YORKSHIRE Building Society is saying ‘thanks a million’ to the community for helping it raise more than £1 million for the Marie Curie charity.

The Society’s Hour of Need campaign was started in 2014 and became the most successful fundraising drive in its 152-year history.

Initially hoping to raise £500,000, it soon became obvious it was to smash that target.

Karen Watson, manager of the Shipley branch of Yorkshire Building Society (YBS), said: “By supporting our Hour of Need campaign for the past two years the community in and around Bradford has helped to provide nursing care for more people with a terminal illness in their hour of need.

“By helping us raise more than £1 million we have so far funded two hours of care by a Marie Curie Nurse for every hour of the campaign.”

Money raised in Bradford alone funded 654 hours of care.

Building society colleagues and volunteers took on a myriad of challenges including marathons, swims, riding 190km in branch on exercise bikes, gardening, stepper machine challenges and even set a new world record for the largest cream tea party in multiple locations.

The Society brewed up more than £34,000 through tea themed events across the country to mark a successful year of fundraising for Marie Curie in June 2015.

Tea parties were held at Yorkshire Building Society branches and offices around the UK last year with colleagues serving cream teas to customers. The Society set a new Guinness World Records title in aid of Marie Curie when 667 Society colleagues took part in multiple venues. The attempt was started by Frances Quinn, winner of the Great British Bake Off in 2013.

Chris Wolfenden-Smith, assistant marketing manager at Accord Mortgages, helped with gardening.

He said: “We know that Marie Curie is a charity which is close to the hearts of many of our colleagues and customers. “We had a great day helping out in the hospice gardens.”

Society colleagues have also contributed over 5,600 hours of volunteering so far, donating their time in Marie Curie shops and hospices and supporting street collections such as the Great Daffodil Appeal.

Daffodils have also been a huge fundraiser for the charity and YBS has sold more than 27,700 Marie Curie daffodil pin badges so far since the Hour of Need campaign started.

Kind-hearted YBS savers also contributed more than £330,000 from contributions through a Marie Curie two-year fixed rate bond.

Elsewhere, a team of 44 colleagues put their best feet forward and headed north to take on one of the country’s most challenging walks, the Yorkshire Three Peaks challenge last September.

In June this year football pundit and former Bradford City FC midfielder and manager Chris Kamara answered the call and helped out at a Keepy-up challenge taken on by YBS colleagues.

Another sporting hero, cycling Olympian and world champion Ed Clancy, took to the road with a team of YBS riders and supported them as they tackled the first three stages of the Tour de France Grand Départ.

Colleagues in YBS branches also got in on the action by cycling the distance of the first stage- 190km - on static bikes and were joined in the saddle in their Keighley branch by then Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.

Dr Jane Collins, Chief Executive of Marie Curie, said: “Thank you to all Yorkshire Building Society staff and members for their fantastic support of the Hour of Need campaign. The £1 million raised is enough to fund around 50,000 hours of vital care and support for people living with a terminal illness, and their families. The Society has gone above and beyond to raise funds for us, and we are truly grateful for everything staff and members have done.”