Sepsis currently claims 5 lives an hour in the UK, that’s 120 people every day, 48,000 annually – and the charity’s on a mission to change that!

Step Up To Sepsis is more than just a fundraising challenge; it’s a chance to make a difference. Encourage your colleagues to get into teams and clock up as many steps as possible. You could even get competitive and offer a prize to the team who raises the most, or who has the highest step count!

By taking part, you’ll be raising vital funds that will enable our work to continue, while also raising awareness of this life-threatening condition. Together, we can save thousands of lives.

Who can take part?

Step Up To Sepsis is open to everyone! Whether you’re a corporate partner looking for a fun team-building activity or to inspire some healthy competition among a professional network; a school wanting to educate students about sepsis; a healthcare partner, or a community group passionate about making a difference – there’s a place for everyone in this challenge.

Ready to take the first step?

Here’s how it works:

1. Assemble a stepping squad: Gather as many participants as possible and choose a captain for each team. We suggest groups of 5, to reflect the number of people who die each hour but you can adapt this depending on the size of your organisation. Decide how long you’ll do the challenge for – from 5 days to 5 weeks, it’s up to you!
2. Set up your fundraising page: Create a JustGiving page to capture your team’s donations. Click here for instructions on how to do this. Be sure to link it to our main Step Up To Sepsis campaign page here!
3. Spread the word: Start telling colleagues, friends and family about your plans. If you haven’t already, we encourage you to hold a ‘Sepsis Savvy’ webinar to help raise awareness of this condition among colleagues. To schedule a free educational session, email savvy@sepsistrust.org.
4. Start stepping: Throughout the challenge period, track your steps using your smartphone or a pedometer and encourage your team members to stay active and motivated.
5. Fundraise: Don’t forget to encourage friends, family and colleagues – in fact anyone you know – to donate to your challenge’s page using social media. Use the hashtag #StepUpToSepsis to raise awareness and inspire others to join the cause! (You might, if you’re putting together a corporate team, try to encourage your organisation to match anything raised?)

Shout about your achievements

Once your challenge is over let us know how many steps your team completed, including whoever did the most, and share any photos you took along the way so we can also promote your achievements on our social media channels: marcomms@sepsistrust.org

A Corporate Partner example –
Mott MacDonald

Mott MacDonald led a successful Step Up To Sepsis competition last year, raising over £5,000 which was incredible. We’re encouraging all UKST partner organisations to follow their lead and set up a steps-based competition of their own. It’s entirely up to you, when you run the Challenge, but it might be a good idea to time it in September – which is sepsis awareness month (World Sepsis Day is on Friday 13th September.)

Top tips for organising your Step Up To Sepsis Challenge:

1. SET UP – Make sure to leave yourself enough time to organise your challenge – sometimes this takes longer than you think!
2. SUBMITTING STEP TOTALS – if you decide to do a month long Step Up To Sepsis challenge, a temporary company email address or a shared Google Doc might be useful so colleagues can submit their steps or fundraising totals each week.
3. COMMUNICATION – create a weekly leaderboard to post on your staff intranet to keep the momentum going!
4. MONITORING STEPS – you may decide to encourage all participants to use the same app or tool to measure their steps – there are lots to choose from.
5. INCLUSIVITY – to make it an inclusive activity, please modify or adapt the challenge to suit all capabilities within your organisation.
6. CONTACT: Please email Events@sepsistrust.org if you have any questions.