A charity partnership between the Cancer Care & Haematology Fund (CCHF) and Aylesbury United Football Club – nicknamed the Ducks - has realised more than £2,255.
The partnership – the first of its kind for CCHF – ran throughout the 2021-2022 football season and saw the Club's fans organising fundraising events, including bucket collections at home games and a 25 kilometre sponsored walk from Aylesbury to Dunstable ahead of an important away match.
CCHF provides financial support to the NHS cancer and haematology treatment centres at Stoke Mandeville and High Wycombe hospitals, helping to improve the experience for both patients and staff.
Chair of CCHF's Trustees, Dr Ann Watson, explained: “We were approached by Aylesbury United early last summer and asked whether we would like to be their charity partner for the season. Obviously we were thrilled to be invited and have enjoyed our relationship.
“We are grateful for both the cash that has been raised, but also for the awareness of our work that has been generated among their supporters and more widely across Buckinghamshire as a result.”
AUFC's Charity Partner initiative is managed by 21st Century Ducks (21CD), the Club's supporters' trust. Each season a different local charity is chosen via a poll of fans.
Chair of 21CD, Andy Martin, commented: “Aylesbury United is a club rooted in Aylesbury, with our teams representing toddlers, juniors of every age, women and girls, pan-disability and walking footballers – as well as the successful semi-professional first team.
“However, as the Club approaches its 125th anniversary next season, our fans feel strongly that we should also contribute to the community in other ways, including supporting important local charities. We are delighted to have been able to support CCHF so meaningfully in the season just gone”.
Director of AUFC, Alan Sherwell, formally presented a cheque to the charity at an event held in the garden of the Cancer Care & Haematology Unit at Stoke Mandeville. A major refurbishment of the garden – where both patients and staff can relax – was undertaken in 2021 and was funded by CCHF. Representatives of AUFC, 21CD, CCHF Trustees, senior staff from the unit and volunteer gardeners, were present for the cheque handover.
The space needed to continue to deliver high quality care to cancer and haematology patients in the surroundings that have made these departments so special is increasingly under pressure. The practices which were needed to give safe care throughout the coronavirus pandemic - many of which are still ongoing - required changes in how some things were done. CCHF is supporting the hospital financially as plans are developed to continue to deliver the best clinical care possible for local people, in pleasant and comfortable surroundings and with good supportive care – the things for which everyone has long been so proud.
CCHF has always been grateful for the support received from local people and businesses so we can together help the hospitals provide best care for all those that need it, on their doorstep.
The charity is run by local people who, through personal or professional experience, understand the good it can do. CCHF is small and has no paid employees. All the trustees give their time for free to ensure that almost every penny raised goes directly to improving cancer and haematology treatment facilities in Buckinghamshire, and the minimum goes on the management of the charity itself.
Caption for main picture. From left: Jim Rayner, Treasurer of 21CD, Alan Sherwell, Director of AUFC, Graham Martin, 21CD committee member, Dr Ann Watson, Chair of CCHF Trustees, Emma Earnshaw, one of the lead cancer nurses for acute oncology and SATS, Dr Andy Theobald, CCHF Trustee, Cathy Adkins, Cancer Care & Haematology Unit Manager, Frances Wrigley, volunteer gardener and James Aitken, volunteer gardener.
