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By Kirsty, March 15, 2013 6:32 pm

Since 1985 Comic Relief has been making the nation chuckle to raise funds for those who need it in Africa and right here in the UK.

Virgin Balloon Flights HQ staff have pledged their support by making donations and donning their best celebrity clobber in a past and present pop stars day!

We’ve had some of the biggest names in music history in the office and our company pooch, Pomeranian Cookie, took part sporting a Virgin red wig!

Can you spot… Kiss? Ben’s Gene Simmons ensemble was a lunch time wonder made of bin bags and foil, with a bit of help from retro Madonna and ‘Virgin’ marketer Kirsty painting his face.

Amy Winehouse was traditionally beehive and eyeliner and Lynsay even managed to recreate the Amy tattoos one by one. Natalie added some ‘zig-a-zig-ah’ with her Melanie C outfit and Sophie’s leopard print and lipstick with that trademark Jessie J hair meant she was in charge of collecting the ‘Money, Money, Money’.

Sat ‘Jammin’ on the VBF sofa was Bob Marley AKA head of comms and marketing Alex, while Shaun was in the ‘Right Place Right Time’ as the lovely Olly Murs. No pop star set would be complete without a serenade from Michael Buble; and Wayne did just that, suit and all!

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By Kirsty, March 5, 2012 12:41 pm

Here is the latest blog update from Virgin Balloon Flights runner, freelance designer Adam Fleetwood.

“I’m pleased to say that sponsorship for the Virgin London Marathon is rolling in nicely, friends, family, Virgin Balloon Flights colleagues and local businesses are all making kind donations which is fantastic.

I’ve recently been selling sponsorship space on my Virgin Unite running vest and two of my very generous customers, Willows Dental (£200) and Telling Architects (£100) have taken two of the three spaces which has really helped me get close to my target of £2000.00. I’m currently at £1921.25 including gift aid.

There is still one last space on my running vest for any company that wishes to get some great exposure and at the same time give to a great cause. If you’re interested or know anyone that might be, please get in touch at wotsitdesign@gmail.com or call 07970 821266.

Please help me keep the donations rolling in for Birmingham Children’s Hospital. It will make running the 26.2 miles all the more worthwhile!

To make a donation visit my Virgin Money Giving Sponsorship page.

Thank you

Adam x”

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By Kirsty, February 27, 2012 12:40 pm

Virgin London Marathon together with Virgin Money Giving have teamed up to create a bit of fun for Marathon runners in the form of Marathon News TV.

Last week runners of the marathon were sent a link to create a news piece simply by filling in their details, such fun! Being a good sport, Virgin Balloon Flights marathon runner, freelance designer Adam Fleetwood got his three minutes of fame, which you can watch by following this link:

http://www.marathonnewstv.com/?f=Adam%20&l=Fleetwood&v=AdamFleetwood&ch=Virgin%20Unite&n=1

You can help support our chosen charity Birmingham Children’s Hospital by sponsoring Adam on his Virgin Money Giving Page, every penny counts! You can also keep up to date with his training and fundraising on our blog.

Virgin Balloon Flights fly from over 100 launch sites in England, Scotland and Wales from as little as £89 per person, for further information, please call 0844 8448080 or visit virginballoonflights.co.uk

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By Kirsty, February 23, 2012 5:25 pm

We’re a day early but we put our hearts into it. Each year the British Heart Foundation has a National Wear Red Day and staff here at Virgin Balloon Flights donned their best red clobber and ate beautiful heart covered cupcakes made especially by Helen Meehan from Simply Love Cupcakes. The day’s not over yet so let’s hope we raise a bucket full!

To get involved tomorrow simply download a fundraising pack from the British Heart Foundation website.

Virgin Balloon Flights fly from over 100 launch sites in England, Scotland and Wales from as little as £89pp, for further information please call 0844 8448080 or visit www.virginballoonflights.co.uk

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By Kirsty, February 20, 2012 5:27 pm

Virgin Balloon Flights have a speedy runner set to take on the 26.2 mile world famous challenge on April 22^nd this year, all in aid of Birmingham Children’s Hospital.

