Christmas came early for Aberdeen Cyrenians when the homelessness charity took delivery of a bumper £14,000 donation raised by apprentices from Aberdeen Asset Management.

More than half of the total came from a single mission –– when apprentices were joined by colleagues and spent a chilly night sleeping outdoors in Aberdeen, an experience that drove home the relevance and need to support those for whom homelessness and sleeping rough is a daily reality.

The five apprentices – Hannah Booth, Rachel Adam, Raegan McBain, Harry Rothnie and Sam McGrath – have been praised for putting heart and soul into the charity challenge and making the donation at the time when demand for services is at its peak.

Scott Baxter, depute chief executive for Aberdeen Cyrenians, said: “We are all absolutely delighted at how well the Aberdeen Asset Management apprentices have done and with their energy, motivation and commitment they have raised an incredible amount of money. This money will go directly to our Drop In service at a time when there is the highest level of need. We’ve developed a great friendship which we hope will continue in the future as these young people move into the professional world.”

The apprentices were challenged by their employees to raise £10,000 in six weeks for the Cyrenians and could turn to colleague Sophie Ewen, who was recently named apprentice ambassador of the year at the 2016 Scottish Apprenticeship Awards, for advice and assistance throughout.

They planned and organised a whole host of money-raising efforts and in addition to the sleepout, they held a bingo night and raffle, race night, auction, cake sale, and sold bacon rolls to office staff on Friday mornings. They smashed their target after just four weeks and were so committed to the cause that they gave up a considerable amount of their personal time to planning and staging events.

Apprentice Hannah Booth, part of the fundraising team, said: “It was quite daunting being faced with the challenge of raising £10,000 but right from the start we gained wonderful support from colleagues and many of them joined us on the Sleepout, or sponsored us to take part, which was just great. We feel that taking part in this challenge has brought us closer together and we’ve really bonded from having spent so much time in each other’s company through organising and holding our events.

“We’re all really proud to have been able to raise so much money for Aberdeen Cyrenians which does great work to support the homeless, rough sleepers and people who experience hardship in the North-east of Scotland.”