The frontline fight against cancer and a mid-Wales school is thousands of pounds better off thanks to the efforts of an intrepid team of four, including Zaun co-founder Alastair Henman.
Alastair joined friends Roland Wear, Emma Davies and Andrew Morris on a two-day 50-mile walk with a typically damp overnight camp in SAS training country.
The Epynt Way runs around the perimeter of the Sennybridge Army Training Area, used for the four-week SAS training course, one of the world’s toughest military training regimes with a reported pass rate of less than 10%.
The wild plateau is 50 miles covered largely by blanket bog and grass, intersected by several stream valleys, affording the most spectacular views of the Elan Valley and across to the Black Mountains, the Brecon Beacons, the Cambrian Mountains and the Carmarthenshire Black Mountain.
The event raised £4,000 for the team’s local primary school and cancer research after the Fencing Contractors’ Association. Alastair is a committee member, put £2,000 from its charity golf day to match the sum raised by the team.
Alastair says: “We’re incredibly grateful to the FCA for its generous gesture. And to ensure all of the money goes as far as possible, we have donated the cancer cash directly to specialist cancer researchers, so no money is wasted on admin.“
The money will be used to buy new generation ‘probes’, liquid compounds that attach to targeted cells and allow the researchers to see under a microscope where the specific cells are at work.
The work is overseen by Professor Andrew Silver in Colorectal Cancer Genetics at the Centre for Digestive Diseases, Blizard Institute of Cell and Molecular Science, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry.
Alastair concludes: “When I went to present the donation, I had a grand tour of the facility by Professor Silver. It was great to see 100% of the money going directly to the sharp end of cancer research. Andrew and his team are doing some fantastic work, and we’re delighted to have been able to give them this support.”
