Gordon and I have a friend, Rob Lowry, who we play tennis with who has been through chemotherapy and surgery for Oesophageal cancer. Later it returned and he has had more chemo. In addition a long time work colleague and friend of mine, Andy Irwin, has had the same experience, currently recuperating after surgery

Feeling helpless Gordon and I organised a charity gig and bbq with our band, the Big Racquet, playing to raise money for the charity. We expected to raise about £ 1000 and have around 50-80 people at Belfast Boat Club, our local tennis, squash and rowing club.

This grew when we started blagging the essentials for the event. Finnebrogue Artisan gave us gorgeous wagyu burgers, posh dogs, and pork and vegan sausages. As we advertised this the numbers started to climb and we needed more help! Andy Rea from Home restaurant came on board providing exceptional salads prepared at his restaurant and also one of his top chefs to do the barbecuing. We had now sold 160 tickets, with more people just turning up on the night we had over 200 guests!

A makeover of the hall was our next brainwave and Geri Bellamy did a fantastic job, putting together a team to do just that. Bunting, light curtains, banners, and outside lights all appeared to create magical wonderland look while eating outside on a warm summer evening as the sun went down.

Then thought some raffle prizes would help. People were incredibly generous and some of these became auctions. A wonderful Neil Shawcross print was supplied by Conor's Cafe and expertly framed by Nickel Art made £ 500! A consultation with one of NI's top knee surgeon's, Ian Corry, was very apt to a sports club where there is an ageing population with knee problems! The biggest lot of the night was playing on the hallowed turf of the All England Club at Wimbledon and lunching with a club member which reached an amazing £ 1000 !

Other commercial sponsors include the Hastings Hotel Group, Slim's Healthy Kitchen, Lyric Hi-fi, Richer Sounds and the Belfast Cookery School, thanks to you all

The band played a great set, everyone up dancing, and at the break it was announced that if we got £ 1000 collected in the buckets during the second half that my long flowing locks were being shaved off after the gig, right in front of the audience. As you can see from the picture we got that £ 1000 !

This page was set-up to maximise what we can achieve for the charities. With money still coming in we don't yet have a final total however we are now over £ 4000 and counting. Money already pledged that we want paid on this page will gross up contributions to over £ 7000, we will post further on our running total in the weeks ahead

This incredible total reflects the generosity of Boat Club members and all their family, friends and acquaintances who contributed so freely, thank you one and all