Bus drivers dress up for charity

Photo: Guilia Zecchini

A group of 22 Stagecoach bus drivers from Leamington Spa Depot dressed up as their favourite superheroes on Friday 25 October to raise money for international charity Stand Up to Cancer.

Drivers displayed posters in their buses advertising the event, as well as Cancer Research collection boxes on board and individual Facebook sponsorship pages.

The event was organised by Stagecoach driver Dave Russell – or Superman – who drove buses on three routes (although in Coventry, rather than Smallville) throughout the day, all while dressed in full costume.

Dave commented: “There has been tremendous support from the drivers. They all turned up in their costumes at six a.m. to be photographed. Each one bought their own costume, so they were dressed as their favourite superhero.

“The idea to do something for this very worthwhile cause came about when I saw a TV documentary on Stand up to Cancer, and my partner’s aunt also recently died of cancer.”

Stand Up to Cancer invests money in new forms of cancer research, and has been running a series of fundraising events throughout October as well as encouraging people to raise money in new creative ways.

Although the grand total won’t be known for a few weeks due to the difficulty of collecting and counting the money, the drivers had a great deal of support from their passengers to the extent that they were forced to regularly collect new boxes from the depot as they filled quicker than expected.

Craig Woodall, acting operations manager at Leamington Spa Depot, said: “We are very proud of our drivers, who have organised the collection for this very good cause entirely themselves.”