Asda

Home shopping driver Ronan from our Enniskillen store was out on his rounds when he spotted a regular customer’s dog, Ruá, running loose along a quiet country road a long way from home.

He stopped and, with gentle coaxing, he managed to get red setter Ruá into his van and then made a detour from his route to reunite her with her worried owner, who said she’d been missing for hours.

Ronan, who's worked at the store for four years, said: "When I saw Ruá I knew she was too far from home, and I couldn’t just leave her. It’s all about being a part of the community and looking out for one another, so I was delighted I was there. I’m just glad I was able to help."

Ruá’s owner Anne took to Facebook to thank Ronan saying: “I just want to thank the Asda driver who recognised my red setter Ruá who had done a runner this morning and coaxed her back home. I really appreciate his kindness.”

Christopher, the store's online trading manager, said: “We all love our pets dearly and no doubt the family were distressed at their missing pup. Ronan is always willing to lend a hand, so his kindness comes as no surprise to those who know him well."

Aria was just 16 when her mum Rani was diagnosed with breast cancer. She is sharing her story as part of our Tickled Pink campaign – telling us how she's been inspired by her mum's experience to spread awareness, challenge taboos and change attitudes.

Aria's mum saw a post on Facebook about breast cancer and checking, which encouraged her to check her own chest and subsequently find a lump in her armpit. After initially not wanting to make a fuss, she went to see her GP, was diagnosed with breast cancer and started her treatment soon after. Aria said: "I come from a South Asian background and learned from Mum’s experience that breast cancer is a taboo topic. Any mention of breasts was seen as something wrong, or that you didn't discuss, so although people were supportive it was difficult to share our experience. You'd tell someone to check themselves and they were like, 'what do you mean?'"

But Aria, who's from Glasgow and studying at university in Aberdeen, believes her generation is a lot more open to speaking about these topics, something her mum feels very proud of, knowing that sharing these experiences can help others in a similar position. She has continued to spread awareness of breast cancer by joining her university's CoppaFeel! Uni B**b Team where she has met others with similar experiences and heard breast cancer awareness spoken of positively.

Good luck to our wonderful colleague Jason, who has cerebral palsy, who's taking on a walking challenge around our Derby store throughout October in support of our Tickled Pink campaign.

Jason uses walking aids and each lap of the store takes him about an hour, but he says the support from customers and colleagues is making all the difference in his effort to raise money and awareness for our charity partners Breast Cancer Now and CoppaFeel!. He said: "There's always a crowd of customers and colleagues clapping me and taking photos. Community champions Rosie and Jason follow me around with the collection bucket and help me if I need it. There's always people around to lend a hand. I may occasionally have to stop, catch my breath and have a drink as it is very tiring."

Anyone who'd like to sponsor Jason should visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/jasons-walk-around-the-store-for-tickled-pink?qid=1b0d9576121d8feadcb8a03463c738ea

Security colleague Ben from our Gosport store saved the day when a customer who was out shopping with her granddaughter couldn't pay for her groceries because the payment app on her phone wouldn’t work and she'd left her purse at home.

Ben could see that the lady was getting upset, so paid for the groceries out of his own pocket before she called back later to pay him back. The lady was so grateful that she posted on the Gosport Aware Facebook group to thank him and let other people know how kind Ben is. She posted: "I was shocked and my faith in kindness and humanity has increased immensely. Just shows you that there are some really nice kind people out there." Dozens of customers said well done to Ben, with comments including: "Lovely.... restores your faith in humanity! 👍🏻", Well done that man! True gentleman" and "Lovely thing to do. What a kind person."

Ben said: “I could see the lady was very stressed out and I just wanted to help. When she realised that she’d left her purse at home I could see that she looked really defeated and so I just wanted to step in." The store's community champion Rachel said: "When I saw the customer's comment on Facebook I immediately knew who the customer was referring to. Ben is the type of person that people are drawn to and enjoy being around. It didn’t surprise me that he went above and beyond for the customer. It’s just in his nature to want to help."

