Chatham paramedics will be feasting out on coffee and cakes for the next year thanks to the ladies section of Medway Rugby Club.

The ladies exceeded expectations with their ‘step & rep’ challenge, raising close to £6,000 as they totalled 23 million steps during February, a distance equivalent of walking from Medway to the South Pole, and then another 1,800 miles further.

Girls split into teams, inviting friends and family to join in, with the challenge of completing a million steps (or reps) per group as they looked to raise funds for the paramedics working out of the station in Chatham.

Money raised will go towards a new coffee machine for the paramedics and the club have teamed up with the Bean Town Coffee Shop. The shop will be making the paramedics fresh cakes and biscuits every Friday for a year.

Girls youth section chairman Matt Kuhn was delighted to have helped support a local business and some of the NHS frontline heroes too.

He said: “Because the girls hadn’t been playing they were keen to take on a challenge. In January they did a few fitness challenges which was good fun but in February we wanted to raise some money.

“Twelve teams took part and they absolutely smashed it, some of those did over a million steps. There weren’t so many people up for the reps though!

“We spoke to the local paramedics at the Chatham station and we asked them what they wanted and the main thing was a coffee machine. We’ve also got them handcream and shower gel and Bean Town have been brilliant.”

Once the rugby season finally resumes the club also plan to host a lunch for up to 50 paramedics, wining and dining them as guests of honour before watching some match action at Priestfields.

Mr Kuhn added: “It’s our way of saying thank you to the paramedics who are sometimes called upon to pick up the girls when they’ve been injured on the pitch.

“It’s been a fun way to raise money and hopefully now it won’t be long before we can return to playing.

“It was great seeing the positive impact that the challenge had, with some many girls getting out and about, and working as a virtual team to meet the challenge.

“Teamwork has always being a strong feature of the Medway RFC Girls, and has seen them succeed in so many things, both on and off the pitch. The teams were outstanding in more ways than one.”

Jen and Neil Ashmore, owners of Bean Town, stated how proud they were to team up with Medway Rugby Club to support such a great cause.

They said: “Bean Town has been overwhelmed by how the local Medway community has come together to support small locally owned businesses like ours over the last year.

"We are honoured to be able to show our gratitude to the Ambulance Service heroes who have kept us all safe in the most difficult of circumstance and commend all the girls who participated in the fundraising.”

The rugby club have been active in the community during lockdown and are also helping tackle the 'digital divide' by taking in unused computers and distributing them to local schools once cleaned up and services. The clubhouse is open this Saturday between 11am-1pm for donations.

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