The ongoing global pandemic which has seen tens of thousands of seafarers left trapped on their vessels or being unable to work was the driver for one of our graduates to raise much needed funds for the Mission to Seafarers by running 100km (62 miles).

Since early November, Giles Themans, V.Group Global Graduate Engineer, has been running around the city of Hamburg to support the work of the Mission to help tackle the humanitarian crisis that is gripping the huge freight ships that drive global trade.

He said: “The Covid-19 Pandemic has affected us all in a multitude of ways for better or worse. I was very lucky to have been able to continue working throughout the outbreak but many of my seafaring colleagues both at sea or the ones stuck ashore (particularly in the cruise sector where work has near dried up), fell victim to travel restrictions preventing crew changes to occur.

As the second wave sweeps through Europe and new lockdown measures are brought in yet again, being able to contact family and friends at the touch of a few buttons has been important in so many ways. For crew onboard ships, sometimes on contracts lasting over a year, many do not even have the sufficient internet access which most of us take for granted while being isolated from loved ones.”

“The Mission To Seafarers do extraordinary work to help improve the quality of life and conditions on ships for the 1.5 million seafarers around the world, so given the importance we set by our seafarers I wanted to do what I could during this difficult time.”

If you want to support Giles, please visit his JustGiving page by clicking here

You can track Giles’s progress here https://lnkd.in/ejvmSeW