When Caroline found a young homeless father close to hypothermia sleeping rough in our Barrhead store's underground car park she did all she could to help him.

She phoned an ambulance, brought him inside the store, wrapped him in a sleeping bag to raise his temperature, as well as making him something to eat and getting him a hot drink. Paramedics checked him over and called his support worker who moved him up to a priority case that day and found accommodation for him in Glasgow. Caroline got him some groceries, clothes and essentials as well as some change for his train journey to his new home. He contacted the store the next day to thank her.

Store manager Amanda said: “The man couldn’t thank Caroline enough. Thanks to her efforts and compassion the social worker prioritised his case and he now had somewhere to stay. A truly selfless act by an asset to our company."

Lindsay and her 18-year-old Billy son were the toast of our Swinton store for saving the day when a customer wanted 100 champagne flutes for an upcoming wedding.

Unfortunately the store didn't have enough in stock so Lindsay and Billy rang around a few local stores to check availability. They found two stores – Trafford Park and Harpurhey – which had 50 in each so they drove to them to collect the glasses on their day off and then delivered them to the wedding reception venue, Pendlebury Social Club. Lindsay said: "The lady had a lot on her plate trying to organise a wedding, so it was nice to be able to help out. Organising a wedding can be stressful and I promised her that we'd sort out the flutes for her and that's what we did. They wanted everyone at the reception to be able to toast the happy couple."

Our Cashpot for Schools initiative has so far raised £3 million for primary schools across the UK – and there's still another eight weeks left to further boost the total.

Community champion Diane from our Rhyl store has been visiting local schools to spread the word, including Ysgol Maes Owen at nearby Kinmel Bay, where headteacher Catrin said: "We think it's such a fantastic idea and everyone at the school is so positive about it. It's really bringing the community together and it's just so easy to do. School budgets have been hit so anything that brings in extra funding is brilliant. We plan to spend the money from Cashpot for Schools on books and learning aids plus anything to support wellbeing in the school."

Her views were echoed by John from Hawthorn Tree Primary School in Boston, who said: "We’ve already seen over £500 raised for our school so far, which we are so delighted with. We’re not stopping there; we are encouraging parents and the local community to sign up via our social media to try and raise as much as possible. It would be amazing to hit £1,000 by the end of the campaign! The money we raise will be used to help stock our incredibly new library that we fundraised for last year, as well as helping towards our next project: creating a much-needed community space in school for family learning sessions and other community projects.”

A massive thank you to all our customers, colleagues and volunteers who are supporting our Tickled Pink breast cancer charity campaign which raises money and awareness for Breast Cancer Now and CoppaFeel!.

Colleagues are taking part in a wide range of activities, including shaving their heads, waxing their legs, dressing up in wigs and tutus, sponsored silences, dying their hair pink, and joining in with cycling, running and walking challenges. Community champion Gemma, from our Harlow store, said: "Colleagues are 100% backing the importance of checking yourself. The store is awash with pink and it's great to see the amount of products supporting our Tickled Pink crusade too."

Our new Roast Potato Flavour Mayo is now available in stores and online. Customers are coming up with creative ideas for how to use it and getting excited about Christmas! 💚

Some are creating tasty sandwiches – “We could use this and make a Christmas dinner left overs sandwich at tea time🤭”, “in a ready salted crisp sandwich🥪, or with a stuffing sarnie. Oh my days🤣😍”. And others in salads – “Make a banging homemade potato salad” and “imagine homemade potato salad made with this saucy monkey🤤”.

Costs just £1.10 🛒💚 Available online and in stores: https://bit.ly/3zO4LaS

New Roast Potato Mayo spotted at Asda!! 😅

Home shopping driver Dan from our Melksham store knows his regular customers so well that when one of them didn’t answer their door he knew something was wrong.

It turned out that the lady, who's in her sixties, had passed out due to a bad reaction to her new medication. Dan called 999 and stayed until help arrived, before continuing with his deliveries. He called back at her home after he’d finished his round to see how she was.