Adam Fleetwood, freelance creative designer to Virgin Balloon Flights jumped at the chance of applying for one of Virgin Unite’s London Marathon places late last year. After some careful consideration of how to win over the votes at Virgin, Adam put together a short movie, which you can watch on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sx2UjRQyeI

After being granted a place (yippee), Adam set his mind to training, fundraising and a bit of blogging along the way to keep us all up to date with what he’s doing. There are a number of blogs up already, just click the image below to take you to the page and find out what’s been going on.

TRAINING BEGINS!

STEPPING IT UP

BURNING OFF THE TURKEY

TAKING TRAINING TO NEW HEIGHTS

BIRMINGHAM CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL VISIT

With Adams efforts and an auction held by Virgin Balloon Flights at the Christmas party, we’re well on the way to hitting our £2000 target. Already we have reached a whopping £1733.75 including Gift Aid! You too can help us reach our target by sponsoring Adam via his Virgin Money Giving page: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserProfilePage.action?userUrl=AdamFleetwood

As always, our lovely big red balloons will be at the start line of 2012’s Virgin London Marathon, so be sure to give us a wave if you see us!

Take to the skies with Virgin Balloon Flights from over 100 launch sites in England, Scotland and Wales from as little as £89pp.

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By Alex, December 19, 2011 3:10 pm

Well, the festive season has landed and 2011 has simply flown by here at Virgin Balloon Flights. (New Year’s resolution: no more balloon puns!).

It’s been a fantastic 12 months with thousands of new airborne adventurers, fantastic personal achievements by staff and charity campaigns galore! Enjoy some of our highlights in pictures below.

January

Steve Dubois of SteveOnTheRun.co.uk,  from Virgin Media in Cambridge, visited Virgin Balloon Flights HQ for a training run with our Eve (who ran a half marathon this year for Hope Hope) and Sue as part of his preparation for the Virgin London Marathon. Entrepreneur Mark Pearson, of MyVoucherCodes.co.uk fame, told us about his unforgettable balloon flight in Surrey the previous season.

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By Kirsty, December 15, 2011 6:42 pm

“As the Virgin Unite Insider for Virgin Balloon Flights, the opportunities to use ‘business as a force for good’ are endless. When the chance of going to South Africa with Sir Richard Branson and his connection trip guests came my way courtesy of Virgin Unite, of course I grabbed it by the (Buffalo) horns and got packing!

A jam packed schedule allowed me to meet some of the most inspiring, motivated and dedicated people I’ve met in my lifetime; The Branson Centre Entrepreneurs, Jean Oelwang (The CEO of Virgin Unite), Dr Taddy Blecher (a pioneer of the free education movement in South Africa) and of course Sir Richard himself alongside his business mogul guests.

After a long flight with the superb Virgin Atlantic, a hotel check in and a stimulating meet and greet, I accompanied Jean, the connection trip guests and the Virgin Unite team to Newtown arriving at the Sophiatown Restaurant where we were delighted by African cuisine and guest speaker Dr Taddy Blecher. Post lunch we marvelled at Inner City Craft Initiatives and met ‘Prince’ an up and coming South African jeweller who designed & created the most interesting pieces of ‘junk’ jewellery. Who can resist a bracelet made out of a fork?!

From here we crossed townships to Constitution Hill. By far one of Johannesburg’s most moving sights. Originally a fort during the Boer War it later became an infamous prison housing many of South Africa’s most well-known resistance leaders and is now home to the Constitutional Court of South Africa. After a quick change we headed off to the Orient Restaurant and chatted over exquisite Chinese food before listening to more inspiring guest speakers.

Early the next morning guests enjoyed breakfast with Sir Richard before we travelled to Mzansi Designers Studio to meet Lesego Malatsi (a previous Branson centre entrepreneur) and saw his fashion house in full swing. We were later treated to seeing his first boutique shop in Maponya Mall too. We also experienced another previous Branson Centre entrepreneurs thriving business in Diepkloof, Soweto. A recycling plant started by Tshepo Nawane.

Inspired once more by the sheer determination and drive to create employment for local communities and to start businesses from scratch, we chatted to both Lesego and Tshepo en route to the grand opening of the Virgin Active Gym in Maponya. Greeted with steel drums, stilt walkers and Sir Richard, this feast of colour and sound gave the gym opening the atmosphere it most definitely deserved.

