This will see teams of children combining to swim a mind boggling 300 miles over the course of 48 hours – with each of the older children each completing 10 miles (a staggering 640 lengths!)  The lower school boys will be involved too, each swimming about half a mile.  Peter Nield, Warwick School’s swimming coach, says: “Warwick School has close ties with Get A-Head, with members of the swimming team having been directly affected by their work.  We hope to raise £4,000 for the Charity’s specialist Medullary Thyroid Cancer fund, which is researching the genetics of this rare disease.”

Tom Bromwich, Get A-Head Chairman, says: ” We are so grateful to Mr Nield and the boys of Warwick School for this tremendous effort – it is so very appreciated.  Monies raised by this fantastic and, I can only imagine, punishing effort will really help our research into finding a genetic link in MTC”

If you would like to sponsor the endeavour, please visit http://www.justgiving.com/GetaheadwithWarwickSchoolSwimming or text the shortcode WARW45 followed by the amount you want to sponsor (up to £10) to 70070.  Texts incur no message fee, and the full amount goes to the charity.

Special shirts are also available at:  http://www.waveclothing.co.uk/school-kit/warwick-school/100-mile-swim-t-shirt

 Sally Bromwich, Peter Bromwich, their grown up children Edward, Tom, Laura Taylorand Immy Yeoman, along with 8 Bromwich / Yeoman cousins aged 7 to 18 united for a Family Fundraiser supported by their friends in the seaside town of Salcombe.

 A fantastic day was had by all and the family was even lucky with the weather. The hog roast was so popular that it was all polished off by the end of the day, Becky Brine and her band raised everyone’s spirits with brilliant boogie woogie music, over 60 children were seen safely through the bouncy castle and the family raised £2,500 towards the research project into FMTC. The youngest generation of Bromwiches and Yeomans raised over £130 by themselves, selling off the toys that they no longer play with and holding a sweet stall, even using enterprising sales promotions towards the end of the day and lots of children went home clutching toy cars, teddies, books and even a pair of roller-blades.

 There are too many people to thank individually and the family would hate to miss anyone out – it really was a case of friends and family in and around Salcombe pulling together to sell raffle tickets, bake gorgeous cakes, pour tea, man the bar, run the coconut shy and a fantastic bottle stall, organise a “nearest the tee” golf game, guess the weight of the crab, paint faces, stick on temporary tattoos and provide amazingly generous raffle prizes to help in the fund raising for Get A-Head.

The family would like to say a hugely grateful Thank You to everyone involved, particularly the Salcombe Rugby Club for hosting such a great day.

MTC is a rare type of thyroid cancer that can run in families and it accounts for 10% of thyroid cancer in the UK. The outlook for people with MTC is less good than other types of thyroid cancer, partly due to the way it responds to the current treatments we have. The earlier MTC can be identified, the better the outcome for the individual. Get A-Head is funding a project that aims to to improve diagnosis and management in the MTC by better underway the cancer develops at a genetic level.

 If you would like to support Get A-Head’s fundraising for this research project, you can donate at www.getahead.org.uk/donate or to make a £3 donation, you can text the code MTCX11 £3 to 70070.  There is no message charge, and the entire £3 comes to Get A-Head.

When Rafiq Salaam decided that he was going to run his first half-marathon, he knew it would be a challenge.  Living in Austria, where he teaches English, he found it hard to train over the harsh winter that saw temperatures of -16 and lots of snow on the ground.  When he did start to train, he discovered a problem with his knee, but was determined to carry on.

 Having already secured a place in the run, he then decided he wanted to raise some money for a cancer charity, which is when he learned of Get A-Head’s work through a friend: “A few people in my life have been touched by cancer, which is why I wanted to run for a cancer charity.  As Get A-Head is a small charity helping people in its local area, I thought it best to support them.”

 Rafiq is rather proud of his achievement: “I’m just dealing with the aftermath now, and am kind of hobbling from A to B at the moment!  I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

 So far Rafiq has raised £85 (with money still coming in), which is enough to provide three individual hour-long complementary therapy sessions to people undergoing radiotherapy.  If you would like to support Rafiq, his JustGiving page is here: http://www.justgiving.com/Rafiq-Slaam

Get A-Head is delighted to be supporting the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Cancer Appeal, which is aiming to purchase a £3.55m state-of-the-art CyberKnife, by committing £100,000 to the appeal over the next two years.  We were also able to contribute an additional £10,000 from the sale of teddy bears in the special auction at the Ball in November 2011. 

 The CyberKnife is a very exciting piece of equipment, which uses technology akin to that found in cruise missiles to deliver radiotherapy with pin-point precision, while minimising damage to surrounding healthy tissue.  This is absolutely fantastic news for people undergoing radiotherapy for head and neck cancers, as it will do away with the need for the very uncomfortable head frames that are required to keep patients as still as possible.  In some cases, depending on the location of the tumour, patients have to have these frames attached to the skull surgically and are then subjected to a full course of radiotherapy within a day.  The CyberKnife is revolutionary as it uses computer-controlled robotics and image guidance to track a tumour, meaning that, even with a turn of the head, it is still able to deliver the radiation to the required location.  It also means that doctors are able to treat people who only a few years ago would have been ‘untreatable’ due to the location of their tumour.

 As you can imagine with such a new and expensive piece of equipment, there are only a few in the country, leading to patients having to travel great distances in order to have their treatment.  By installing the machine at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, the benefit to the people of the entire Midlands and surrounding counties is great and takes the demand off the existing centres.

 Tumours can be treated anywhere in the body with the CyberKnife – including high-risk areas such as the spine, the brain, lung and prostate – but the benefit specifically to head and neck cancer patients entirely merits the investment that Get A-Head is making. 

 If you would like to support Get A-Head’s fundraising for this amazing piece of equipment, you can donate at www.getahead.org.uk/donate or to make a £5 donation, you can text the code CYBK12 £5 to 70070.  There is no message charge, and the entire £5 comes to Get A-Head.

 On Saturday 17th March, the Marston Green and District Lions Club held their annual Charity Ball at St John’s hotel in Solihull, this year in aid of Get A-Head.  The evening, which included a three-course meal and live music from the excellent covers band The Dollars, saw lots of fundraising taking place in order to raise money for the fight against head and neck diseases. 

Altogether, the Lions raised a fantastic £3,500 for Get A-Head!  A huge thank you to everybody involved!

Staff member Jackie Dougan stated: “After our manager was diagnosed with Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma, we decided that we wanted to do something, so we made and sold jams and chutneys as well as cakes and sconesto raise some much needed funds.  On top of this we made and sold Christmas cards, held a raffle at the Christmas party and held a baked potato lunch!”

The wonderful amount raised by these small endeavours will go towards Get A-Head’s ACC fund, wand will go towards research into this rare and devastating disease.  A Huge thank you to all at Loch Park who took part in the fundraising effort!

To donate to the Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma fund, you can either call 0121 371 5046 or send a text containing the shortcode ACCX11 followed by the amount you wish to donate (anything between £1 and £10) to 70070.  Texts are free and the whole amount comes to the Charity.

If you are interested in attending this wonderful event, please contact Geoff on 07980 661 870 or Heather on 07956 123 160.  Alternatively, you can email MGLionsCharityBall@virginmedia.com