Dan said: "I'd delivered to the lady quite a few times before and I knew she had some health issues. She normally opens the door very quickly but on this occasion she didn't. I knocked several times and when I peered through the window the kitchen light was on. This made me even more concerned. I thought she's got to be in there if the light is on. I climbed over the side gate to go round the back and looked through the window, but I couldn't see her. I phoned 101 at first for advice who told me to phone 999 which I did.

"I came back later on to check on her and she answered the door and said that she'd been knocked out by the medication that she'd been taking. She was very grateful that I'd called someone who could check up on her. I did what any other human being would have done."

Community champion Sam from our Dundee Kirkton store will be surrounded by friends and family this weekend as they join the hundreds of volunteers at Asda stores across the country raising money and awareness for our Tickled Pink breast cancer campaign.

It's all very personal to Sam, her husband Stephen and their children Dylan, Emma and Evie, as Sam rang the bell to celebrate being given the all-clear from breast cancer just last month. Now she's using her experience to help others, and her loved ones want to show how grateful they are for the care and support she received. Sam said: "I'm always willing to give advice. I talk about it all the time – even to men, as they need to know about it for themselves, and also for their wives and girlfriends, daughters and sisters. Everyone has been so kind, so amazing. Even when I was just in the store shopping customers would come up to me and ask how I was and when I was coming back to work as they missed my smiley face. It does make you feel wanted."

Sam had got into a regular routine of checking herself, and it was while doing her checks that she noticed her skin was dimpling – something she knew was a potential sign of breast cancer. She said: "When I first found the lump I knew not to totally panic and wasn't all that frightened because I'd read so much about it through Tickled Pink, Breast Cancer Now and CoppaFeel! – their websites are just amazing. Everyone is different, every side effect is different and bodies recover at a different speed."

Retired police officer Harry had never thought he was at risk of breast cancer until a chance discovery while out for a jog led to his diagnosis – now as part of our Tickled Pink campaign with Breast Cancer Now and CoppaFeel! he's joined our team of Real Self-Checkers to make sure more men are aware that breast cancer can happen to them.

Harry says it's so important for everyone to regularly check themselves, and to act quickly if something feels wrong. He believes men should be as vigilant about checking their breasts as they are with other parts of their health, as early detection can make all the difference. He said: "I jog a lot and was wearing one of these nylon jogging shirts and on one particular day it was rubbing against my ni**le, and I was suddenly in excruciating pain. I couldn't see anything untoward but thought I'd better get it checked.” Harry's GP fast-tracked him for an appointment at Halton Hospital in Runcorn, where he and his wife Val lived at the time, and after an ultrasound and biopsy he was told he had breast cancer. He had a mastectomy and 19 lymph nodes removed and underwent chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

He said: "The reason I want to share my story is because I didn't consider breast cancer in my life. It's made me more aware now that when I feel something isn't right, I don't wait that extra month or two to see if it self-resolves; I call the doctor. And if you think it only happens to women, you open yourself up to it becoming more serious."

As part of our Tickled Pink campaign we're encouraging everyone to get into the habit of regularly checking their breasts – and to see a doctor if they spot anything unusual.

Our Straiton store's community champion Claire knows from personal experience just how important it is. It's thanks to her role raising awareness of the signs and symptoms of breast cancer that she started to regularly check herself – and knew to get help when she felt a lump one day in the shower. Claire's GP referred her to the breast cancer clinic at the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh. An ultrasound scan and biopsy were both inconclusive, so she underwent surgery to have the lump removed. A few weeks later she got the good news that the lump wasn't cancerous.

Claire said: "I think it’s important to tell people my story because I think it's human nature to immediately fear the worst if you find a lump. But what I had was really common, a benign lump called fibroadenoma. Obviously I was relieved when I heard, but I was acutely aware that I was walking out of the hospital happy, knowing other people were in there having just been given bad news."

