Vapour boss Tim Mercer has signed up for his toughest fundraiser yet, all in aid of the premature birth charity, Borne.
On 19 May, our CEO will don his boxing gloves and step into the ring for the CRN Fight Night, at The Brewery in London.
A sell out industry event that has raised £220,000 for charity since the contests began in 2008, this is Tim’s first time up against an opponent.
Aware the selection process is notoriously tough, he applied to fight at the start of 2022, before being invited for a nerve-racking assessment. He was one of only 16 UK tech professionals selected, and all eyes are now on the black-tie event to see if Tim ‘No Mercy’ Mercer can bring home the title.
Fighting for the blue team, he will face Paul O’Sullivan, UK sales director at Threatscape, in the red corner.
Travelling to the Ring Boxing Club in Southwark, South London, every week for training, Tim had already upped his fitness regime last year, in preparation for his ‘week of hell’. That particular challenge - which saw him row, cycle, run and climb 286km - was one of his first major fundraisers for Borne back in October.
Since then, he and the Vapour team have raised £8,500 for the charity - and counting - with hopes that Fight Night will get them to £15,000. The ultimate goal is to reach £23,000 before the year is out.
Commenting on his latest challenge, Tim said: “I’m a big boxing fan, so when I saw the application process open for Fight Night, I thought - why not?!
“But when the news dropped that I’d made the lineup, s**t got real!
“There’s a difference between sparring and going toe to toe with an opponent - as I’ve already learned. But I’m tackling this event just as I would anything else - properly! I’m training hard, eating really well, and improving my technique week by week. I’ve got a table of supporters coming to cheer me on but I hope people will get behind me from a distance too, and dig deep for Borne.”
Over 15 million babies are born too soon every year, and 1 million of those die. Borne is a charity dedicated to saving lives, preventing disability, and creating lifelong health for mothers and babies. Anyone wishing to sponsor Tim can donate via Vapour’s JustGiving page.
Every year, Vapour pledges to fundraise for a worthy cause. So, for the next 12 months, the company will dig deep for the charity committed to preventing premature birth – Borne.
And all sights are set on the boldest target yet – a staggering £23,000!
From sponsored treks to corporate auctions, the team will leave no stone unturned on the mission to fill the coffers. In fact, a jam-packed agenda of activities will be revealed as the weeks unfold, with something for every single colleague to get involved in.
“Ever since the company was founded, we’ve been determined to exist for far more than commercial gain,” explains CEO Tim Mercer. “And over the years, we’ve learnt that giving back isn’t just the right thing to do – it brings us together as a team too.
“That’s why some of our fundraising efforts will centre on pushing ourselves and taking on personal challenges or feats of endurance. At the other end of the scale, we’ve also come up with ideas that are, quite frankly, pretty daft, so we can have fun at the same time as doing something good.”
Reflecting on the reasons for choosing Borne – an organisation dedicated to saving lives, preventing disability, and creating lifelong health for mothers and babies – Tim adds: “Our families are what we seek to protect the most, and with premature birth an ongoing problem that nobody understands, there seemed no better cause.
“It is the leading reason for childhood mortality in the world today. More significant than infection, trauma or cancer, it affects some 15 million babies across the world every year – including nearly 60,000 in the UK. So, we want to do our bit to help stop babies being born too soon. And we hope we can drum up a fair amount of support for our varied efforts.”
Want to donate? Check out our JustGiving fundraising page.
Follow Vapour on social media to watch the team’s fundraising efforts unfold:
