My great passion is football — and helping those less fortunate than myself.
Despite my obvious physical disability in only having one arm, I consider myself lucky. I do not live in poverty or have cancer, and I want to help people as an employee of Johnson & Johnson, but also through my personal contribution as an individual.
Volunteering and being able to give back to others really matters to me because we can touch people’s lives by making a difference, however big or small. That is why I was proud to stand along my UK colleagues and get involved in the Race to Brazil – our UK corporate company-wide, event to collectively cover 5,462 miles (the distance from London to Brasilia) on June 26. The goal was to use various sporting activities to raise more than $100,000 (£60,000 ) for our partner, Save the Children, and our local UK site charities. We are still collecting the miles, hours and money raised, but early results show that we smashed our targets!
Yet Race to Brazil was not just about the miles. UK employees were also asked to volunteer at least one hour to a charitable cause during June – Johnson & Johnson’s Global Care Month – to reach 5,462 hours of total volunteer time.
With football as my passion, getting involved in Race to Brazil at the same time that Johnson & Johnson was celebrating its sponsorship of the 2014 FIFA World Cup™ was amazing. I ran 20 miles in June as my personal contribution to Race to Brazil. But my volunteer commitments continue on. I manage and train a youth football team, and joined my Johnson & Johnson colleagues at the Wimbledon tennis tournament recently to collect donations for Save the Children. All of these activities give me a sense of pride – and the happiness that I’ve helped others.
Our Credo says that as employees, we’re to be responsible for the communities in which we live and work – and that is one of the reasons I feel so proud to be working for Johnson & Johnson. Race to Brazil highlighted to me how we can make a massive difference to the lives of others and inspired me to perform even more caring acts in the future.
Peter Monk joined Janssen Pharmaceuticals in 1989 and is a Senior Account Manager for Janssen Immunology UK. When not at work, Peter is heavily involved in coaching football for a youth league. He is married and has four children, ages 5 to 23.