Claire says she's channelling her personal experience in support of Tickled Pink, which raises money and awareness for breast cancer charity partners Breast Cancer Now and CoppaFeel! – "I feel like it’s helped me in that I now know the practicalities and what people are going through. It’s made me a better community champion because I can tell people from my my experience that finding a lump doesn’t necessarily mean the worst. The most important thing is to check yourself and to get medical help if you find anything. The worst thing would be to not know, or to just ignore it."

When a couple told customer service host Kim from our Swindon Haydon store that they'd misplaced the medication they'd just picked up from the pharmacy she went out of her way to make sure they got it back – running to the bus stop where they were heading home to return it to them.

The couple had reported the loss to Kim while they were in the store. Kim told them that nothing had yet been handed in but that she'd let them know if there were any developments. Ten minutes later, after the customers had left the store, the medication was discovered in the customer toilets.

The store's community champion Jane said: "Kim had heard that the couple were catching the bus home so ran down to the bus stop to try and catch them. Luckily they were there so the much needed medication was returned. Amazing work, Kim."

The couple sent in a card to thank Kim saying: "To the kind and wonderful lady who went the extra mile to retrieve our misplaced medication, thank you very much."

We’re really excited to announce that we have partnered with Amy Dowden MBE to create this year’s official Tickled Pink T-shirt. All profits from the sale of the T-shirt will go to our charity partners Breast Cancer Now and CoppaFeel! to help fund better breast cancer treatments, vital education and life-changing support. You can buy the T-shirt online and in-store now.

Amy said: "I'm so happy to be working with Asda Tickled Pink on this year's campaign. Breast cancer awareness is something I feel so passionately about, especially after my own diagnosis. It's hugely important to know your own body and check your chest regularly from a young age, and I hope that being involved in this campaign can help to raise heaps of awareness and funds for the brilliant Tickled Pink charity partners Breast Cancer Now and CoppaFeel!."

Asda Tickled Pink has been running for 28 years and has raised over £92m for breast cancer charities. To find out more visit: https://bit.ly/3TDttl5

A huge thank you to everyone who's supporting our Cashpot for Schools initiative which donates money to your chosen primary school whenever you shop with the Asda Rewards app. It's already raised more than £2 million for primary schools across the country.

Community champion Jo from our Pwllheli store has visited 16 local primary schools to encourage everyone to get involved. It's simple to do – go to the Asda Rewards app, opt in to Cashpot for Schools and choose your primary school. Then whenever you are shopping in store scan Your Rewards and, if you shop online, make sure Your Rewards is linked. She said: “The response has been fantastic. It really is going to help so many schools in our community." One of the schools Jo called in at was Ysgol Morfa Nefyn where headteacher Nia said: "It's such a great idea and everyone is behind it. It's so easy to do. The majority of our parents shop at Asda as it's so local to them."

Lynda, who has 14 grandchildren in local schools, said: "It's a fabulous chance for schools to get some much-needed extra cash. It's really easy to take part, just collect as you shop." And Mel, whose son goes to Ysgol Aberech, said: "I think it's a brilliant incentive. Asda are amazing in helping children during such difficult times for us all financially."

Store manager Tracy from our Hailsham supermarket says she's so proud of her 18-year-old colleague Harry who's forever getting brilliant feedback from customers for the excellent service he provides.

Harry, who's worked at the store for a year, was so keen to work on the checkouts that he chose to come into work on his 18th birthday for training. He said: "Being on the tills is my favourite thing but I had to wait until I was 18 so that I could serve alcohol. I just love talking to the customers, they are great here at Hailsham and so friendly. I always ask them how their day's been and what they are doing in the evening. A lot of the older customers come in on a Sunday after church so I talk to them about that too. I know that some members of the older generation do suffer from loneliness so I make sure that I have a good chat with them. I'm a very sociable person. I always tell the customers if there are any bargains and offers on in the store as well. The colleagues here are fantastic – we're like a family here. We're very close knit."

