Raising money for Cancer Research and MacMillian.
“The Fifty Shades of Pink Team” – left to right top row: Tasha Smith, Clive Rennick, Clare Golding, Julia Rennick, Thalia Batchen, Megan Blackman, Sheena Thrush and Amy Batchen. Second row: Ellie Rennick and Lucas Golding, bottom row: Amber Thrush
I have always admired the amount of charity work people do for Cancer Research and MacMillan. We are a nation of endless generosity that I have read about and watched over the years and never fail to shed a few tears throughout the London Marathon – that event gets me every time! Whether you are young or old there is always charity work being done to help find a cure for cancer sooner and we have to continue to support those that have to fight this awful disease.
So when I was asked to join a Relay for Life Team last week, knowing I was available to take part I jumped at the chance. Some of you may know of the Race For Life more so, where you run individually or as part of team for 5k or 10k, well this is an additional event which takes place over a 24 hour period and you enter a team and relay continuously for 24 hours around a 400m track, someone in your team has to always be on the track! With a mixture of children and adults in our team which was called “Fifty Shades of Pink”, the sun was beating down on us on Saturday 1st July 2017 until dusk, and by then we certainly were fifteen shades of pink!
What amazes me as this event (Cancer Research), is the energy and excitement of the children that quite honestly kept us going. My 10 year old son (Lucas) needed to be begged to come to bed at 1am as he was still fun of beans, only to wake up again at 6am to continue with multiple laps until he had walked 26 miles – a whole marathon and this was repeated by my friends 10 and 7 year old (Leo and Ellie) on our team who also walked a marathon in distance – well done to the kids for showing us how it’s done and setting the pace!
The themed laps they arrange are a great way to pass the time, where you take part in dressing up for different laps: for example there is an egg and spoon lap, a doctors and nurses lap, hats lap, a butterfly and bubbles lap and the list goes on.
But this was not just a physical challenge but also a very emotional one. At 10pm the event holds a Hope Ceremony to remember the ones that have lost their fight to cancer and to also celebrate the ones that were with us on the day and many ore in our lives who have survived. The children made hope bags in the day where they place a candle inside and Eva Cassidy serenaded us around the track for a lap of hope.
Then you continue with your relay until 12pm the following day…………….
Yate Sport Complex did an amazing job of keeping the toilets clean, the toilet paper flowing and the bar open, a great place to grab some home cooked food and a pint if you needed it!
I want to say a big thank you to the team I joined, our Team Captain that did it on crutches and partly in a wheelchair and the team members I walked with through the day and night without a moan. Even when we couldn’t walk anymore, there wasn’t a moan in sight, well not until afterwards anyway.
On guestimation our team raised approx. £1500 towards this amazing cause Cancer Research, and the YOSC organisers said that Yate Relay for Life had their biggest turn out in over 10 years, which smashed last year’s sponsors with £40k at the end of the race but still counting the final donations which will be announced in September, so I was really proud to be part of that.
Until next year team…………………
Much Love
Clare x