Hi all!
We haven’t updated the website in a while, no excuses, but life carries on and we have continued to see people raising money for Katie so this is going to be a monster update for you all!
As time passes Katie is never far from our minds, her infamous quotes are regularly repeated, her love of a good G&T and a bar of Dairy Milk often shared, and her smile never forgotten. However we are aware that life goes on and others experience pain and heartache meaning their hard earned cash needs to go to other well-deserved charities. We are therefore still so thrilled that people continue to want to raise money for us.
The 14 mile Marsden March has been our continued go to walk, both in 2017 and 2018 along with friends and family we pounded the pavements between the two hospitals with thousands of others and raised around £5000 each time for Katie. Slightly different these days as we have babies, toddlers and a few new hips that have joined us so it is a more relaxed affair but still with the obligatory G&T stop at Mile 9! Each year we are so thrilled to see familiar and new faces decide to sign up, so when the early bird registration comes out in October please do consider joining us!
Team G-H
At the end of January a dear supporter of the KCF passed away after his own battle with cancer. Since diagnosis Jonathan Gilbert-Harris and his family have supported us and raised money whilst he was being treated at the Marsden. The family decided any funeral donations were to be given to the KCF, and a mere 8 weeks later his daughters Emma, Jessie and Alice as well as Alice’s husband John, joined us and walked an emotional 14 miles in his memory. We cannot thank them enough and hope that in the difficult coming months they feel our love and strength coming their way. xxx
In July last year Katie’s flatmate Hannah married her prince charming Pierre in a castle in the South of France. Amongst the sunflowers, dancing, and love they had not forgotten Katie and asked for their gift list to include the option to donate to her charity. We were so so thrilled that they donated nearly £800 and wish them a lifetime of love and happiness with their gorgeous little boy Romeo.
Katie’s Mum Jenny continues to live in their home town of Sudbury where she often finds wonderful support from the local community. Spread by the power of word she arranged a stall on the market square one Saturday in September and asked anyone with an oven to bake a cake in order to sell and increase calorie intake! After a slightly chilly morning they sold a whopping 150 cakes and raised £400 in the process.
Our latest adventure was a family fun walk held in Bury St Edmunds and organised by Katie’s cousin Annabelle. As she couldn’t make the Marsden March she decided to arrange a family friendly 5 mile walk around the Elvedon Estate in beautiful scenery and roped in nearly 90 people to join her including teenagers, toddlers, babies and dogs! It was thankfully a beautiful day with a bear hunt and refreshments provided by local businesses. If anyone would like to organise their own event please do get in touch and we can help support your efforts in any way we can.
In May Sarah, Barry and their friend JohnBoy will be once again taking on the South Downs Trek – a 27 mile walk along the South Downs ending at the Seven Sisters. We are doing this in memory of JB’s father-in-law Jonathan Gilbert-Harris and will be joined for the last 5 miles by Alice, his daughter, and various friends to ensure we get across that finish line! It is a very challenging route that will certainly test them (they’re not as young as they used to be!) but with a bit of sunshine and some energy gels they hope to make it in under 10 hours. Please do sponsor them if you can! www.justgiving.com/southdownstrek2018
And with that it is time to sign off, and get back to finding some crazy ideas that we can take on to encourage more donations. But we end with some amazing news….thanks to you all we have now reached a whopping £200,330.65!!! It has been our dream to reach this landmark amount, and we are so proud that it continues to do so much good for those being treated at the Royal Marsden.
We thank you for your endless support, you are amazing!
Lots of love
Sarah, Jenny, Peter, Elise, Barry and Theo xxxxx