Press release -
A cool run for the Wolverhampton Bobsled team with Virgin Trains
The mother of inspirational teenage cancer sufferer Stephen Sutton MBE has travelled to London with Virgin Trains continue his fundraising efforts to fight the disease.
Jane Sutton made the journey after Virgin Trains named one of its Pendolino trains after her son in 2015 in a bid to support the family. She was joined by fellow Wolverhampton Bobsled team members Andy Newman and Neil Hendy, along with their new 15ft replica bobsled, ahead of the London Marathon on Sunday, 22 April.
Jane said: “I can’t thank Virgin Trains enough for helping the team and our bobsled travel down to London ahead of the marathon.”
Jane named a Virgin Trains Pendolino ‘Stephen Sutton’ in honour of her son in September 2015 - one of only four Virgin Trains named after individuals. This very week Stephen’s train clocked up three quarters of a million miles in service on the West Coast route, a regular visitor to London, the West Midlands, Liverpool, Manchester and Scotland spreading Stephen’s story far and wide.
Andy Newman, from the Wolverhampton Bobsled Team said: “Jane has been a wonderful ambassador for Teenage Cancer Trust in continuing Stephen’s legacy. She has continued to raise awareness of the charity; with cancer and raised tens of thousands of pounds - so important when Teenage Cancer Trust receives no government support and relies upon the generosity of the public to fund its work.”
Amanda Hines, General Manager for Virgin Trains in the West Midlands enthused: “Jane is an inspiration to us all, as was her son Stephen Sutton MBE and we jumped at the chance to help her and the Wolverhampton Bobsled Team get down to London for the Marathon.
“Over 12 million journeys were made on our services to and from the West Midlands last year, and I can honestly say this will be the first one carrying a bobsled!
To support Jane and the Wolverhampton Bobsled Team you can donate via their Virgin Money Giving page https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/WolverhamptonBobsledJaneSutton
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About Virgin Trains
Stagecoach and Virgin are working in partnership to operate the East Coast and West Coast inter-city routes under the Virgin Trains brand. Together, they are on track to revolutionise rail travel across the UK.
The combined network connects some of the nation’s most iconic destinations including Glasgow, Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Leeds, York and London.
Virgin Trains is committed to delivering a high speed, high frequency service, offering shorter journey times, more comfortable travel and excellent customer service. Customers consistently rate Virgin Trains as one of the top long-distance rail franchise operators in the National Rail Passenger Survey (NRPS) commissioned by industry watchdog, Transport Focus.
On the East Coast route, £140m is being invested to create a more personalised travel experience. We have already invested over £40m in our existing fleet, including £21m refurbishing interiors and £16m towards improving the engines of our trains. Customers can now benefit from 48 additional services between Edinburgh and London every week, and an extra 22 Saturday services between Leeds and London – a total of 1.74 million additional seats since May 2015. 2018 will see the introduction of completely new Azuma trains being built in the UK by Hitachi.
The West Coast route has a proud record of challenging the status quo - from introducing tilting Pendolino trains, to a pioneering automated delay repay scheme and becoming the first franchised rail operator to offer m-Tickets for all ticket types.
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