We're Preston Station workers & we started a fundraiser for Samaritans after seeing lives lost on railways
Two friends, who work at Preston Railway Station, have helped raise thousands for a charity close to rail worker’s hearts- Samaritans.
Transpennine Express drivers at Preston Station, Glyn Brownley from Blackpool and Darren Hunt from Lancaster, together designed a badge back in March that represented their work and began selling them to their fellow TPE drivers as well as Avanti drivers.
The badges, which feature a Lancashire Red Rose, the symbol ‘PN’ for Preston, Preston’s original shed number 10B and the ASLEF Union badge on it, proved so popular that Glyn, 59, and Darren, 41, not only met their cost but also raised a further £500.
They decided to donate the funds to Preston and District Samaritans branch with Glynn explaining: “We thought the Samaritans was an obvious choice due to all their efforts in saving lives especially on the railway where they unfortunately get ended in front of train drivers.”
However Glyn and Darren’s work inspired various other players to contribute to the cause as well.
ASLEF Preston union branch added an extra donation of £200 as gesture of support whilst ASLEF at a national level donated a further £1500 straight to the Samaritans directly.
Transpennine Express Trains also decided to match the pair’s efforts by donating a further £500 which means in total Glyn and Darren’s work has led to an impressive £2700 being raised for Samaritans .
Over the weekend, Glyn, ASLEF representative David Roberts and TPE representative Chris Towers presented Preston Samaritans with the cheques back at the station.
In a joint statement on the day, Glyn and Darren said: “We are delighted to present Samaritans Preston with £200 on behalf of Avanti and TransPennine Express ASLEF members based here in Preston. We are proud to support such a charity which does excellent work supporting those who are in need, need a listening ear, and saving lives for those who are in crisis.
“We both thought it would be nice for us to send money to the Samaritans but couldn’t envisage such a large donation from Aslef and TPE to which we are very grateful for.”
Andy Watkins, Community and Development Manager at TransPennine Express added: “All here at TransPennine Express are delighted to support the Samaritans with a donation of £500. We have been the beneficiaries of their interventions to reduce the number of incidents on the railway, and we are delighted to add to the amount raised by ASLEF drivers at Preston.”
A spokesperson for the Samaritans said: "We are so grateful to Glyn, Darren and Rob for all their hard work in designing making and selling their badges in order to make a £500 donation to our branch. We also want to say a huge thank you to TransPennine Trains and to Preston ASLEF for their generous donations. We volunteers can only be there to pick up the phone and support callers at their most difficult times because of the support we receive. Thank you so much from all at Preston Samaritans and on behalf of our callers'.
You can find out more about the Preston and District Samaritans branch, including how to support them, here.