People do many things to raise money for charity from skydiving to salsa-dancing and biking to bathing in beans. Prof Rob Wynn, Director of the Paediatric Bone Marrow Transplant Programme at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, is one such person raising funds for Cure Leukaemia. He decided that he didn’t have the head for heights, had no Latin rhythm and wasn’t mad keen on beans, so opted for a bit of biking. And by a bit, we mean all 21 stages of the 3,500 km of the Tour de France, starting the week before the Pros are let loose on it!
On Tuesday, at a charity lunch on the top floor of the exquisite El Gato Negro Tapas in central Manchester, Rob was joined by Britain’s most decorated female cyclist, 5-time Olympic Champion, Dame Laura Kenny, to help raise awareness of this almost insane challenge. Rob, 57, will be joined by 24 other amateur cyclists to fundraise for Cure Leukaemia, with the aim of helping children in Manchester gain access to a wide range of alternative cancer treatments should regular courses be unresponsive.
Even someone as experienced as Dame Laura was astounded by the challenge ahead of Rob, taking on a course designed to break cyclists: “The Tour de France is pretty insane, right? Even for me, who rides a bike every single day, that is not a small task, trust me. It’s incredible what he’s doing.” And this from someone who truly understands what it’s like to put your body on the line, to achieve a personal goal.
Rob fully appreciates the scale of the challenge and says he thinks about it every day but knows it’s worth it. “The fundraising challenge is about accelerating clinical trials and bringing alternative and additional treatment more rapidly to children in Manchester – I know there’s treatment out there and I want to open the trials in Manchester.”
In addition to Dame Laura, sport, in general, was well represented at the event, with further Q&As with ex-England footballer Geoff Thomas MBE, new British Cycling CEO Jon Dutton and Lancashire cricket captain Keaton Jennings.
“Sport itself has the ability to bring people together,” says Keaton, an ambassador for Cure Leukaemia. “When someone like Laura, who’s a five-time Olympic gold medallist and has achieved what she has in sport, recognises the effort, pairing that with a fantastic charity, I think you can achieve some really special things.”
C&C sponsored the fundraising lunch and are helping Rob in his beyond-human effort to raise funds and awareness for Cure Leukaemia, and our MD, Malcolm Cooke attended to show our support. “The size of the challenge that Rob and the other riders are taking on is almost incomprehensible! It really is nothing short of heroic. But knowing the passion that Rob has for finding a cure for leukaemia, and for saving the lives of children suffering from it at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, I have every faith he’ll cross the finish line – and it’s a privilege to be able to help him do so.”
We’re right behind you Rob, albeit in a support car with air con. And we hope that one day soon, we’ll be celebrating that the challenge of curing all leukaemia, will be behind us too. No doubt you’ll feel the same way about the cycling challenge!
You can donate to Rob’s fundraiser, here: https://justgiving.com/fundraising/Prof-Rob-Wynn-BMT-LEUKAEMIA-TRIALS-CHILDREN-NOW
