2020 has been such a tough year for so many people in so many ways. For us as a HR team, one of the saddest parts of our year was losing our colleague, David Brierley, to oesophageal cancer at the age of 54.

David and his guide dog, Ace, joined our team in October 2018 and were such massive characters. As part of the EDI team, David contributed so much to the work and change we are looking to lead within the University, and we all learned so much from the determination and knowledge that David brought into his role. We also had a lot of fun working with David, and Ace (the most spoiled guide dog in the world) created a lot of laughter and also taught us the benefits of having a dog within our workplace - we were truly lucky to have them both in our team. We miss them a lot!

As we head towards a different Christmas, rather than our traditional Secret Santa, the HR team will be making donations to Guide Dogs so they can continue their amazing work.

Also, a few of the team have also come together to walk or run the distance from Lands End to John O'Groats (874miles, or 1406.57 km of road) in memory of David. We vary in fitness massively but will be doing this as a team (with many dogs joining us along the way!). We are also doing this to support each other and our mental health and wellbeing during this difficult time, when we have dark days, and miss the usual human contact that we have at this time. We know David would want to support us in this. We will be doing this from 20 November and want to finish by our last day in work - 18 December!

We recognise what a difficult year this has been for people, but if anyone would like to make a donation to support the work of Guide Dogs, we would appreciate it, no matter how small.