Members of the construction team working on a £37 million project to build two new schools in Liverpool successfully completed a different type of challenge in the name of charity.

Project director John Dunn, senior project manager Peter Durkin and assistant site manager Ben Wolstenholme, who all work for Morgan Sindall, raised £2,562.50 for Zoe’s Place, which cares for babies with multiple special needs and life limiting conditions, after harnessing their pedal power for a sponsored bike ride along the Trans Pennine Trail.

The trio – part of the Morgan Sindall team carrying out a scheme to build replacement high school buildings and sixth form facilities at Cardinal Heenan Catholic High School for Boys and Broughton Hall High School for Girls in West Derby – were joined by Ian Shakeshaft and Andrew Kendall from subcontractor McCrory Brickwork for the 38-mile route between Manchester and Liverpool. They successfully completed the challenge in just over three-and-a-half hours.

“We have previously cycled the Manchester to Blackpool route for charity, which is a reasonably straight-forward route,” says Peter. “However, this time we chose tackle the Trans Pennine Trail. It was tough terrain and mountain biking all the way, but we all really enjoyed the challenge.

“We are delighted with the amount we were able to raise and want to thank everyone that has sponsored and supported us. Zoe’s Place provides an exceptional level of care and support to families across Merseyside and we feel it is important to support their vital work.”

Carol Kirkham, fundraising manager at Zoe’s Place, says: “We cannot thank the staff at Morgan Sindall enough for taking part in such a challenging bike ride in order to raise much-needed funds for our very special babies. Such tremendous support is crucial to our work and helps us make a positive difference to the lives of so many children and their families. The respite care at Zoe’s Place has proven to be vital to so many of the families who have benefited from our service.

“Demand is now exceeding our current facility and we are in the process of creating a new hospice within our existing building. The new facility will give a significantly increased surface area for our babies and their families and will bring the hospice onto ground floor level, improving accessibility and greatly enhancing the facilities on offer to our babies. The facilities provided by Zoe’s Place are free of charge to all families accessing the service. We currently need to raise approximately £800,000 a year to run our 24-hour, seven-day-a-week operations.”

Morgan Sindall, which has offices at Enterprise Way, Liverpool, is constructing replacement teaching blocks for Cardinal Heenan and Broughton Hall High Schools, as part of Liverpool City Council’s Wave Two Building Schools for the Future scheme. At Cardinal Heenan Catholic High School for Boys, the company is building a three-storey teaching block, which will house a food court, an art technology department, a PE department, a music and performing arts department and an activity hall complete with stage.

At Broughton Hall High School, Morgan Sindall is also constructing a three-storey teaching block which will house a separate food court, sports hall with changing facilities and a performing arts department.

In addition, the company is creating a shared sixth form facility, which forms a bridge between the new schools, linking up the entire education complex. The project is due to be completed in September 2012.