Tracy, who's nominated Harry for an Asda service superstar award, said: "Harry delights our customers with every transaction. To hear him on the checkout is lovely – he's such a mood enhancer. He's got such a great personality for someone so young and he's super-confident. He loves talking to all the customers and knows them all. He has his regulars who just wait for him. He's always getting great feedback from customers; they all love him, especially the older ones."

We've teamed up with literacy charity the Children's Book Project for a nationwide initiative enabling customers to donate pre-loved children's books in our stores.

We've set up donation trolleys in all our larger stores for books you've finished with to be passed on to youngsters who have very few of their own. The charity – which is on a mission to tackle book poverty in childhood – will then gift the books to youngsters through schools, community groups and food banks.

Colleagues at our Halesowen store dressed up as different book characters to show their support. Community champion Ryan from our Maryhill store is backing the initiative. He said: "All children should be able to access a book without the cost being a barrier. This is also a great opportunity for families to have a bit of a clear out and donate any books that their children may have grown out of which will then go on to benefit many other children in our area.”

Customers at our Redcar supermarket have been posting on Facebook about the kindness of checkouts colleague Helen and the rest of the team at the store after a photograph was posted of her helping one of our older customers with his shopping.

A lady who posted on the Redcar Alert Facebook group after witnessing Helen's kindness from across the street said: "Asda staff at Roseberry Square doing the most for their customers. She (Helen) walked out holding his shopping and linked his arm then stood and spoke with him the whole time we were parked. He looked really happy."

The post sparked lots of great comments about Helen and the friendliness of other colleagues at the store, like "Amazing staff in Asda, I was in there last week with little one, Helen took her to get some sweets while i fixed her scooter wheel so she could get home on it as i had shopping to carry. Truly lovely lady", "Absolutely lovely x great staff at this little Asda always love popping in", "Always so helpful and pleasant, makes a difficult day seem a lot better. They’re all lovely staff" and "Loads of them in Asda are absolutely amazing, all the time! Fantastic with my daughter to say the very least".

Helen said: “I do have a special bond with our older customers and always help them when I can. The gentleman I helped is a regular. I always have a good chat with him. He’s a canny bloke. It was lovely to see all the lovely comments on the Facebook post – I got quite emotional."

Community champion Jacqueline and store manager Hamel from our Donnington Wood store surprised the team at The Hub Newport in Shropshire with an Asda Foundation grant for £23,202 to pay for much-needed repairs and renovations.

The café is one of 65 charities and organisations receiving a total of £1.2m from the latest round of Asda Foundation Investing in Spaces and Places funding. Jacqueline said: "They had applied for funding, but had no idea they’d been successful. We went along on the premise of finding out a bit more about what they do. When I brought out the cheque the whole place went silent and then everyone started clapping and cheering. There were some tears too. It's such an amazing amount of money, I was smiling all day."

Well done to eagle-eyed porter Andy from our Wisbech store who made sure a customer got her handbag back, including £130 in cash and a mobile phone.

Andy was on his way home when he spotted the handbag in the back of a trolley in the car park so he turned his car around, collected it and took it back to the store. One of our service desk colleagues managed to get hold of the relieved lady and she came straight back to pick it up.

Store manager John said: "Luckily we were able to reunite the handbag with the customer. She was so relieved and grateful for his actions. Thank you Andy, you really do put the customer at the heart of everything you do."

Andy, who's worked at the store for 24 years, said: "The bag was hanging on the back the hook on the trolley in the trolley bay. She must have just forgotten about it. I'm glad I spotted it and we were able to get it back to her. I'm always willing to help customers – they are so friendly here."

Asda community champion Tracy has struck up a close bond with 10-year-old Alexia on her regular visits to our Ware store with her mum Carly – so when Tracy heard Alexia needed cheering up after she had an accident she invited her in for a special day seeing what she does at work.

