A SWINDON-BASED specialist security provider donated £9,000 to help a charity hit its fundraising target in time for Christmas.

SSGC gave the money to Mission Motorsportworks, which works with wounded, injured or sick service leavers and veterans. The charity holds an annual Race of Remembrance endurance event around November 11, normally raising £50,000 to continue its work.

But coronavirus cancelled this year’s event, so socially-distanced and online events were held instead to make up for a gap in fundraising.

SSGC gave the charity enough money to meet the £50,000 goal after already donating £10,000 earlier this year. The company is a signatory of the Armed Forces Covenant and managing director David Stubbs is a former military police officer.

He said: “We made the decision to support Mission Motorsport as our charity partner earlier this year and were genuinely delighted to be able to help tackle this shortfall in their fundraising coffers.

“We said from the word go that our support would constitute more than simply donating money and that we would be working with the team to help its ongoing commitment to getting wounded, injured or sick service personnel into meaningful employment.

“However, as with charities up and down the country, the pandemic has seriously disrupted its fundraising plans and it was quite clear to us that this £9,000 donation would make a real difference for them.”

Mission Motorsport has an award-winning collaborative model of working with government and other service charities to help those affected by military operations by engagement through sport.

CEO and founder James Cameron said: “We were all hugely disappointed to have cancelled our annual Race of Remembrance this year. The team worked extremely hard to provide alternative events, not only to raise funds, but ensure that anybody that required it was supported through a difficult time.

“With this in mind, it’s a huge boost to receive this £9,000 donation. The money ensured we can continue to provide vital resources and plough on with the valuable work we do with ex-service personnel.

“I know David is particularly passionate about supporting veterans and this is reflected in SSGC’s wider support and signing of the AFC, which, in turn, we will support them with as they look to work towards gold status.”

Earlier this year, SSGC deployed 700 security officers, many of whom were military veterans, to marshal Covid-19 testing centres across the UK and won a prestigious national award for Security Partnering Initiative of the Year for its work with Serco managing Covid-19 testing centres on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care.

Visit www.ssgc-net.com or www.missionmotorsport.org.