British paratriathlete Haseeb AhmadClient and local accountants Newby Castleman has donated £500 to 41 year old Haseeb Ahmad, who earlier this month travelled to Beijing to take part in the Grand Final of the World Championship Series for the Paratriathlon.  

Haseeb, from Oadby, competed in all three events – a 750m swim, a 20km cycle ride, and a 5km run – with the aid of his guide, Duncan Shea-Simonds and won a silver medal. The donation was used to purchase physiotherapy equipment, as well as food and drink for the event.

Before travelling to Beijing he told us how happy he was for the generous donation he received. “The donation from Newby Castleman will help me to buy the equipment needed to compete in Beijing and other events after and I am so very grateful. To have local interest is very encouraging and I am delighted that people are interested in unconventional types of sport.”

Since his first triathlon in 2008, Haseeb has enjoyed a lot of success. The silver at Beijing follows a gold medal in May this year at the British Paratriathlete championships, and silver in Hyde Park earlier this month. He missed out on gold by just 0.01 seconds.

Only two days ago, Haseeb won a bronze medal at the world duathlon championships in Dijon, Spain.

Congratulations Haseeb!

To keep updated with Haseeb’s success follow this link to his blog http://haseebtriathlon.webs.com/.

Here at Unsworth Sugden we have a new addition to our PR department. Last month 23 year old Sophie Redman, who recently completed an MA in Public Relations at Leicester’s De Montfort University, joined Unsworth Sugden as a PR Account Executive.

Sophie is originally from Amsterdam and studied at the University of Applied Sciences there for her BA and then came to Leicester for her masters before applying here with us. And we are so glad she did!

She is working very closely with client the Barratt Group and their Northampton, West Midlands and Barratt and David Wilson Mercia divisions and has made a fantastic start with Hannah and the team in PR.

Welcome Sophie!

Pupils helped to warn other children about the dangers of building sites, after a tour of Lovell’s and Muse Developments’ new homes Vivo project in Northshore.

Site safety is essential to a successful build, which is why Lovell invests time and effort into ensuring their employees and the local community are aware of the dangers building projects possess.

43 Year 2 pupils from Tilery Primary School in Stockton visited the Vivo site, after an invitation from Lovell and the housing association appointed to the development, Tees Valley Housing, to learn about site safety. It was then proposed that to further their understanding, the children should design a poster warning other youngsters about the dangers of building sites. Representatives from Lovell and Tees Valley Housing then selected the best three.

First prize was awarded to Olivia Rowley, with second and third prize given to McKenzie Matthews and Lillie Gibson, respectively. The pupils were delighted with their book tokens, which were presented to them, during their school assembly, in front of all their friends, by Matthew Jarvis, Lovell’s Health and Safety Advisor, Kevin Kelly, Vivo’s Assistant Site Manager, and Frances Barlow, Tees Valley Housing’s Senior Regeneration Officer.

Head Teacher at Tilery Primary School, John Repton concluded, “This was a brilliant opportunity for our Year 2 pupils to visit a live building site. They really enjoyed the experience, whilst learning some very important lessons about keeping themselves safe. Many thanks to everyone at Lovell who made this visit possible.”

With thanks to our photographer, Graham Brown and our PR department, we can see for ourselves how much the children enjoyed the day.

My work experience in the PR department at Unsworth Sugden did not get off to the best start; I got spectacularly lost on Tuesday morning, resulting in me walking over the New Walk bridge about four times before I finally realised where I actually needed to go. Thankfully, the rest of the week went brilliantly.

As it was my first time working at a PR agency, I was slightly nervous. I had worked with press releases before, whilst completing placements at newspapers; but I was well aware that there was a lot more to Public Relations than simply writing these. Luckily, Hannah Elwell and her team were lovely, and I immediately felt welcomed.

After a talk about my interests and why I’d chosen to apply for work experience here, Hannah gave me a guided tour around the company’s office. The quirky building is inhabited by some very interesting people and I immediately looked forward to having them as colleagues for my few days there.

An enlightening experience, my work placement has allowed me to grasp an idea of how a successful PR department is run. The staff work hard on a daily basis and so I pushed myself to try to achieve good results in the tasks I was set. In the time I spent at Unsworth Sugden, I wrote press releases, an advertorial, blog posts, an e-bulletin, researched companies, learnt about AVEs and analysed how the PR department use photography to further enhance their work.

