, thank you so much for the kind and generous donations given and all your supportive words of encouragement.  It’s very much appreciated especially by the AST Three Peaks Challenge members/The Prince’s Trust.  We will let you know in due course, with picture evidence included, just how quickly and successfully we completed the mission!  If you haven’t already made a sponsorship donation and you would like to do so then please simply follow the All Steels JustGiving web page link provided directly below here: 

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/allsteels

Many thanks.

Cheers

Laurence McDougall
Managing Director

As you know, All Steels Trading is a proud Patron of The Prince's Trust and so we naturally like to support this incredibly worthwhile youth charity as much as we possibly can. In May 2019, several members of All Steels Trading will be pushing ourselves to our limits in support of young lives by climbing the three highest peaks in England, Scotland and Wales, but one straight after the other!

Our two-day challenge will have All Steels Trading colleagues hiking up the most glorious but highest mountains in the UK i.e. Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowden! We will travel first to Fort William on Friday 10th May 2019, climbing Ben Nevis on the Saturday morning, climbing Scafell Pike that same night and then finishing off by climbing Snowden on Sunday 12th May 2019.

The All Steels Trading Three Peaks team members will include: Adam Grant, Anna Clarkson, Jon Jacobs, Karolina Florek, Lee White, Oscar Munis, Sandra Malecka, Sarah Pritchard, Thomas McDougall and me!

We are fully aware of the gruelling challenge that we have voluntarily all signed ourselves up for here! However, it's in the belief that our physical efforts will help to make a big difference to others. We hope to raise as much sponsorship money as possible for The Prince's Trust. All sponsorship donations will be very much appreciated indeed.  If you wish you can very easily make a kind donation via All Steels Trading’s Three Peaks Challenge JustGiving web page: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/allsteels

Cheers

Laurence McDougall

Managing Director

Where/ When: Newcastle to South Shields – 10th September 2017

A point-to-point race from Newcastle to South Shields, the Great North Run 2017 will have participants including All Steels Trading’s very own Adam Barton & Lee White travel through Gateshead and South Tyneside as they approach the finish line. Adam & Lee will both be running the race in support of The Prince’s Trust youth charity. Along the way they will cross the iconic Tyne Bridge to the roar of the amassing crowd as they further their journey to the beautiful coast of South Tyneside!

The Great North Run is of course the world’s most popular half marathon, welcoming 57,000 runners from over 130 different countries. It has been running for 36 years since it was founded in 1981 by former British Olympian and 10,000 metre bronze medallist, Brendan Foster, and continues to grow as one of the biggest internationally involved events.

Adam & Lee are collectively hoping to raise in excess of the necessary £700 charity run entry pledge for The Prince’s Trust. All Steels Trading is proud to be a Patron of this incredibly worthwhile youth charity and as part of our patronage commitment members of the All Steels Trading Team will also work directly with disadvantaged young people on voluntary programmes to further support The Prince’s Trust.

We will certainly aim to keep you posted on how Adam’s & Lee’s training regimes for the big race ahead progress etc but in the interim any sponsorship donation you can possibly give no matter how small will be so very much appreciated by Adam & Lee plus of course The Prince’s Trust.

You can easily make a safe donation via Adam’s & Lee’s respective JustGiving charity web pages:
https://www.justgiving.com/Lee-White16
http://www.justgiving.com/Adam-Barton5

Many thanks in anticipation of your kind support.

All Steels Trading is very pleased to announce that we have become a Patron of The Prince’s Trust.

Youth charity The Prince’s Trust helps disadvantaged young people to get their lives on track. It supports 11 to 30 year-olds who are unemployed and those struggling at school and at risk of exclusion. Many of the young people helped by The Trust are in or leaving care, facing issues such as homelessness or mental health problems, or have been in trouble with the law.

The Trust’s programmes give vulnerable young people the practical and financial support needed to stabilise their lives, helping develop self-esteem and skills for work. Three in four young people supported by The Prince’s Trust move into work, education or training. The Prince of Wales’s charity has helped 825,000 young people since 1976 and supports over 100 more each day.

Independent research has found that The Prince’s Trust has in fact returned £1.4 billion in value to society through its work with disadvantaged young people over the last 10 years alone. The calculation takes into account the return on investment of getting young people off benefits, reducing offending and re-offending, and helping young people to achieve at school.

