This won’t come as a surprise to many of you but we’re big fans of giving at Toucan. Giving of money, of time, of services, of food, of drink, of whatever. 

As long as you’re giving something to someone or something that needs it more than you, it’s a big fat thumbs up from us. 

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See. 

But as well as the aforementioned big fat thumbs up (see above), we want to keep you in the loop with some specific examples of the giving that’s going on, in the hope you might give too or just go “isn’t that nice of them” and feel good about that. 

So that’s what the Week in Giving is. A nice round up of some lovely stories about giving that caught our eye over the last seven days. 

British cyclist raises almost £40,000 in world record attempt for The Haemophilia Society

To Mexico first, where Professional British cyclist Alex Dowsett attempted to break the world cycling hour record and raise £15,000 for The Haemophilia Society. 

The world record stood at a whopping 55.089km in one hour. Dowsett came just under at 54.555km. 

That’s still wildly impressive as is the fact that at time of writing, Alex has almost tripled his fundraising target. 

To put his achievement into context, the author of this very article’s pre-pandemic 5.5km commute took him 45 minutes to cycle. 

The Haemophilia Society is the only UK-wide charity and free membership organisation for everyone affected by a bleeding disorder.  If you want to contribute to Alex’s fund head here.

Catering company turned pandemic food charity dishes out millionth donated meal

Our next stop is Poplar in East London where a family of six received the one millionth food parcel provided by the Thomas Franks Foundation (T.T.F.F). 

The foundation was set up during the pandemic by contract catering company Thomas Franks to provide free and healthy meals to families in need.  

With business at a standstill due to the pandemic, the company decided to utilise their skills, staff and facilities – as well as that of their partners and suppliers – to give something back. 

T.T.F.F have now partnered with over 150 charities to provide over one million meals to families in the UK, Malta and Portugal. 

Find out more about T.T.F.F by searching for them in the Discover tab.

Disabled cycling charity receive donation for log cabin and volunteers to build it

Now to Ipswich where a local Rotary Club donated the money for Bike Active, a disabled cycling charity, to build a log cabin. The cabin was needed to accommodate the charity’s volunteers.

If that wasn’t enough, the Rotary members then arrived to build it with Bike Active volunteers stepping in at the end to add a lick of paint.

Good work, guys. 

You can visit the charities website here or search for Bike Active in the Discovery tab.

Aberystwyth diner donates Halloween ice cream profits to Blind Veterans UK

Our penultimate stop is Aberystwyth, Wales, where owner of PD’s Diner, Dai Day, decided to donate all halloween ice cream profits to a campaign for Blind Veterans UK run by a local veteran.

Colin Jones, a retired captain from Capel Bangor, has spent the last three years completing challenges around the UK to raise money to support blind and vision impaired Armed Forces and National Service veterans. 

Jones’ challenges included ascending Pen-Y-Fan and Yr Wyddfa blindfolded and a blindfolded 47 mile walk.

All the challenges have been part of the Captain Stephen Healey Memorial Challenge. Captain Healey was killed in Afghanistan on 26 May 2012, when his vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device (IED).

PD’s diner took over £230 in ice cream profit and added them to Jones’ fund, taking the total to over £5,000.

Find out more about Blind Veterans UK by searching for them in the Discover tab.

Northamptonshire pub donates £160,000 to charities over nearly two decades

Finally, then, to the pub. The greatest of British institutions. No more so than The Ranelagh Arms, an incredibly generous Northamptonshire boozer who over the last 18 years have donated over £160,000 to charity. 

Regulars at the pub have been fundraising for various charities ever since landlord Chris O’Reilly took over the pub 18 years ago.

Events have included golf days, sponsored walks, meat raffles, quiz nights and lotteries and even a swear box where the pub’s effing and jeffing raised £650 one year.

Their latest effort, over £6,000 to Macmillan Cancer Support, took the grand total to over £160,000 or 43,360 pints (outside of London of course).

Find out more about Macmillan Cancer Support by searching for them in the Discover tab.

If you know anyone who’s done something amazing with or for a charity or even if you work for a charity and think you deserve a mention, get in touch!