Press Release - 29th November 2002
Aircraft Engineers Cycle 240 Miles
To Raise Cash For Cancer Centre
Simon (left) and Michael Morris, who both spent months planning
the ride, presented The Christie cheque to regional The Christie charityr
Jacky Plant. Four Royal Navy aircraft engineers cycled 240 miles from their Somerset
base to Manchester in four days and raised £4,072 for their local
cancer centres.
All based with 899 Naval Air Squadron serving with the Fleet Air Arm
in Yeovilton, air engineering mechanics Simon Newcombe, from Burnley,
Nicholas Knight, from Wythenshawe, and Michael Morris, from Bradford,
together with Petty Officer Paul Lomas, from Salford, raised £2,036
for The Christie and a similar sum for Yeovil Hospitals (Macmillan)
oncology unit.
Simon (left) and Michael Morris, who both spent months planning
the ride, presented The Christie cheque to regional The Christie charityr
Jacky Plant.
Simon says they averaged
50 to 80 miles a day - starting from Yeovil District Hospital and
stopping en route in Bristol, Great Malvern and Staffordshire before
finishing at The Christie. Later they were given a welcome
buffet and "tremendous reception" by the Royal Naval Association
in Wythenshawe, whose members also contributed to the overall total.
"We wanted to continue the strong links which the Fleet Air
Arm has always had with the local community. But as three of us
are from the North West we also felt it was important to support
Christie's. It is the region s best known cancer centre and has
an international reputation for cancer research and treatment,²
says Simon, who has been in the Royal Navy for about 12 years.
He praised his sister-in-law, Tracey Ellis, also from Burnley, who
collected in "a lot of money" from friends and from colleagues
at Manchester solicitors Halliwell Landau, where she works. Money
also came in from a raffle whose prizes included a ferry crossing
to France for a car and four passengers.
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The Christie in Manchester is one of the leading cancer centres in Europe - registering around 12,500 new patients and treating about 40,000 patients every year.
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