Laurence McDougall, MD of All Steels Trading, comments: “We are proud to be a Patron of this incredibly worthwhile charity. The help The Prince’s Trust provides includes training, personal development, business start-up support, mentoring and advice. It is ingenious in the way that it has changed young people’s lives, not through condescension and free hand-outs, but by giving them the means to help themselves. As part of our partnership commitment members of the All Steels Trading Team will take part in various fundraising events and work directly with young people on voluntary programmes to further support The Prince’s Trust”.

Further details about The Prince’s Trust can be found HERE

Deciding to participate in an event described as “the ultimate physical and mental challenge” was, well, slightly outside my comfort zone to say the least!

The Oxfam Trailwalker involves a team of 4 people walking 100km in less than 30 hours. The route starts just north of Portsmouth, snakes across the South Downs and finishes in Brighton. It has 6,600 feet of ascent which includes three very memorable hills! There are plenty of challenge events out there that you can do on your own but Trailwalker is not one of them. The whole point is to get the whole team round. We certainly discovered en route who was strong uphill, who was good at navigation, what motivated each of us and where our individual weak points were (my right knee!).  However, I am really proud to say that The All Steels Trading team hobbled in together completing the brutal continuous trek in 28 hours and 43 minutes. There’s no doubt that we couldn’t have finished without each other’s support. What great team camaraderie and unswerving stamina displayed – hooray!!!

 

  

We crossed that finish line feeling exhausted but triumphant, and of course very grateful that we lead lives where a long trek like this can be treated as a challenge, rather than a necessity. At All Steels Trading we are still celebrating and recovering from our efforts! However, we wish to say thanks so much for all the support and generous sponsorship given by our business friends because together we raised in excess of £3000 for Oxfam and the Gurkha Welfare Trust. For me, the Trailwalker Challenge had a bit of everything, ups and downs of all kinds. From an overall positive angle I will never forget it but I will also never, ever, do the Oxfam Trailwalker UK again!

Laurence McDougall
(MD All Steels Trading Ltd)

Organised in partnership with Oxfam, Trailwalker UK is the ultimate in long distance treks: 100km of undulating hills through the South Downs culminating at Brighton Racecourse. The challenging Trailwalker 2016 event will be managed by Gurkhas and Gurkha teams will lead the charge, but lots of other competitors including team “All Steels Trading” will be taking part in July in Trailwalker 2016!

The All Steels Trading four man team including myself will be hiking continuously day and night for up to 30 hours (hopefully we can do it in about 24 hours) in order to raise money for Oxfam and the Gurkha Welfare Trust, which was founded in 1969, when it was realised that thousands of ex-Gurkha servicemen and their widows were living in destitution in the hill villages of Nepal. We ideally wish to raise a minimum of £3k for Oxfam and the Gurkha Welfare Trust hopefully by securing a lot of donations from our business friends & family via our All Steels Trading JustGiving page (see the direct link to our JustGiving page below).

All Steels Trading JustGiving Trailwalker 2016

Any monetary donation however large or small will be very welcome and will also make a lot of difference to the All Steels Trading’s team spirit whilst taking part in the gruelling Trailwalker challenge itself, which I am sure you will appreciate is simply being carried out here in support of two very worthy charities.

Cheers Laurence

All Steels Trading’s Directors needed little encouragement to proudly wear their festive knitwear in support of the annual fundraising Save the Children Christmas Jumper Day.

In 2013 Save the Children reached over 143 million children through their work, including over 52 million children directly. The organisation not only saves children's lives but they also fight for their rights and help children to fulfil their true potential. Their teams are also doing everything possible to stop the spread of Ebola. So it’s great to know that the £100 raised by All Steels Trading’s Directors & a few business friends will be matched as promised by the Government and it will all go towards helping to support children in particular need in the world.

All Steels Trading proudly sponsors the Wooden Spoon's 17th annual Ripon Race Day Event.

Wooden Spoon is a children's charity founded in 1983 that is dedicated to helping disadvantaged children and young people across the British Isles live happier, richer lives.

The event proved to be great fun and judging by the whoops and hollers there were a few lucky punters on the day too!

(Left) Richard Tully with Laurence McDougall MD of All Steels Trading, the race day sponsors.  Holding the trophy is Rob Bastion the winning owner of Miss Muga and on his left is John Thompson, Chairman of All Steels Trading.

(Right) Sponsors, trainers, owners and assorted guests drink to Miss Muga.