Press releases
Atkins’ engineer carries Olympic Flame for daughter - 18 May 2012
A local super-mum has been nominated by her work colleagues to carry the Olympic Torch in Bristol after raising £20,000 for CLIC Sargent, the UK’s leading cancer charity for children and young people.
Lucy Willis, a flood defence engineer at Atkins in Bristol, will be carrying the Olympic Flame on Tuesday 22 May for her daughter, Lola (aged 6), who was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia two years ago.
As the official engineering and design services provider for the London 2012 Games, Atkins was given the opportunity to nominate two colleagues to carry the Olympic Flame during the London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay. Nominees had to have inspiring ‘personal best’ stories which demonstrated outstanding contributions to their local communities.
Lucy said: “CLIC Sargent has helped us so much since Lola was diagnosed with Leukaemia in 2010.
“It provides accommodation near hospitals, so we were able to stay with Lola when she spent five weeks in hospital. Nurses come to our house once a week for Lola’s blood tests, helping her to enjoy a more normal life outside hospital.
“To raise money we have shaved heads, held yoga events and even abseiled down Bristol Royal Hospital for Children with seven of my Atkins colleagues."
When Lola received many blood transfusions early in her treatment, Lucy campaigned for more donors. She added: “I badgered everyone, including my Atkins colleagues and we encouraged over 100 new blood donors through the local press.
“Lola finishes her treatment soon but our fundraising efforts will continue. Every day 10 families are told their child has cancer. I will always do all I can to help support CLIC Sargent.
“The Torch is for my daughter, her brave friends battling cancer and to help raise awareness of CLIC Sargent’s valuable support. I want to thank all my Atkins colleagues who have helped me in fundraising and who nominated me to carry the Torch. It will be a very proud moment for me as an Atkins employee.”
Lucy will be carrying the Torch in Bristol on Leg 136 along Church Road (A420) from Barnes Street and finish at Verrier Road. The journey will start at about 6:18 pm and cover a distance of 350 yards.
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Notes to editors:
Atkins (www.atkinsglobal.com) is one of the world's leading engineering and design consultancies*, employing some 17,700 people across the UK, North America, Middle East, Asia Pacific and Europe. It has the breadth and depth of expertise to plan, design and enable some of the world's most technically challenging and time critical infrastructure projects.
*It is the largest engineering consultancy in the UK (New Civil Engineer Consultants File 2012) and the 13th largest global design firm (Engineering News-Record 2011).
Recent projects include:
- Major infrastructure works, such as the design and programme management of the civil works for the Dubai Metro red and green lines in the UAE;
- Key rail projects – providing architectural and engineering design services on Crossrail, Europe’s biggest civil engineering project in London, UK, and designing stations, tunnelling and track systems for Gautrain, South Africa’s first high speed line;
- Renewable energy schemes – transformer platform design for the Thanet offshore wind park in the North Sea;
- Multi-year architecture-engineering construction management services for the US National Park Service, including projects such as rehabilitation of the Furnace Creek Visitor Center and Administrative Complex at California’s Death Valley to meet the US Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Gold certification standards;
- High profile transport planning and urban design – our innovative scheme to deliver a diagonal crossing at Oxford Circus in London, UK, has helped tackle the problem of pedestrian crowding;
- Water and environmental projects – critical programme management of storm protection works in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and Southern Louisiana in North America, providing expertise in coastal restoration, engineering, environmental and GIS support to rebuild defenses and protect habitats;
- Multidisciplinary building design – Northwood Primary School in Darlington, UK, is an exemplar project which raises standards for environmental design and community engagement.
Atkins was named among The Sunday Times 25 Best Big Companies to Work For 2011, won Consultancy of the Year in the CIBSE Low Carbon Performance Awards 2010, received the first ever certification of the Carbon Trust Standard awarded to an engineering consultancy in the construction sector, and was included in The Times Top 50 Employers for Women 2011 and The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers 2010. Atkins was also construction and civil engineering sector winner for the fifth consecutive year in the Target National Graduate Recruitment Awards 2010 and was awarded a RoSPA Gold Award 2011 for excellence in control of health and safety in the workplace.
Atkins is the official engineering design services provider for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
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Lucy Willis and her daughter Lola
Click to enlarge