For the first time in Carr Hill’s history students and staff will jump on to their (hobby) horses and race each other all to raise money for Bloodwise- a charity dedicated to beating blood cancers.
Each mentor group will nominate a student to be their ‘rider’ in year group races before eight staff members take to the track in a bid to be crowned the winning jockey. The event, which will take part during the second half of lunchtime on Friday 7th June, has been organised by science teacher Miss Williams who, just twelve months ago, was deep in chemo treatment for an aggressive Stage IV lymphoma, which was, in her Oncologist's words 'strong enough to floor a horse'.
Miss Williams has organised the event in school to help raise awareness of blood cancer, to raise funds for Bloodwise and to highlight the personal fundraising challenge she will be undertaking. In addition to her fundraising in school, Miss Williams is also taking part in Man V Horse, 23 miles of fell, climbing half the height of Everest. Against horses. Miss Williams said: “I wanted to involve the students and the school community in my fundraising efforts and I think the hobby horse races are a great way to have some fun and raise awareness and money for a great cause. Students are already busy making their own horses to represent their mentor groups and there will be prizes for the best ones as well as the winners of each race.
“Just the day after the school races I will undertake Man V Horse with the support of 12 friends and family who have been training alongside me for months. I feel incredibly fortunate to have made it through a year of treatment and have a strong urge to accomplish a challenge to raise some much needed funds for Bloodwise. Blood cancers are the third biggest cause of UK cancer deaths - resulting in more deaths per annum than breast or prostate cancer. This amazing charity's focus is to drive forward new treatments to improve success rates, early and accurate diagnosis, both of the latter I had difficulty with. Sadly the symptoms are quite vague, and therefore early detection is uncommon. I’m still without an official diagnosis, and may never know."
The school races will take place on the field on Friday 7th June. The gates will be open from 12.45pm and those who would like to watch are being asked to donate a minimum of 20p with all the money raised going to Bloodwise.
To read more about Miss William’s story or to sponsor her click here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/sian-williams2019
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