Fluid’s client, Acacia – providers of high quality training for care staff – have a new celebrity endorser, non other than former snooker world champion and all round A-lister, Dennis Taylor! Phil was the lucky member of the Fluid team who got to art direct the photo shoot and meet the star. Snooker cue and autograph book in hand and Phil was all set!

Fluid’s campaign for Safe and Sound got underway this month with outdoor advertising. Targeting sexual abusers of children, the hard-hitting advertising can be seen across Derby. For those of you not fortunate enough to live in Derby, it can also be seen in the picture above.

Starting off in Hong Kong, and then moving on to fabulous Fiji, Laura and Gavin snorkelled with reef sharks, dived in underwater caves, visited the famous ‘Castaway’ island, and took part in a traditional Kava ceremony with the Village Chief … (oh and got engaged!)

After all this relaxing it was time for something a little more extreme… A tour of New Zealand saw Laura jump out of a plane at 15,000ft, bungy jump off Auckland Harbour Bridge, hike the Franz Josef Glacier, jet boat through the Buller Gorge and more!

All this excitement was the build up to one of the biggest physical and mental challenges she’s faced… Laura comments: “Pfff 10k run – piece of cake!”

Arriving in Lima, Peru and moving onto Cusco, Laura set off on the 45km Inca Trail, undoubtedly one of the highlights of South America. Laura says: “We set off on the hike, a stunning trek over the Peruvian Andes, through cloud forest and high rainforest, alongside rivers and across gossamer suspension bridges made from straw, and with views of deep glacial valleys and snow-capped mountains to reach the archaeological site and one of the seven New Wonders of the World – Machu Picchu.

“The hiking wasn’t the biggest challenge, even when climbing almost 4,000ft in one day, but the altitude was hard to cope with at times, the air is incredibly thin, especially at aptly named ‘Dead Woman’s Pass’ at 13,650ft above sea level. Fighting headaches and nausea, after 4 days’ hiking and camping above the clouds in minus temperatures, we finally arrived at Machu Picchu and watched the cloud disperse from beneath us unveiling the wonderful lost Inca city.”

Laura then headed south of Lima to the ancient town of Nazca and took flight over the mysterious Nazca lines before heading up to North America for the last few weeks of her trip. “We explored Los Angeles, and drove up California’s West Coast along Big Sur to San Francisco, making stops along the way”, said Laura.

Stine is taking all this running a little to far… She’s taking on the great north run for a good cause. If you’d like to sponsor her you can do so below!

On 19 April the ‘Fluid Runners’ took part  in the Derbyshire Building Society 10K Team Challenge along with over 3000 other participants in aid of Sporting Futures.

…Well when we say ‘Fluid Runners’ we mean: Ben, Phil, Stine and Ross (borrowed from the ‘On The Brink’ football team). Bag, Laura and Dan had other more important things to attend to on the day, (yeah right). Sadly, we didn’t win the Team Challenge but managed a great time – this year we made sure to place the ankle straps correctly. First in was Ross (51 minutes and 30 seconds), then Stine (51 minutes and 53 seconds), then Ben (54 minutes 16 seconds) and Phil (55 minutes 17 seconds). An average of (53 minutes and 4 seconds).

Phil commented: “I think this is going to be Fluid’s annual event – we all trained really hard for this and I’m proud of the team’s achievements. It’s the hardest thing I’ve done since last year, but I feel really, really fit now…!”