The pair became friends when Alexia gave Tracy drawings and stopped for a chat during the pandemic, so when Tracy heard Alexia had been in hospital after she was concussed on a water slide she wanted to return the favour and help lift her spirits. She said: "I thought as a nice little gesture I would invite her in to be my little companion. She is such a lovely girl; very bubbly, very studious and very well behaved. She really enjoyed coming in – she loved every moment of it. She didn't realise I did so much for charity so she helped me with some charity work and she's going to help me with some Tickled Pink fundraising."

Carly said: "Tracy and Alexia have been talking since lockdown and have developed such a good relationship. She always makes a beeline for Tracy when she comes into the store and goes to cuddle her. Tracy is such a lovely person. Alexia loved her special day with Tracy. She helped in the cafe, watered the plants outside and went on the tills. She even made a loaf cake. She's already got her tutu and wig to help Tracy during Tickled Pink next month!"

We’re really excited to announce that we have partnered with Giovanna Fletcher and Tom Fletcher to create this year’s official BBC Children in Need T-shirt. All the profits from the sale of the Tee will go to the charity. The official Tee is now available online and in store from 30th September. https://bit.ly/3MEaqTQ

McFly singer and guitarist Tom said: "When myself and Gi got the call to help design this year’s BBC Children in Need T-shirt we jumped at the opportunity. It was so fun to reimagine what the iconic Pudsey tee could look like if we transformed it into a band style tee celebrating all the ‘best bits’ of this amazing charity. Getting down to your local Asda to pick it up is an easy way to get involved with BBC Children in Need this year to raise vital funds to empower every child to thrive and be the best they can be."

Thirteen-year-old Callum formed a close bond with colleagues at our Coventry store when he used to call in do the big shop while his mum Mandi was having chemotherapy for breast cancer – and now she's on the mend everyone's so proud of him for the way he's getting behind the store's Tickled Pink fundraising efforts.

When the store's community champion Lynda asked for volunteers to help with a bucket collection for our charity partners Breast Cancer Now and CoppaFeel! Callum and Mandi were among the first to put their names down. And Callum enjoyed it so much he came back the following day to help some more. Lynda said: "He was a little star. All our colleagues and customers praised him for his kindness and for being so polite. He was just so helpful."

Mandi said: "Throughout the whole of my treatment Callum's been an absolute star, he really has. When I couldn't do my shopping, because I wasn't allowed to because of my chemotherapy, he would come in every week for months and that's how he knows a lot of the colleagues. They all kept an eye out for him, and were amazing with him." Mandi, who's a nurse, added: "Tickled Pink is amazing. It's lovely that Asda supports it. Fundraising for a cause like that is so close to my heart." Read their story here: https://bit.ly/40bvdUu

Thanks to our lovely volunteers Mandi, Callum, Amanda and Richard who helped our Tickled Pink fundraising for Breast Cancer Now and CoppaFeel!

– Lynda, Asda community champion

Congratulations to SoccerRockz Football Coaching who won our store's latest green token giving customer vote. They were very grateful for everyone's support. The £500 donation will go towards their new football kit.

– Lynda, Asda community champion

Thank you to all the customers and colleagues who supported Coventry Foodbank's food drive in store.

– Lynda, Asda community champion

Well done, Leo.

Six-year-old Leo had a day to remember when our Coventry store's community champion Lynda gave him a VIP tour of the supermarket where he even got to sit on store manager Oliver's big chair.

Leo's nan Linda got in touch to let us know that Asda was his favourite place in Coventry so we invited him in and gave him his own Asda green T-shirt, name badge and lanyard. Oliver said: "When we received a letter from Leo’s nan letting us know that Asda Coventry was Leo’s favourite place we just had to invite him in and let the Asda team say a massive hello and welcome him into the Asda family. Lynda gave Leo a day he wouldn’t forget. We are so glad he enjoyed his day." Read more here: https://bit.ly/3pWb3A9

The 86th Coventry Scouts were very grateful to receive the Asda Foundation grant for £279 which they bought much-needed 'rowing oars' with.– Lynda, Asda community champion