I feel my communications, analysis and research skills have all been vastly improved, which is fantastic; but most importantly, I have thoroughly enjoyed every task I have been given. Whilst working in the PR department, I have been set specific briefs, but in order to create these, I have been allowed free rein to explore different styles of writing.  The work I have completed has allowed me to be creative and imaginative, which is what I love most about writing.

I have loved my time here at Unsworth Sugden and wish to thank everyone for all their support and guidance.

Dessa Rebecca Hadfield

Pupils helped dig up their history, thanks to an excavation at a new homes development site courtesy of clients, David Wilson South Midlands and Barratt Northampton, on Higham Road, Burton Latimer.

We believe one of the best ways to get the community involved and excited about new projects is to invite them in. So when planning consent for the 248 new homes required the companies to include the historical dig, we, with help from consultants CgMs, decided to get the local schools involved. In total, 360 school children from St Mary’s C of E Primary School and Meadowside Primary School were treated to a talk from archaeologist, Anna Slowikowshi, on life in Roman Britain, as well as a guided tour around the excavation site.

David Wilson South Midlands and Barratt Northampton were able to show the children how much history is underneath a development. And what a trove of treasures they brought to life! Roman pottery, including an intact vessel, roman coins and a small cast bronze shoe, which had been cut away from a statuette of a Roman God, were all found on the site surrounded by graves of the deceased inhabitants.

The children were able to see what had been unearthed and shown evidence which suggested that the land had once been used as a farm to provide meat for the growing population in Northamptonshire. To further their enjoyment, the developers suggested that the pupils draw the artefacts they had seen during the visit, with the best pictures being displayed in the respective David Wilson and Barratt sales offices.

With thanks to a few muddy hands in the PR department, the children had a historical day. Owen, aged seven, said: “I enjoyed all of it. I think the Romans lived a little bit like us but mostly different.”

Pupils from St Botolph’s Church of England Primary School in Shepshed took part in a literacy competition supported by client, Newby Castleman this month. Pupils from Years 4 and 5 entered a contest to help stimulate creative thinking and writing, based on a fictional scenario where a character finds a large seed sitting in a jar labelled “This seed should never be planted”. Pupils were then encouraged to explain what happened when the character planted the seed. The three top entrants received book vouchers and Newby Castleman also donated tickets for the class to see the stage adaptation of the children’s book Mr Stink, written by David Walliams, that was recently held at Leicester’s Curve Theatre.

Annalise Lovett Partner at Newby Castleman with the winners

The PR team is looking for a new Account Exec/Assistant - http://www.unsworthsugden.co.uk/careers.php! 

If you’re keen to get started in a career in PR get in touch with Hannah on hannah@unsworthsugden.co.uk now!

The Unsworth Sugden PR team has been helping Pure Gym with its publicity prior to the launch of its new branch in Leicester today.

The old Sturgis Land Rover garage on Walnut Street has been transformed into new premises for the state of the art, 24 hour, low cost, no contract gym with more than 200 pieces of the latest exercise equipment.

The fully air conditioned gym also offers its members over 40 free classes including spinning, circuits and legs, bums and tums. Members will receive a free exercise induction and access to a dedicated member’s area on the website complete with online training and nutritional advice.  A personal training service will also be available.

As well as securing coverage in the Leicester Mercury, other local media and some trade titles in the build up to its launch we also invited Gemma Collins, features writer at the Mercury, down to have a look round and try out some of the state of the art equipment for herself. You can read her brilliant write-up HERE.

For more info about Pure Gym’s new Leicester branch you can visit the website at www.puregym.com, visit the Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pure-Gym-Leicester/192480670786826 or Twitter at @puregym.  

Pure Gym in Leicester - open now!

It’s not just about writing press releases in the Unsworth Sugden PR office, as Hannah and Tom found when they went to visit client Barratt Mercia’s new Discovery House at the Bluebell development in Nuneaton last week. They took classes from two local primary schools on a tour of the property, with activities and quizzes throughout the day. The children were also treated to a fun but informative talk by presenter Hannah Patterson which they all loved.

At Unsworth Sugden we’re all really excited to see HannahB’s first ever music video and think the new single Stranger is one of the best she’s recorded!  Great location at Bruntingthorpe Aeordrome… we just want to know who’s car is that and can we borrow it?!

Watch stranger on You Tube here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bn3JxL7dSNE