Last Friday the sun shone down as the whole agency set off to have some fun and raise some funds in memory of a very dear colleague and friend, Cheryl Rogers.

Cheryl was a huge part of Wieden+Kennedy, working with us for 12 years. She threw herself into absolutely every thing that she did with passion from her early days on Nike, to her time spent in the Shanghai office, touching pretty much all our clients in one way or another during her time with us. She contributed a huge amount personally and professionally to W+K and helped make us the agency we are today.

Cheryl joined as an AM and was a Group Account Director by the time she passed away, growing up with us as the agency grew in size. Her positivity, kindness and enormous sense of fun made her much loved by everyone around her and made lots of us incredibly proud to call her a friend.

We wanted to get together as an agency to do something to celebrate her life, to get everyone together and have some fun; just the way that Cheryl would have organised.

And we also wanted to do something useful. Cheryl was cared for exceptionally well by St Joseph’s Hospice in Hackney. We were humbled by the work they do every day for so many people and wanted to raise some cash to help them continue to deliver such an amazing service to those in need of it.

So last Friday we launched the first annual W+K WALK – setting off around the East End where Cheryl lived (and visiting some local pubs) for a 10 mile walk in the sunshine. We donned specially designed colourful T-shirts and set out in the bright spring sunshine to explore Hackney a bit. We are proud to say we raised over £24k in doing so.

We were touched by the number of donations we received from friends and family, clients, partners and even people who passed us on the street. We are pleased to have created an event which has raised so much and also felt so fitting – Cheryl would have loved every minute of it – we hope it’s the first of many.

Thanks very much to every one who donated and everyone who took part. If you would like to donate to St Joseph’s, so you can here:

For more information on St Josephs and the work they do: www.stjh.org.uk