Throughout the year, Smile gets involved in lots of different charity and community events, some of them we organise, some we join, but we always do them. You see, we believe it’s important for us to give back and support the local communities that we work in. We are more than just your average recruitment agency. We don’t just care about filling bookings, we care about people. 

Back in June, some of the Smile team walked the Malvern Hills to help to raise money for Alzheimer’s Research UK. This is a charity that is close to our hearts, as the disease has affected many of our team’s family members. Katy, Olivia, Emma and Kash walked the hills last year and decided to give it a go again (minus Olivia who was otherwise engaged). This year, however, we doubled our numbers and a total of 8 Smile team members geared up and put their best feet forward. We were also lucky enough to receive orange t-shirts from the charity (very on-brand) and wore them proudly during our walk. 

Walking the Hills this year was Conor, Tyon, Kelly, Louise, Katy, Emma, Mary, and Kash. We started our day together, with a slightly more eventful than planned train journey involving an umbrella and some automatic train doors. Once in Malvern, we all headed to the start of our journey. While we didn’t spend a lot of time in the town, the little we did see of it was lovely, even if very hilly.

We started our walk as a team but eventually divided into two groups, which some people might refer to as a fast group and a slow group. The two groups took slightly different routes to one another. Which in other words means that fast group, let’s call them the group 1, followed the map and the slow group, otherwise known as the group 2, got lost.

Group 1 completed the walk in record time taking just 2 hours to finish. This meant that group 1 also missed the rain and got to spend more time in the bar. Group 2, on the other hand, did not manage to miss the rain but did, as a result of going off-map, manage to climb the highest peak in Malvern and take photos to prove it.

Despite the rain group 2 had plenty of fun, mostly at the expense of Tyon, who didn’t cope too well with the rain, was convinced that the sheep were surrounding him (they were lying down in the next field) and was baffled that despite Google maps saying the descent down the hill would take 50 minutes and an Uber would only take 5 minutes (Uber, however, don’t operate in the Malvern Hills).

When group 2 finally made it down the hill, they met the others at a local bar and enjoyed some well-deserved lunch and a few drinks while sharing stories about their respective walks. We then all headed home to relax and recover.

While the walk was a lot of fun, ultimately the overall goal of the walk was to raise money for the charity and we are pleased to say that we raised a total of £354. Donations came from candidates, clients, friends and family and even a couple we bumped into on our walk.