EMPLOYEES at Dyson staged a marathon football competition last weekend, raising £10,000 for Alzheimer’s Research UK.

The eight-hour tournament at was the fourth annual event with this year’s money bringing the total raised to £50,000.

Organiser Andrew Clifton, who also donated his London marathon sponsorship money to the grand total, said it was “one hell of an achievement” to raise so much.

Andrew, a business process co-ordinator, moved to Malmesbury from Lancashire seven years ago with his wife who took up a job at Dyson.

Soon after he got a job at the company too and used the fundraising nous he’d developed with his father to start the annual football tournament.

“Dad has been raising money for charity for about 25 years and has broken the £100,000 barrier, that’s where I get my inspiration from”, said Andrew.

“Just from a simple idea, it’s good to see football doing some good for a change.

“I’d like to say a big thank you to all the players who each raised some money.

“Without you we wouldn’t be hitting those targets”.

Each match was 15 minutes longwith four teams competing at any one time and the ‘Bagless Boys’, the team with the most points at the end of the day, lifted the trophy.