Departing the swanky new gym we lunched at Velo and chatted with Marious Minnie, the CEO of Southpoint and a partner and investor of the Branson Centre (BC) before crossing over to the BC to offer mentoring to the current entrepreneurs.

The pièce de résistance of the day was of course the Screw Business As Usual booklaunch at ‘Randlords’ where Richard spoke about his book alongside African children’s choirs and pure cultured entertainment. You can see my video montage of the #SBAU book launch here on our YouTube page.

After supper and wine back at the hotel with Richard and guests, it was off to bed before an early start to wave off the guests, Richard and Jean to Ulusaba for the next step of their trip. You can see Richards Blog about their game drive here. I spent my last day in South Africa with some of the Virgin Media Pioneers sightseeing and taking in some of South Africa’s most beautiful animals.

THANK YOU to Virgin Unite, Sir Richard, Jean and the rest of the team for the most amazing experience of my life. A trip I will treasure in my heart forever.”

Kirsty x

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By Alex, December 7, 2011 3:13 pm

A high-flying 25-year-old has won a once-in-a-lifetime trip to South Africa with Sir Richard Branson to visit an inspirational business-led charity.

Kirsty Mills, who works at our Virgin Balloon Flights HQ in Telford, will fly out to meet the famous adventurer and businessman at The Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship in Johannesburg tomorrow (December 8).

There she will spend time with Sir Richard and learn all about the charity which was founded in 2006 by Virgin Unite – Virgin’s not-for-profit foundation – to nurture promising entrepreneurs, grow businesses and create jobs in deprived areas.

Marketing executive Kirsty is also a volunteer Virgin ‘Insider’ – one of a select band of Virgin employees tasked with making businesses a force for good from within – and won the opportunity as recognition for her work on charity projects at Virgin Balloon Flights and across the wider group.

These included a campaign which raised almost £8,000 for Hope House Children’s Hospices, a series of community events for Mandela Day and a hit squad to help children’s charity Starlight. She was also nominated for a Virgin Star of the Year Award in 2010.

On Saturday (December 9) Kirsty will also assist at the South Africa launch of Sir Richard’s new book ‘Screw Business as Usual’ – all royalties for which will go to Virgin Unite – by becoming Virgin Unite’s representative on Twitter for the day. Follow her progress @virginunite

She said: “Since joining Virgin Balloon Flights in January 2010, I have had some amazing opportunities, but going to South Africa and working with Richard will take some beating. I just can’t wait.

“The Branson Centre for Entrepreneurship is an amazing charity which is using business to make a real difference for people in deprived areas of South Africa, so it will be fantastic to visit and see for myself how it works.”

More information about Virgin Balloon Flights in Staffordshire and around the UK is available at www.virginballoonflights.co.uk

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By Alex, November 18, 2011 1:07 pm

I headed to London on Wednesday for the Virgin Social Marathon with a whopping 20 #FirstTimes still to complete in order to get the big 50 for Virgin Unite.

Thanks to the help of the brilliant Virgin Balloon Flights team, our fantastic colleagues from other Virgin businesses, wonderful customers and a large slice of luck, I did it!

I worked on a train (juice trolley duty with Virgin Trains), did a Sudoku (eventually!), went busking, roller  bladed (like Bambi on ice),  visited the Tate Modern, went on a motorbike ride (with Rhys from Virgin Limobikes), learned to make tasty Hollandaise and fed flamingos (not Hollandaise!) at the Roof Gardens, swam in a lake, had my hair coloured and eyebrows plucked, played poker (responsibly online with Virgin Games), ate dragon fruit, ate jellied eels (not recommended). Facebooked @ Facebook HQ and tweeted ‘a poem’.

A rickshaw ride and frogs legs eluded me, but were replaced with winkles and pickled herring and being an impromptu newspaper street seller. We also threw in a celebrity encounter by meeting former MP Lembit Opik of ‘I’m a Celebrity Fame’.

I finished off by telling Sir Richard Branson a joke (via Twitter) ‘What do you call a nun on a treadmill?’ A Virgin Active. He replied ‘Haha! Great effort & well done for your 50 #FirstTimes‘

What a day!

Thanks to everyone who helped with this weird and wonderful charity challenge including Facebook and Virgin.com plus all those who have sponsored me. Hopefully, we’ll creep to the £1,000 including gift aid (sponsor me here) and then it’s over to you Virgin Unite!