One of Glasgow’s top bosses is doing his bit for Sport Relief – by serving up tea and biscuits to his hardworking staff.

Martin Armstrong, chief executive of Glasgow Housing Association, and his senior colleagues Alex McGuire, Peter Denheen and Mags Lightbody have offered to do all the running about on Friday night as the celebrity-filled charity fundraising event gets under way.

They are supporting a 150-strong team of GHA staff who have volunteered to receive donation calls at their customer service centre in the Gorbals.

In 2008, more than 70 call centres, staffed by 10,000 volunteers, jumped at the chance to support Sport Relief, helping to raise £28million.

The GHA staff who will act as call handlers are being trained up ahead of the big night and will work from 7pm to midnight.

Mr Armstrong said: “Sport Relief is a great way for GHA and our staff to help people in need, both at home and abroad.

“Our staff have really rallied to the call to help out and I’m looking forward to serving them tea – and doing my bit to bring in millions of pounds for this worthwhile activity.”

GHA is a partner in the Evening Times Glas-goals campaign, which aims to encourage people to lead healthier lifestyles.

You can support our campaign and Sport Relief by signing up for the Mile on Sunday at www.sportrelief.com

While Martin and his high-flying colleagues are acting as “runners” on the night, the real runners will be taking part in the Sainsbury’s Sport Relief Mile at Finnieston on Sunday.

A team of 10 GHA staff will be taking part, doing a variety of the one-mile, three-mile and six-mile runs.

Mr Armstrong added: “As well as raising cash, Sport Relief also plays a big role in getting people active. I’m delighted some of our staff are lacing up their running shoes and taking part in the Sport Relief Mile on Sunday.”

Julia Henderson, 37, head of the legal department at GHA, said: “We’re all quite sporty and we thought it would be a good way to keep fit and raise money for a good cause.

“There’s a team of us taking part and I’m sure it will get quite competitive – but I do a lot of running and I fancy my chances! We’ve all been training ourselves, but some of us have been running for years.

“We’re all running different distances on the day – some are doing one mile, others are doing three miles while I’m doing six. It depends how fit you are.

“Other staff at GHA have volunteered to answer the phones at our customer call centre and be runners on the night itself, but we thought this would be a great way to raise some extra money.”

Julia will be joined on the run by David Adams, Maura Browne, Jane Valentine, Simone Sweeney, Stephen Wright, Lynn Wynn, Shona Adair, John Matthews, John Fagan and Linda Nicolson.

As one of the UK’s biggest fundraising events, Sport Relief brings the entire nation together to get active, raise cash and change lives.

Since its launch in 2002, more than 1.25million people have taken part in Sport Relief, helping to raise around £75m.

Every pound raised helps people living unimaginably tough lives, both at home and across the world’s poorest countries.

 

HOW TO ENTER...

Enter the Sport Relief Mile at www.sportrelief.com

Glasgow’s Mile takes place at Finnieston on Sunday, with events and activities on all day from 10am to 4pm.

It costs £5 to enter (£2 for under-16s and £12 for a family of two adults and two children) and you can choose to run one, three or six miles.

Entertainment on the day will include performances from The Box, from the final of Got To Dance!

SnoZone will be there on the day with their inflatable snowboard simulator, you can practise some ball skills with the Glasgow Rocks and there will be an indoor skate park! There will also be face painters, circus performers and lots more.

 

Glas-goals...

Every mile run or walked on Sunday will count towards our Glas-goals target of clocking up a million miles for the city - let us know if you are running, walking, swimming or cycling and we can add YOUR miles to our total too!